The returning champions of OpTic Gaming made their way through the winner’s bracket and took first place at the Halo World Championship 2017 Finals

After three days of incredible, nail-biting competition between the 12 best Halo teams from around the globe, the Halo World Championship 2017 Finals by ESL have come to a close, breaking viewership records along the way. Hundreds of teams and thousands of players competed to qualify, but ultimately only one team would be crowned Halo World Champion.

In the end, the players who claimed the 2016 championship title were victorious once more: OpTic Gaming’s Bradley “Frosty” Bergstrom, TJ “Lethul” Campbell, Mathew “Royal 2” Fiorante, Paul “SnakeBite” Duarte and Coach Chris “Royal 1” Fiorante brought the #Greenwall a victory in the form of a convincing 4-0 finish against Team EnVyUs in the grand finals.

The Halo World Championship 2017 Finals by ESL broke digital viewership records across the board. At its height, the broadcast reached over 135,000 concurrent viewers across Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and Beam. In addition, more than 13 million unique viewers tuned in over the weekend to see competitive Halo played at the highest level across digital platforms. 10.3 million of these unique viewers watched the competition live on Twitter—a first time streaming destination for Halo esports.* These metrics exceeded last year’s tournament and make the Halo World Championship 2017 Finals the most watched digital broadcast in Halo esports history.

The grand finals were filled with incredible plays and intense moment-to-moment decision making by players and teams. Here are several moments from the tournament that show how the players have elevated Halo 5: Guardians gameplay to a new level:

• OpTic Gaming’s Royal 2 was the most dangerous player in the tournament, racking up an incredible 1.55 kill/death (K/D) ratio. The scariest thing? Royal 2’s teammates weren’t far behind; SnakeBite had the second highest K/D ratio in the tournament at 1.37.
• After falling into the loser’s bracket in the first round, Team EnVyUs sent four teams packing before making it to the grand finals. At one point, the team won 16 games in a row in the loser’s bracket before defeating a hungry Team Liquid during the semi-finals.
• International Halo once again finished in the top eight with strong performances by FAB Games Esports – a feat previously pioneered by last year’s Epsilon eSports. In addition, French team Supremacy – representing the nation for the first time ever at the Halo World Championship – handed OpTic Gaming one of the only two individual map losses during the entire tournament.

“It’s been amazing to be a part of the Halo esports scene and we’re happy to have delivered the Halo Championship 2017 Finals to a record-breaking digital audience,” said Timo Karamustafa, senior product manager at ESL. “A huge thanks to the dedicated fans and the talented players that made the event a success and congratulations to the back-to-back world championship roster of OpTic Gaming on their win.”

“Thank you to everyone who tuned in over the weekend, those in attendance, our fantastic partners at ESL, and an extra special thank you to all the players from around the world who competed in this tournament,” said 343 Industries esports producer Tahir Hasandjekic. “We know fans want the very best for Halo esports and the Halo Championship Series team is working to build and create great experiences in the coming year through bigger crowdfunded open events for HCS Pro League and Open Circuit 2017.”

Event photographs and additional assets are available in the Halo World Championship 2017 Finals Press Kit. For more information follow ESL Halo on Twitter and Facebook as well as the official Halo Championship Series account on Twitter.

*Unique viewers stat does not de-dupe per day