Two new maps are being added to the Halo Ranked Arena playlist to test them ahead of HCS Year 4

The Halo Championship Series is over and has been for a while now. But just because this is the case doesn't mean that 343 Industries/Halo Studios isn't looking to prepare for the 2025 campaign, which will be the fourth year of action.

In a new Halo Waypoint blog post, we're told that in the effort of testing and preparing for HCS Year 4, two new maps are being added to the Ranked Arena playlist to judge their potential to be included in the HCS map pool next year. These two maps are the community creations of Fortress and Inquisitor, and we'll even see both utilised in HCS offseason events too, which we're expecting to hear more about at a later date.

Speaking about the maps, HCS states: "We will be keeping a close eye on how Inquisitor and Fortress perform both in Ranked Arena and in the HCS offseason tournaments to help determine which gametypes are best suited for the HCS Year 4 map pool."

It's unclear when the HCS will be back for Year 4, but a safe bet would be sometime in early 2025, perhaps even as late as the spring.