How do you feel about the state of ranked play?

Games Halo Infinite
1

I have been playing Infinite regularly over the last few months and I typically play ranked when I play. It is my honest opinion that this game is in an absolutely horrible state when it comes to ranked play. To summarize my (very frequent) experience:

  1. People on either team will join a match and AFK the entire time (this happens about 10% of the time)
  2. People either quit early or lose connection (15-20% of the time)
  3. I perform top of the scoreboard and gain little to no experience towards the next level (90% of the time)
  4. I lose one match (after what could be a 6-game winning streak) and I lose not only EVERYTHING I had gained, but also about 2-3 times more, putting me well in the red (80% of the time)

In one word, the ranked multiplayer in this game makes me feel: helpless.
No matter how good I perform, I am at the mercy of many elements that are out of my control.

I realize these problems exist in other ranked games, but it just seem so exacerbated in Infinite, with little to no measures in place to help it.

How has your experience been with the ranked play?

3 Likes
2

People are -yoinks-.

Itā€™s so frustrating.

Games should never start 3v4. Thatā€™s just stupid.

And then they need to do something about quits; add a rejoin feature. Rotate the 4th player off the bench so that itā€™s 3v3. Take out power equipment and weapons to give the 3 team a chance. Change the game to Slayer (less affected by 3v4).

Your CSR change is independent of personal performance in that game. 343 are just very bad at communicating.

The CSR system needs a revamp; smaller scale, maximum cap, and donā€™t show the changes to other players.

Pretty much the same answer as the one before.

The CSR naturally oscillates around the MMR in this way. Itā€™s frustrating. By changing the scale of the CSR (eg. 1 to 100 or 1 to 50) it can happen quietly in the background.

2 Likes
3

Yes, Iā€™ve been on here complaining about this same thing.

Keep playing and you will improve. I find the skill gap to bust in to a new rank (Dimond to Onyx) requires a constant average of at least 20 kills per game. To really climb you need to drop 30-40 kill games every now and then.

Otherwise, you will be locked in to your rank and yes this can make things feel very frustrating and dullā€¦.especially without any other notable things to progress/achieve.

I keep playing because I enjoy the skill grind. Although I find the rank system very frustrating, it is in fact making me become a better player.

The best tip is to focus on what you can do to increase kill counts during gamesā€¦donā€™t focus on the CSR bar it will drive you crazy because there is a hidden MMR ranking that actually has more influence than the CSR.

2 Likes
4

Shot out to Darwi for explaining this to me countless times until it made sense.

1 Like
5

Keep in mind itā€™s based on the KPM so you need to adjust for the length of game.

And itā€™s more about improving your KPM vs harder opponents than smashing lower ranked ones.

Waypoint now has expected kills - so you can track your performance.

I recently went from P6 to D2 and didnā€™t need any 40 kill games.

The CSR is your visible rank. It ā€œchasesā€ your MMR.

But you are 100% correct. Donā€™t focus on the change per game. Relax into the trend.

1 Like
6

Stop playing ranked until network issues are fixed. I donā€™t mind losing to skill, but I do mind losing because a teammate got dropped and cant rejoin, or massive lag, or massive desync.

1 Like
7

My main gripe is with Boosters and Smurfs (usually working together). Onyx and Diamondā€™s teaming up with bronze or other lower ranks to get easier opponents etc.
Stuff like that going unchecked can really make people (especially new players) not want to come back.

I got into Ranked play in the first place to play and learn the game against people around my own skill level, not for my ego, or bragging rights. With lower population in Ranked especially Solo/Duo itā€™s tough for lower ranks to see many games around their own rank.

2 Likes
8

The actual state of ranked gameplay is in a very bad condition.

