Halo 4 Getting Competitive Skill Rank System
Separate ranks for each game type.
November 2, 2012
by Andrew Goldfarb
343 has announced a Competitive Skill Rank update headed to Halo 4 post-launch. As detailed in a blog post on Halo Waypoint, the update will launch in early 2013 and “will measure your performance against other players in Halo 4 War Games and use this information to match you up against opponents of comparable skill ranks.” Once the update is live, players will have a “visible and detailed” Skill Rank available in the player profile section of Halo Waypoint.
Players will receive a different Competitive Skill Rank for each game type, “so, for example, you will have a unique CSR for your Slayer Pro games vs. your CTF games.” The ranks will be on a 1-50 scale and each player’s rank will go up or down based on match outcomes. Competitive Skill Ranks will be supported by all competitive playlists, and 343 notes that “as the playlists will continuously change post-launch, the exact list of playlists that will support CSR will be determined when the system is ready to drop.”
343 hasn’t decided whether players will “start fresh” once the update goes live or if existing data will be used to determine a player’s rank. “Matchmaking and hoppers will be tracking and analyzing data from Day 1, and when the final settings for CSR are in place, we’ll make the call on whether to use existing data as a baseline for your CSR, or to start everyone fresh in new playlists,” the blog post explains.
The update won’t be able at launch, as 343 notes that “we want to make sure we’ve taken the time to test, tune, and balance the CSR system in a live environment, and identify problems and potential exploits before launching the system publicly. Taking the time to test and tune the system ensures we can deliver a very accurate and meaningful skill rank, and gives our competitive playlists time to mature to for optimize a wide range of playlist and game settings.”
343 added that the Competitive Skill Rank update is “just one of many new experiences and features coming post-launch to Halo 4,” hinting at “an extensive post-launch plan for Halo 4, including DLC, playlist updates, and title updates.” An exact date for the Competitive Skill Rank update hasn’t been set, but 343 says “as soon as we have a confirmed launch date for the Waypoint update that includes CSR, we’ll make an announcement. Set your expectations for release timing appropriately since this will require delicate tuning, testing and implementation for Waypoint Web, Waypoint Console and Smartglass integration and is a feature designed specifically for the competitive community.”
Halo 4 will hit stores on November 6th. For a better idea of what you can expect, read our Halo 4 review and find all the info on multiplayer in our Halo 4 wiki guide.