The Xbox Live sponsored Halo 2 Worldwide Championship kicked off several months ago as players in 24 different countries began competing to crown regional winners. A series of mini events continued throughout each country until eventually one single person was chosen to represent in the world finals. Today the finals took place over Xbox Live in a series of matches that would separate the best of the best and set the stage for the grand finale. While nobody at Bungie was in attendance for the finals, our contacts on the Live team did pass along some information regarding todays games. The final pool of players came down to Japan, Germany, Netherlands, USA, France and Australia. The player from Japan won his heat giving the American, Aussie and French players their second loss and eliminating them from the competition. In the following round, Germany suffered their second defeat setting the stage for a Japan vs. Netherlands world finale. Apparently it was a close match but King Tuur of the Netherlands pulled ahead and never looked back. Congratulations to Mr. Tuur who becomes the first ever Worldwide Halo 2 Champion and also the proud recipient of a 50" Samsung DLP HDTV, a Samsung DVD Player/Recorder, a personalized world champion trophy (featuring a 24k gold Halo 2 game disc) AND $1,500 in cash. Good stuff. More information about the Xbox Live sponsored tournament and profiles of the finalists from each region can be found at Xbox.com.