I tell you how the last 3 of ranked were for me:

  • Game crashed / freezed, had to reboot my xbox series X , started ranked, lost half of my CSR bar, because its my fault when their game crashed
  • next few match ping of 130 ms, lag / desync, lost a few matches, Won a few, but cant tell you how managed to win and stay positive with 130 ms ping
  • next few matches either Onyx and a silver player or 2 high Diamond with a gold and other of this combinations, we lost the match and a lot CSR because or average CSR was higher than the average CSR of this mixed Onyx/Silver or high Diamond/Gold
  • lost a few matches because of desync and unreliable hit detection
  • and finally this evening i run into the 3rd cheater using wallhack. Got always killed but never saw who was shooting me. Then i realised that this player who went something like 42/6 was shooting through walls, not arond the corner.

The first time a came around a cheater using wallhack, i took my time, made video clips and reported it. It took 1 month until i got the notice that my case was examined and actions were taken. Well the other 2 cheater i didnt report anymore. Im not here to do the work for 343.

3 days ago i was to get Platinum 5. After all this mess that happened the last 2 days im back to Platinum 3. There is no fun playing with so many issues.
i understand everyone who left halo infinite

9

I mean, what do we think weā€™re working with at this point? A few thousand active ranked players, maybe ten thousand? I donā€™t know anyone that I played with at the start whoā€™s still playing. TS2 and the matchmaking/ranking system donā€™t work very well when the population goes down; this was a big issue late in the lifecycle of H5.

As a result, mismatched games, quitters/AFKs, poor(er) connection, and less predictable CSR behavior are pretty common. Plus, you match with the same people for 3-4 games straight, which is how you know the systemā€™s struggling and the populationā€™s waning. People at the tails (Onyx/SilverGold) typically get hit the hardest.

Turns out, people get tired of playing Streets/Recharge/Live Fire over and over and over and over. A year in and we have the same number of maps we started with (since Behemoth was removed, thank godā€“now can we finally get rid of the abomination that is Bazaar slayer?)

10

Pretty much exactly the same as already mentioned. Far too many games starting short handed or quitters ruin it after a few minutes. I know it could be abused but really we shouldnā€™t lose any CSR for losing short handed. The match should also not start if a player is lost on starting the map. I still enjoy the Ranked games when you can get complete teams for the duration of the map and when that does happen it can very often be a close and fun affair.

11

Itā€™s clear 343 leadership doesnt play online multiplayer. At the very least, they dont play ranked.

Trueskill 2 sounds great as a research paper to max some random utility function. It does not max(fun). Halo 2/3 had way closer fun matchups. The 3v4 stuff is just insane for a game in 2022 too.

1 Like
12

I feel itā€™s bad, un-fun and toxic.

I could go onā€¦but no one at 343i is listening anyway.

2 Likes
13

The unfortunate truth here is people look at the rankā€™s (Bronze-Onyx) as a form of progression system and they actually arenā€™t. The way TrueSkill2 is designed is to make you have a 50/50 win loss ratio and match you with people at ā€œyour skill level.ā€ Which means if you are stuck in diamond 5 for example then the game believes you to be a diamond player and will prevent you from ranking up.

Where is becomes broken is how matchmaking/team balancing works. The highest MMR player in the lobby will have the number 6,7, & 8th MMR players on their team. While the other team will have 2,3,4,5. This is why you may experience ā€œhorribleā€ teammates. This team ā€œbalancingā€ system is a major issue and is the main reason you wont rank up despite having the skill set to be at a much higher rank.

This is only true for slayer matches. The game cares about win/loss. So you need to prioritize objective on OBJ matches. The CSR/MMR system goes off KDA and not just KD, so just play as a team and prioritize wining over just KD.

14

Iā€™ve stopped playing Ranked all together. Only upside to it these days is Iā€™m less likely to run into cheaters with the 30 game requirement.

Beyond that, SBMM is broken, rank grinding is an uninspired chore, BR starts are trash, and the only feedback they listen to is from ā€˜Proā€™ players that have only been playing Halo since H5.

15

I want to see how things go after the reset tomorrow with the other changes theyā€™ve made to go along with it.

