How to Observe in Halo Infinite

Tips on how to be a great tournament observer, backed by knowledge from the pros.

Tournament observers are often taken for granted and their work may seem simple on the surface, but there's a lot more to it than just switching to the right player at the right time. In this article, I'll explore what observing is and how to be great at it on Halo Infinite, backed with knowledge from professional observers and casters.

What is observing

The act of observing is being an observer of a match; the person, whose view the audience and the casters watch to see as much of the action happening in the match as possible and understand how the game is going. The observer view often is a first-person point of view (POV) of a player with stats of the game displayed most of the time so the audience can see the great plays being made, and understands the progression of the game.

Part of all the greatest Halo highlights you can think of has been an observer who knew how to catch those moments at the right time. When the setup to a great moment is captured by the observer and backed up by a story being told by the casters, it feels just as good for the observer as it does for the audience.

How to be a great observer

Observer settings

The settings for an observer's POV have to be optimized to represent a neutral and standardized view with as little personalized features as possible. Luckily these settings can be reversed easily if you're just observing for one weekend and then want to keep playing the game with your personalized settings after.

Observer skills

Once the settings have been dialed in, the observing process can begin. Admittedly there is a lot of pressure on the observer to catch all the best moments and keep the audience engaged in the viewing experience as much as they can. A great observer has a sharp eye, understands the game, and is a good listener—all of which are required for a seamless observing experience.

Pre-game

Not every game in a tournament requires an observer, but when a game wants to be shown on the broadcast, at least one observer needs to be in the lobby with the players. Before the match begins, the observer must do some setup:

• Join the lobby: In online games ask for- or send an Xbox or Discord invite to the lobby, or even use waypoint.gg's lobby widget (paid). In LAN games join the correct LAN session.
• Switch to the Observer team: Press the hotkeys displayed at the bottom or the icon next to your name in the lobby to switch to the green Observer team. Optionally the lobby host can switch your team.
• Update the team names and colors: If agreed with production, update the team names and colors in the settings Gameplay → Observer Interface.

  

• Set up the map and mode: If you're the host of the lobby, set up the correct map and mode that are to be played next. In smaller productions the host may be one of the players, but ideally the lobby control would be on the observer to allow less room for mistakes.
• Set the lobby privacy and max size: The lobby privacy should be "Friends Only" and the max size just enough to accommodate all the players and the desired number of observers (9 for a 4v4 with one observer). This is a precautionary step to ensure the lobby can be rejoined in the event of a disconnect, but not allowing joining the lobby otherwise as it's normally full. If the lobby privacy is set to "Invite Only", getting back in the lobby after a disconnect is a larger hassle. More in Potential issues. Note, that a lobby with "Friends Only" privacy can still be joined via an invite.
• Confirm the players are ready: Ask "r?" or "Ready?" in the text chat from the players and await a response. Usually, one player per team communicates back with "r" once their team is ready. If a player switches to the observer team at any point, it means they're not ready.
• Start the match: Once both teams are ready, and you've confirmed production is also ready to begin, start the match.

On gameplay start

Some actions must be done at the very beginning of the match right as you gain control over the observing interface.

• Hide Legend bar: Hide the control bar at the bottom of the screen by pressing the key assigned to Toggle Legend in Keyboard / Mouse → Theater / Observer. Do this immediately so production can switch to your POV as fast as possible and not miss the opening of the game.

• (Optional) Switch player POV: If the casters are building a story about a specific player in the moment—like about their opening strategy—, it's good to switch to that player so the story has a matching visual portion.

During the match

The bulk of the observing work happens during gameplay, and shows how knowledgeable the observer is.

• Know the controls: Know which keys to press to switch to player POVs consistently. The number keys 1-8 are assigned to each player in an 8-player match with 1–4 being for the left team and 5–8 for the right team. Have your fingers ready on these keys to switch to specific POVs at a moment's notice.
• Catch the action: Prioritize players who are holding power items, or making impactful moments like a multi-kill or securing an objective. Try to catch more kill POVs than death POVs. Recognize and showcase when teams are setting up a play. Nearing the end of the game, prioritize players who are on the winning team and who may make the last play of the match.

• Understand and keep the flow: If the observed player dies, switch to the player who killed them, or a nearby teammate, if it suits the scenario and story better. Don't switch the POV too fast, as this confuses the viewer. If a funny or impactful death or a highly anticipated multi-kill happens, stay on the POV for a bit longer—even if the player is dead—to emphasize the impact of the moment instead of switching away from it. This lets the audience take in the moment before focusing on the next one.

• Listen to the casters: Pay attention to when casters are telling a story about a player or a play happening in the game, and help that story with the chosen player POV if possible.

Post-game

After the game has ended, the observer still has some work to do to ensure the broadcast and next game will continue smoothly.

