343 Industries gives us a closer look at "Halo Infinite's ranked experience"

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has outlined where, and how, it expects to make changes to its competitive ranked mode, including confirmation that Champion rank is on the way.

"Ranked multiplayer has been a cornerstone of the online Halo experience since way back in 2004 when Halo 2 released," the studio said in a new update on Halo Waypoint.

"Over the years, the ranked experience in Halo has taken many shapes and forms, but the goals have always remained the same - provide all players with a fair, balanced, and fun competitive experience where you can test your skill and earn new ranks all on your way to becoming a better Halo player than you were the day before."

After going through some of the terminologies ranked mode uses, the team then detailed Halo Infinite's six Competitive Skill Ranks (CSRs) - Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Onyx. All ranks have six sub-ranks besides Onyx, for which all players are shown "a numeric CSR rating starting at 1500. There is no hard cap on this, either.

The post acknowledged that there are "too many" Diamond/Onyx players, stating "earlier this year we confirmed that ranks were on average somewhat higher than expected. But our recent updates to ranked matchmaking, and the accompanying rank reset on Feb 22, should have helped to adjust the distribution".

"As with all aspects of Halo Infinite, we will closely monitor how these systems perform in the wild and we'll make adjustments and improvements as needed," the post concludes. "We, just like you, want everyone to have a quality, fair, and fun experience in matchmaking."

Right now there are no plans to add a reconnect feature if players genuinely get disconnected or crash mid-ranked match, and a Champion rank is something the team will be adding "in a future season down the road".

For the full details - including details of Microsoft's Research's TrueMatch, an AI system that learns about the matchmaking population and "dynamically adjusts the parameters used during matchmaking" - head on over to Halo Waypoint.

343 Industries recently confirmed it needs "more time" to work on the cooperative campaign and Forge, and cooperative missions will not be available in May as hoped. The delay hasn't stopped people playing, though - Microsoft recently confirmed that Halo Infinite has enjoyed the biggest launch in the series' history with over 20 million players.

ICYMI, Halo Infinite's multiplayer lead, Andrew Witts, is leaving the studio. Witts said in a brief statement that he wasn't leaving 343 Industries to move onto a new position right away, but was instead hoping to "take some time off to relax and recharge".

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