Cloud9 wins HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh 2021: Final results, scores, recap & more

The Halo Championship Series is back underway for the Halo Infinite season and it all kicked off at the $350,000 Raleigh Major. While over 200 teams competed, Cloud9 ultimately came away with the win and we’ve got you covered with all the info you need to catch up on the first Major LAN event.

• Cloud9 close out 4-1 Grand Final win over eUnited.
• Sentinels, OpTic, & FaZe Clan all bow out among the Top 6.
• $350K total prize pool ($250K + $100K crowdfunded bonus)
  

Contents

• Recap
• Prize pool & placements
• Schedule & format
• Results
• Pool play groups
• Teams

HCS Raleigh Major: recap

The first Halo Infinite LAN was certainly one to remember. With hundreds of teams descending on Raleigh, a sold-out crowd, and six-figure viewership all weekend, the opening tournament couldn’t have made a bigger splash.

What began with a 200+ team Open Bracket quickly dwindled to a 32 team Championship Bracket. Teams from North America, Europe, and Australia all pushed through the double-elimination bracket to make their mark.

Three days of action culminated in a 12+ hour Championship Sunday.

For veterans like OpTic, Sentinels, and FaZe Clan, a Top 6 finish is where their runs came to an end. Some extremely close matchups paved the way for a Grand Final showdown between eUnited and Cloud9.

Despite taking one map win on the main stage, eUnited couldn’t quite keep up in the final series. Cloud9 proved too strong on the day as they took out Infinite’s first Major with a 4-1 victory.

HCS Raleigh Major: prize pool & placements

HCS Raleigh Major: schedule & format

The HCS Kickoff Major was streamed across four separate channels including the official Halo Twitch account, embedded above. Secondary streams, including the HCS channel, kept on top of every Championship Bracket match throughout the event.

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If you prefer, you can also head over to the Halo YouTube channel to catch up on the replays.

The tournament kicked off on Friday, December 17 with the open bracket and group stage matches. This filtered into a double-elimination bracket from December 18-19.

HCS Raleigh Major: schedule & results

Pool Play

Friday, December 17

Note: Final games of the day were delayed until December 18 due to technical issues.

Championship Bracket

Saturday, December 18

Note: Bracket play matches kicked off after final pool play matches concluded

Sunday, December 19

HCS Raleigh Major: Pool play placements

HCS Raleigh featured 16 teams split into groups of four, all of which earned their spot through regional qualifiers or HCS points accumulated in the opening weeks of the season.

Below is a full look at every group that competed in the Pool Play stage.

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

HCS Raleigh Major: teams

With the HCS Raleigh Major featuring an Open Bracket, was saw hundreds of teams all competing for a shot at greatness.

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As for the Top 16 seeds directly into the group stage, Sentinels were notable team missing. Following Royal2’s suspension and FormaL’s last-minute roster shuffle, the squad was instead forced to fight through the Open Bracket.

You can find the full list of Top 16 teams below: