Halo championship draws killers in Japan

TOKYO--Gamers flocked to a Tokyo game shop this week for the last qualifying round in the Microsoft-sponsored “Xbox Championship Vol.3.” The tournament uses a different game each year--and this year’s game is Halo. The bark of pistol fire filled the air as ten individual competitors and two teams fought their way to the top of more than 200 entrants. These finalists will go on to the December 20 championship tournament, where they will join gamers selected at other qualifying tournaments held in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo, and Saitama.

Gamers in the individual category played Slayer with a 15-kill limit on the Hang ‘Em High board. Hardcore Japanese gamers recognized a few names among the 10 finalists chosen today, including Masahiro Hokari, the champion of last year’s Xbox Championship Vol. 2 in Soul Calibur II, and 14-year old Mizuho Koike, the winner of last year’s Halo Championship Japan. Koike--a friend identified only by his last name of Okada grabbed third place.

The team category featured three-person teams competing in two-minute Team Ball matches in the Battle Creek stage. Team box 606 pulled out a second-place finish despite having only three days to practice together, prompting one of its members to comment “There was a lot of luck in today’s result. I hope we’ll show off some better gameplay at the championships.”

With this tournament, the recent release of the Japanese-language PC version, and the announcement of January qualifying matches for the Halo for Windows World Championship, Halo is raising its profile in Japan.