One thing I see intermediate players fail in at matchmaking is the inability to escape flanks. A flank is when you’re being attacked from multiple positions and you’re stuck and they are closing in on you. I kind of like to call it the ‘Venus Fly trap’ as you have a limited amount of time to think up a solution to the problem before you’re swallowed whole.
Let me give you a prime example of what I mean:
Lets pretend you’re on ADRIFT and you are standing by the flag and you have red dots coming in from small door and big door.
What do you do?
If you hesitate only for a moment you face the risk of being double teamed and team shotted to death. You could also start shooting one guy but you may kill him but the other guy will just end up killing you and you traded. This game should not be about trading but winning.
So when I am being flanked my mind works like this: I quickly put a beacon in my head of where my escape point is going to be. (escape point being up top leading towards top mid of Adrift)
Now I have to calculate the distance between me and the other two players who are flanking. Usually I appear on some ones radar at 0.040 (binocular hud) so I assume my distance between these players is around 0.030-0.035 since they have seen me on their radar. - Lucky for me this gives me usually 3 seconds tops. I now know that I could easily get to my destination in 3 seconds so I do not engage them and instead escape and then get them when they least expect it (Remember trading is bad)
Once I am at my escape point I am now unable to take fire from the enemy at our small door for the moment and the only threat is big door. I then engage the guy at big door for a few shots before falling back and and either taking him out or within 10 seconds when the other player leaves.
Now for a even tougher puzzle. What if you are standing by the flag and you have a bad team and enemy positions coming from ALL escape points? You have one guy coming in at big door, one at small door and one coming from top mid hallway) What would you do now ? You are alone with no team mates. If you stand your ground and retreat… this will not work since you will have hoards of grenades and gun fire hitting your position. I now know that there is no escape point. Do I go for the trade? Wrong.
What you should be doing is calculating where the nearest red dot is coming at. If you time it right you can literally sprint to the nearest guy who is flanking you and take him out before the other flankers get to your position. Now what if the red dots are all precisely at 0.035 and called out your position leaving you with no escape points? You then need to find cover and press select on your controller and find out who the weaker player is out of the 4. It will take some big reactions skills but once you find him you block the other two guys from shooting you at cover and you engage the weaker player (Avoid what is strong and engage what is weak ‘The art of war’)Once that player is taken out you have now opened up a escape point. By this point your shields will be low so you run through the escape point towards the exit for a longer life span and the enemy team is left dumbstruck on how you just escaped their clutches.
After playing match making a lone so much I have realised that Halo is nothing more but a game of chess. You need to have your opening plays figured out. Remember that strategy is more dominating then skill. I will not give you some of my opening plays but you need to experiment and find out which play is most dominating and leads your team into a better position from the get go.
I run free halo lessons to everyone and anyone who wants them (just to annoy the people who charge 
) there is so much about this game that people over look (like pulse granades being the strongest granades but no one knows how to use them properly and no they’re not used for blocking doors.
My gamer tag : I ShogunRonin
Kills: 35,678
Deaths: 12,000
Assists: 13,000
I will also train clans for free who fight in match making but at the moment I do not want to join any teams as I prefer non communication and being lone in match making (A lot harder against good players)