• Show the scoreboard: After the game ends and you're shown a screen with the winning team, press E to switch to the scoreboard. Show the kills first and then move on to accuracy and damage. If the casters are talking about a specific player, highlight their name. You can also highlight a player's name if the casters aren't seeing something you are, like a high assist count.

• Set up the next game: If you're the host, set up the next map and mode when the production view is not on your screen anymore; you don't want the broadcast to see the lobby screen as it breaks the flow of the viewing experience. Unless a player goes to the observer team to indicate they're not ready, you can start the next match right after the map and mode have been updated. You also need to pay attention to who won the previous match to determine whether the series is over or should still continue. You don't want to confuse the production team by starting a third match if one team won the first two games in a best-of-three series.

Potential issues

Here are some issues the observer should be aware of that impact the observing experience, and how to address them.

• Player disconnects during game: Note down the current score, rounds won, and elapsed time of the match either via text or screenshot and end the match. In the lobby screen, edit the mode settings to adjust the starting score and rounds won of both teams, and the elapsed time to match what they were at the moment of disconnect. Find the settings at: Mode Editor → Match → Match Setup Overrides.

  

• Observer disconnects during game: Rejoin the lobby as quick as possible to minimize broadcast downtime. If the lobby was set to "Friends Only" privacy, you can rejoin on a friend who is still in the lobby, but if the game is "Invite Only", one of the players will have to invite you, which is more unlikely.
• Observer has to join in progress to an ongoing game: If an observer joins in progress to a game, the score at the bottom of the screen won't display for the duration of that game. This is a game bug and can't be fixed by the observer.

Knowledge from the pros

I reached out to experienced Halo Infinite observers and casters to confirm the info I was going to write about in this article was solid, as well as to get their personal opinions on some questions regarding observing tournament gameplay. There are some great subtle details in the answers that can really help you understand the skills required to be a great observer.

How I prepared for observing

Observing 12v12

Before observing for real, I had some prior experience with observing just for the fun of it. Having been a forger in Halo Infinite since its launch, I was very familiar with lobby management, and also somewhat familiar with the observer role from trying it out in some forge testing lobbies and TSG Warzone playdates. TSG Warzone is a 12v12 PvPvE mode, which is like the final boss of observing, so I thought if I figured out how to observe that, I'd be set for smaller tasks down the line.

For observing 12v12, you can't just use the number keys 1–8 to switch POVs cause there's more than 8 players. The on-screen scoreboard also takes up half of the screen with 24 players displayed that it must be hidden most of the time. In order to switch to a desired player when observing 12v12, you need to temporarily show the scoreboard, navigate to the player with arrow keys or the D-pad, select the player and hide the scoreboard. This is the most seamless way I figured it would be. The other option is to use the "Next Player" and "Previous Player" buttons, but at that point you're just guessing who you're going to switch to next as for some reason the order in which player it switches to doesn't follow the scoreboard order.

Since 12v12 has so many players roaming around, it's also quite difficult to catch the action or get an idea of when larger plays are being formed. An overhead view can help with this by giving the audience a general idea of the plays being made instead of individual POVs. An ideal 12v12 production would have at least two observers: one watching only first person POVs and one only doing free cam shots.

Preparing for real observing

My first production observing experience was in the Luminon x Shyway Double Down Duos Tournament held on 2026-07-18 where I was one of two observers who were observing separate games. While I had some practice with observing beforehand, I still had to do more research into it so I'd be confident in performing well during the tournament.

Since I had already practiced the observer controls, I just had to recognize the core observing principles for what to do during the pre-game, gameplay and post-game. I closely watched portions of the FaZe Esports Doubles in Dallas tournament and the HCS 2025 World Championship Grand Finals because the 2v2 format was relevant to what I was going to be observing, and they were both the latest showcase of professional observing.

From my research I picked out these key points that I had to keep in mind in addition to the knowledge I already had:

• Prioritize players with power items
• Don't switch between POVs too fast, even if an accidental switch because it shows that you did an accident
• If game is about to end, focus on winning team POVs and don't switch the POV
• Confirm the FOV and weapon offsets

Four months prior, I was looking into how to observe 12v12 for a potential TSG Warzone tournament, and had the chance to ask LVT about some experiences with observing a complex situation like that. Louis from LVT stated that they had gotten requests to observe and produce Halo Infinite content with large player counts, but had declined due to it being impossible to catch all the action and observe cleanly.

Broadcast resources

Here's some topics I compiled that can help with broadcast graphics if you're planning on a production of your own and want to nail down the basics.

Team icons

Transparent images of the Halo Infinite teams 1–8 + Observer.

Mode icons

Includes all modes that are played competitively, and then some.

Team colors

All selectable team colors in Halo Infinite with their HEX code and color representation. Useful for matching the color palette of a participating team if the observer needs to change the team colors.

Buttons and keys

Not sure where these would be useful, but here you go.