To preface this: BTB matchmaking, PC stability issues, Oddball glitches, and anti-cheat should all be addressed first. I just wanted to give some feedback on the ranked matchmaking system because it desperately needs an overhaul. I’m going to not only point out the flaws but try and gives some ideas to solve/improve them.
- Stop the ability to queue with people that are too far out of your skill bracket.
When an Onyx player can party up and play ranked with a Silver player, that ruins all competitive integrity of any match and defeats the entire point of ranked.
The first solution here is an obvious one: block mixed-skilled players from queuing in ranked. Keep it within 1 division – Gold with Silver and Plat, Plat with Diamond and Gold – but a Diamond player couldn’t play with a Gold player, for example.
Another possible solution that could be implemented in addition to the above is having a queue for full premade lobbies only and let them rank them as one group of players. This could get more complicated on the back end, and would require some sort of in-game clan/team system. I think it could be a lot of fun and really increase the social aspect of the game, though and offer a ton of awesome experiences for players. Could create a ranked best of 3 playlist for these clans to compete in.
- Placements and rank distribution seems very, very skewed.
With the current ranked tiers, the middle 50-60% of players should be falling within mid Gold to low Plat. But the current system allows previously unranked players to place as high as Diamond, the next-to-highest division. If you haven’t been ranked in a previous season in Infinite (in season 1 that’s everyone), the highest you should place is Silver 6 and you begin your climb from there. If you have been previously ranked before, and you were Diamond+ in a previous season, getting D1 after placements is fine, but it should be the highest you can place and begin your climb from there.
- Current ranks are too easy/fast to climb.
In the current system, it appears as though it’s 50 CSR between all ranks. So to go from G1 to G2 you need to get 50 CSR, and to go from D5 to D6 you need 50 CSR. So to go from G1 to G6 that’s a total of 250 CSR, but also to go from D1 to D6 it’s the same 250 CSR needed. As you climb higher, you should start feeling the grind and needing to improve exponentially, so the CSR needed to rank up should also increase more and more. So for example, the climb from D1 to D6 should be an 800 CSR difference instead of 250. This creates a large skill gap at the higher ranks even before you get to Onyx. As it stands now, there is virtually no difference between a D1 and D6 player in terms of skill. Or at least not drastic enough to actually look and say “Oh yeah that’s why he was a tough opponent, he’s a D6 and I’m D2”… diamond is diamond, plat is plat. The 1-6 in between is just semantics with how it is now.
- Onyx has too many players
Going along with the above change, Onyx needs to be restricted to the top 1% of the active player base. If you break into Onyx and stop playing, you should also begin to lose CSR each after X-timeframe (example: 2 weeks) until you drop back to D6 and let more active players reach Onyx.
- The game seems to prioritize individual skill over the win far too much
This is actually a good thing in the lower ranks. It keeps alternate accounts from staying in the low ranks too long and moves them up quickly and helps keep the game more enjoyable for the lower ranks without getting crushed. But once you hit Diamond it should become strictly about the win.
- Rejoining matches should have been implemented day 1.
If the game crashes or a player otherwise gets disconnected, they need to be able to rejoin. A solution to this could be once you are loading into a ranked match you are locked in to that match for it’s duration. This means if you abandon your team and leave on purpose, the only thing you can do is rejoin the match or sit and wait until it’s over, or if you get disconnected/crash you are able to restart and join back up with your team.
Also going to throw in a couple other things that I’d like to see implemented that sort of relates to this. If the game starts 3v4, it should end in a draw immediately. If a player drops within the first minute of play and doesn’t return after X amount of time, it should also end in a draw. If anyone leaves at a point later in the game and doesn’t return, there should be an option to forfeit the match and end it so everyone can move on to the next match.
To anyone who made it this far: thanks for taking the time to read this. Here’s to 2022 being the year of Halo. I think these changes would make the ranked experience a much better environment.