1 Like
16

What is KPM? post must be at least 20 characters post must be at least 20 character post must

17

kills per minute

too short

1 Like
18

My friends and I are ranked players, but they have all but abandoned Halo Infinite. I havenā€™t even played ranked in season 2 partly because of it.

When we did play, our Ranked games were frustrating. Almost always someone would get disconnected or kicked. Somebody was always experiencing desync or ghost melees or whatever. Iā€™ve gone into great depths in the past about the ranking system so I wonā€™t get into it now, but In saying that, I will say that Halo 3 had its issues but I would much rather prefer the simplicity of just you win you go up you lose you go down type system. Iā€™m so tired of all this ranked based on purely individual performance (in a TEAM playlist) especially the kills per minute thing. Iā€™ve always thought that was a stupid indication of someone skill. Someone could go all match with no deaths and a boatload of kills and gain less than somebody that killed similar but had a pile of deaths but finished the game in half the time. To me that makes no sense at all, But I digress here as thereā€™s too much I can get into.

We are also tired of the fact that there is no ranked team Slayer playlist. Ultimately that is a big factor as to why my group of friends stop playing. I think itā€™s utterly ridiculous the fact that a Halo game has launched without it And itā€™s still not in!

Overall Iā€™m just not happy with ranked play and Halo Infinite. My friends and I are just fed up with all the issues with this game and I canā€™t see many of us coming back. It will be interesting to see where this game is at when the new cod and OverWatch 2 comes out. Sad really as Halo infiniteā€™s gameplay is pretty solid just so many other bloody issues.

1 Like
19

TrueSkill2 works the same as TrueSkill1.

Beat teams ranked above you to rank up. Lost to teams ranked below you to rank down.

TrueSkill2 has some changes that makes it significantly faster and more accurate with itā€™s rankings.

We canā€™t go back.

Itā€™s not ā€œpurelyā€ on individual performance.

KPM is just a weighting to improve the speed of ranking. DPM is an even lighter weighting.

It took me a while to get my head around it - but itā€™s probably the best indication of skill in relation to your opponents.

A Diamond player in a Gold lobby is going to have a huge KPM. It just happens naturally. It quickly highlights the big fish in the small pond.

But a Diamond player in a Diamond lobby is not going to have a high KPM. They are going to have a Diamond KPM vs Diamond players.

And that Diamond player is going to have a lower KPM in an Onyx lobby.

You canā€™t ā€œfakeā€ KPM like you can KD, KDA, or K-D.

The way to think of KPM as a weighting is that it ranks you up faster. Not higher.

Itā€™s not about having a big KPM against lower opponents. Itā€™s about having the same KPM of your colleagues.

Donā€™t know for sureā€¦ but you should be going 1.2 KPM or so vs your current rank. If you want to be ranking up you should be looking at 1.5 KPM.

No it doesnā€™t make senseā€¦ but only because you are trying to compare raw kills over games of different length.

Think of the KPM. eg. 1.2 kills per minute. And then the time of the match is irrelevant.

Iā€™m the opposite here. I used to only do Slayer. But now Iā€™m actually enjoying the objective games. Especially when you start thinking of them as Slayer games with a mission.

20

Iā€™ve gone to lengths in past talking heavily about the ranking system, especially in Halo 5 with Josh Menkes. I donā€™t wish to get into it all again, but I heavily disagree with how it is currently. It does not promote team play in my opinion. So weā€™ll just agreed to disagree here and thatā€™s that.

As far as the lack of a ranked team Slayer playlist, Iā€™m glad youā€™re enjoying the mix of objective play with slayer, thatā€™s great, but A LOT of people donā€™t like it. Personally, I donā€™t mind objective play but not so much in ranked. My friends have never liked objective play in ranked, never. Due to this, none of them, save 1 still plays every now and then.

Not having a Ranked Team Slayer playlist that has been in the top three most popular playlists in every. single. Halo game that has had ranked play, is absolutely ridiculous!!! And is a extremely poor, poor decision and they have lost players due to it. Just another classic example of 343I not knowing there fan base Iā€™m afraid to say.