I have played a few online matches on HW2 and I have been getting utterly destroyed by players at level 20+. And I’m only level 5! (Check my service record) I have played the beta for the entire time it was up and I didn’t notice this. Is there a ranking system in the game? If not then I hope that 343/CA will fix this issue. But otherwise I have had loads of fun playing AI skirmish.
Isabel is the best AI imo, just wanted to say that.
What’s funny is they had skill ranks in the beta, but nothing in the full game. Hopefully they implement it back into the game soon.
There is a hidden skill ranking within matchmaking, which doesn’t seem to place much if any weight to the level rank which is mere XP accumulation and a measure of time played. This early on most players have not settled into their true skill ranking, so it’s not going to be reliable yet. But lvl 20 vs lvl 5 is not inherently poor matchmaking.
There is going to be a publicly visible skill based rank system or playlist coming soon, but the details haven’t been given yet.
ske7ch briefly talked about the plans in this thread: (emphasis mine in the below quote)
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/38bd6e2ebbb14e5b9b359bb029588800/topics/343-response-progression-rank-only/95f6b233-99ca-4631-81bf-1ad6ab7be6cc/posts?page=1#post16
> Hey everyone - After yesterday’s blog a lot of great discussion has popped up around this competitive ranking question and what was, admittedly, not a very thorough answer on our part. In response to the extra feedback I got more context from the team that I wanted to share. Here’s the gist of it:
>
> 1. <mark>Halo Wars 2 does have skill-based matchmaking under the hood. At launch, there won’t be a visible CSR type value or indicator</mark> (i.e. nothing like Halo 5’s “Onyx” ranking, for example).
>
> 2. <mark>The Spartan Rank value displayed next to your gamertag is NOT an indication of skill. It’s just your XP which is largely a factor of time spent playing.</mark>
>
> 3. New players all start with a provisional rating behind the scenes that settles in after X games are played. As such, players who haven’t landed on their true skill rating yet will get matched against a large open pool of players. This is why some players who are “Spartan Rank 1” might get matched against a much higher rank opponent. Again, it’s not an indicator of skill.
>
> 4. <mark>A Halo 5 style competitive/ranked playlist system will be coming to the game soon after launch.</mark> The team actually opted to not cram this in on day one for a few different reasons:
>
> - Social / less-stressful playlists are a gentler starting point for players as the community gets hands-on with the game, explores the different modes, units, and strategies and gets comfortable with all the mechanics. - Starting off with social playlists provides some extra cushion for the development team to address any balancing issues that typically don’t become obvious until the player base has had time to really hammer on the game and experiment with different units, strategies and synergies (the Vortex/Blast Unit combo in the Beta is a good example). We’d rather have players exposed to these types of “hot fixable” issues in a social, low-stakes environment than a competitive ranked scenario where the rules are changing in the midst of a season. - Ideally the team would like to align seasonal starts/roll-overs with DLC releases as it’s a natural opportunity to roll in any larger tweaks or fixes that might not be possible as a “hot fix” while also allowing seasons to kick off in parallel to new leaders being released.The team definitely takes the ranked/competitive community seriously and right now the plan is to bring these systems to Halo Wars 2 soon after launch. In the meant time, think of the launch window as more of a “pre season” as everyone gets up to speed on the game and any kinks are worked out before the serious competition kicks in.
>
> thanks!
There is an MMR working behind the scenes. If you beat -Yoink-, you should essentially be placed with others who beat -Yoink-. If you’re with a premade, you should be placed with other premades. Of course this doesn’t always happen, and so sometimes you get to faceroll your keyboard/controller and still win.
> 2533274813317074;4:
> ske7ch briefly talked about the plans in this thread: (emphasis mine in the below quote)
> https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/38bd6e2ebbb14e5b9b359bb029588800/topics/343-response-progression-rank-only/95f6b233-99ca-4631-81bf-1ad6ab7be6cc/posts?page=1#post16
>
> > Hey everyone - After yesterday’s blog a lot of great discussion has popped up around this competitive ranking question and what was, admittedly, not a very thorough answer on our part. In response to the extra feedback I got more context from the team that I wanted to share. Here’s the gist of it:
> >
> > 1. Halo Wars 2 does have skill-based matchmaking under the hood. At launch, there won’t be a visible CSR type value or indicator (i.e. nothing like Halo 5’s “Onyx” ranking, for example).
> >
> > 2. The Spartan Rank value displayed next to your gamertag is NOT an indication of skill. It’s just your XP which is largely a factor of time spent playing.
> >
> > 3. New players all start with a provisional rating behind the scenes that settles in after X games are played. As such, players who haven’t landed on their true skill rating yet will get matched against a large open pool of players. This is why some players who are “Spartan Rank 1” might get matched against a much higher rank opponent. Again, it’s not an indicator of skill.
> >
> > 4. A Halo 5 style competitive/ranked playlist system will be coming to the game soon after launch. The team actually opted to not cram this in on day one for a few different reasons:
> > - Social / less-stressful playlists are a gentler starting point for players as the community gets hands-on with the game, explores the different modes, units, and strategies and gets comfortable with all the mechanics. - Starting off with social playlists provides some extra cushion for the development team to address any balancing issues that typically don’t become obvious until the player base has had time to really hammer on the game and experiment with different units, strategies and synergies (the Vortex/Blast Unit combo in the Beta is a good example). We’d rather have players exposed to these types of “hot fixable” issues in a social, low-stakes environment than a competitive ranked scenario where the rules are changing in the midst of a season. - Ideally the team would like to align seasonal starts/roll-overs with DLC releases as it’s a natural opportunity to roll in any larger tweaks or fixes that might not be possible as a “hot fix” while also allowing seasons to kick off in parallel to new leaders being released.The team definitely takes the ranked/competitive community seriously and right now the plan is to bring these systems to Halo Wars 2 soon after launch. In the meant time, think of the launch window as more of a “pre season” as everyone gets up to speed on the game and any kinks are worked out before the serious competition kicks in.
> >
> > thanks!
Thanks for this!!! What is this blog where can I find it
Hopefully a 1-50 ranking system 
> 2533274821521504;6:
> Thanks for this!!! What is this blog where can I find it
I added the link at the top of that post
> 2533274813317074;8:
> > 2533274821521504;6:
> > Thanks for this!!! What is this blog where can I find it
>
> I added the link at the top of that post
Oops sorry about that!