Does focused search work at all for H5 BTB?

Focused and balanced matchmaking searches seem to work exactly the same way for BTB, and that is to say, extremely poorly. Although I’m going to complain, I am genuinely asking if there’s a way to make BTB more balanced.

I know there’s a lot of variables to matchmaking that are nearly impossible to account for like smurfing, region restrictions, large groups vs solos, people just having a bad game, and inexperienced players playing on other’s accounts. But holy hell, how do teams range from a level 4 who goes 1-25, and a 145 onyx caliber player? And not just every once in awhile, but every single game. My games without fail feature my group of 3-6 friends (lvl 80-110, Maaaybe Diamond level at best), and maybe matched with one similar ranked player. Then just throw in a bunch of players that are an actual deficit willy nilly, especially in slayer. With the influx of new players, I see people literally trying to work out the controls. On the seemingly rarer occasion that the other team is stuck with predominantly rookies, there’s heavy quitting, or last as 5 minute games that aren’t fun either.

Big Team Battle is consistently the most overlooked playlist and doesn’t have a ranked mode but that doesn’t mean it has to be complete anarchy. It’s by far the most unbalanced and frustrating playlist. I consistently match with the same people over and over again that are team killers, AFKs, and early quitters that go unpunished or get thrown into games that are beyond hopeless. I’ve reconciled that it’s basically a broken game to play unless you go in with a large group, even though that is just an excuse for trash matchmaking in this version of Halo. But god forbid you don’t have a full 8, because you’ll get stuck with a majority of people that are 4 tiers below your team’s average.

I’m not that good! Haha it shouldn’t be me or my squad carrying the team 99% of the time, or getting spawn farmed because it’s impossible to push back with the overall skill of the team.

As I understand it, there’s a certain amount of time that matchmaking attempts to find you a good match when playing on Focused/Balanced. After that time passes, it starts loosening its parameters in an attempt to just let you play a game instead of making you keep waiting for the most ideal match. It’s been discussed in some of the Feedback Updates. You should probably check them so you can understand a little bit how the system goes about trying to matchmake.

Anyway, it’s Social. You’re not the only one who experiences games like these. Anyone who goes in with less than 6-8 has a chance to end up with less than ideal teammates, but there is an easy way to make absolutely sure your teammates are solid players: Go in with a full squad of 8. Because if I’ve learned anything in my time playing Halo 5 and watching people complain about Halo 5, it’s that winning is awesome and losing sucks.

Bear in mind that the pool to choose from is rather limited with BTB. Having historically been a less populated playlist, searching focused can eliminate too many options to find a match in an acceptable period of time.