How do you feel about the state of ranked play?

[A_Bomb_414]

My main gripe is with Boosters and Smurfs (usually working together). Onyx and Diamond’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 it’s tough for lower ranks to see many games around their own rank.

[Dormiglione]

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

[benjiFatStax]

I mean, what do we think we’re working with at this point? A few thousand active ranked players, maybe ten thousand? I don’t know anyone that I played with at the start who’s still playing. TS2 and the matchmaking/ranking system don’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 system’s struggling and the population’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 god–now can we finally get rid of the abomination that is Bazaar slayer?)

[Shagaboopon]

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 shouldn’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.

[TiptoeBurrito36]

It’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.

[Deckheart_MD]

I feel it’s bad, un-fun and toxic.

I could go on…but no one at 343i is listening anyway.

[IntoVaIhalla]

@Major_Tonality

• I perform top of the scoreboard and gain little to no experience towards the next level (90% of the time)
• 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)

The unfortunate truth here is people look at the rank’s (Bronze-Onyx) as a form of progression system and they actually aren’t. The way TrueSkill2 is designed is to make you have a 50/50 win loss ratio and match you with people at “your skill level.” 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 “horrible” teammates. This team “balancing” 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.

@Deckheart_MD

To really climb you need to drop 30-40 kill games every now and then.

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.

[Hot_Juicy_Pie]

I’ve stopped playing Ranked all together. Only upside to it these days is I’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 ‘Pro’ players that have only been playing Halo since H5.

[whorigin]

I want to see how things go after the reset tomorrow with the other changes they’ve made to go along with it.

[Major_Tonality]

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

[MANJ1T]

kills per minute

too short

[Dead_End_24]

My friends and I are ranked players, but they have all but abandoned Halo Infinite. I haven’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. I’ve gone into great depths in the past about the ranking system so I won’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. I’m so tired of all this ranked based on purely individual performance (in a TEAM playlist) especially the kills per minute thing. I’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 there’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 it’s utterly ridiculous the fact that a Halo game has launched without it And it’s still not in!

Overall I’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 can’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 infinite’s gameplay is pretty solid just so many other bloody issues.

[Darwi]

@Dead_End_24

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.

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 it’s rankings.

We can’t go back.

@Dead_End_24

I’m so tired of all this ranked based on purely individual performance

It’s not “purely” on individual performance.

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

@Dead_End_24

especially the kills per minute thing. I’ve always thought that was a stupid indication of someone skill.

It took me a while to get my head around it - but it’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 can’t “fake” 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.

It’s not about having a big KPM against lower opponents. It’s about having the same KPM of your colleagues.

Don’t know for sure… 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.

@Dead_End_24

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,

No it doesn’t make sense… 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.

@Dead_End_24

We are also tired of the fact that there is no ranked team Slayer playlist.

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

[Dead_End_24]

I’ve gone to lengths in past talking heavily about the ranking system, especially in Halo 5 with Josh Menkes. I don’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 we’ll just agreed to disagree here and that’s that.

As far as the lack of a ranked team Slayer playlist, I’m glad you’re enjoying the mix of objective play with slayer, that’s great, but A LOT of people don’t like it. Personally, I don’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 I’m afraid to say.

[OpaqueJaguar286]

@Dead_End_24

I’m so tired of all this ranked based on purely individual performance (in a TEAM playlist) especially the kills per minute thing. I’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 there’s too much I can get into.

Think of it like this…

Bob averages 1.5 KPM and 0.9 DPM per game against X level competition. Tim averages 1.2 KPM and 1.0 DPM per game against X level competition. For any given match against X level competition Bob is going to average more kills, fewer deaths and a superior K/D ratio.

I’d also intuitively expect to see a correlation between KPM/DPM and various other metrics like accuracy, headshot accuracy, damage done and damage received. Over a large enough sample size of games anyway. So it makes a good bit of sense to evaluate it.

[EiZZBerg]

@Darwi

It’s so frustrating.

Games should never start 3v4. That’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 it’s 3v3. Take out power equipment and weapons to give the 3 team a chance. Change the game to Slayer (less affected by 3v4).

100% agree. It should not be so hard to address this. Since the game suffers from crashes, being able to rejoin should be pretty much on the top of the list things to develop. Also if for some reason the first one drops before the game starts, why doensn’t it search a replacement? It also could be clearly stated, that game is off balance, everybody can leave. Playing 2on4 games or so is waste of everybodys’ time.

[Dormiglione]

My main problems with the multiplayer are:

• desync
• lag
• unreliable hit detection

I lost so many fights because head shots didnt register, because i was shot behind cover, rockets just disappearing

This issues affect also ranked. Ontop, the match making system that builds unbalanced teams due to low population.

[Darwi]

@Dead_End_24

It does not promote team play in my opinion. So we’ll just agreed to disagree here and that’s that.

Unfortunately any metric encourages selfish play.

So we are not necessarily disagreeing.

But the problem is communication from 343. There are so many players out there convinced that K/D is the ONLY way to rank up. And that encourages toxic play way more than the reality that it’s beating teams ranked above you - plus a weighting for KPM.

KPM is essentially your ability to win a 1v1 against that level of opponent.

And that is the quintessential definition of your rank. If you want to be Diamond 4 then you need to go 50:50 in your 1v1s against other Diamond 4. Having the same KPM is the same thing.

I imagine you could probably print out graphs of a player’s KPM vs opponent rank and you would get a similar shaped graph for everyone. And at the point your KPM fell below 1.2 you would find your rank.

When you think of it that way - it’s just a weighting that helps you rank up faster (not higher) and gives the system a head’s up if you are not at the correct rank.

KPM is very different to KD etc. And 343 have done a -yoink- job at explaining that to the general populace. So we have a heap of players out there ignoring the objective and playing in a toxic manner to protect their KD.

[Tresor564]

I just hit top 200 in doubles but no champ rank

[Darwi]

@Tresor564

I just hit top 200 in doubles

How do you know you are top 200?

@Tresor564

but no champ rank

Which is good. Overall the champ rank is a stupid concept. There is no way of knowing that the top 200 CSR are actually the top 200 players. You can barely judge CSR on the same servers, let alone on servers across the world.

And we already have a toxic grind for CSR. Which is pointless. By adding back in champ ranks the toxic play will increase exponentially.

The sooner 343 drop back the scale of the CSR the better.