Halo Infinite ranks will be reset soon – meaning all of your progress will be reset as 343 looks to finetune the way ranked works.
343 Industries has announced that Halo Infinite will be receiving a ranked reset in upcoming an upcoming patch. This is largely due to changes that the team will be making relating to ranked itself, and especially with matchmaking.
"We’ve been keeping a close eye on Ranked since launch," 343 said in a blog post. "The team has been monitoring data, pairing that up with community reports and feedback, and has some updates they’d like to go after during this season."
It seems many of these updates are focused on getting players more accurately distributed among the ranks. Some complaints from players were that they were either getting placed entirely too high or too low, leading to an experience that was either too hard or too easy.
343 says a fresh start should help everyone:
"Since we’re going to be making some improvements mid-season, we plan on resetting Competitive Skill Ranks (CSR). After implementing these updates and giving everyone a fresh start, we expect to see players get redistributed more accurately.
The exact timing of this ranked reset is still unknown, as 343 says they will try to give players a heads up just before it happens. As such, we'll also keep you posted.
How does Halo Infinite's ranked mode work right now?
As we've covered before, Halo Infinite's ranked arena system is fairly straightforward. Players can queue up for matches across Slayer, Capture the Flag, Oddball, and Strongholds. As you play matches you move up the tiers as follows:
- Bronze (6 tiers)
- Silver (6 tiers)
- Gold (6 tiers)
- Platinum (6 tiers)
- Diamond (6 tiers)
- Onyx (1 tier)
While this is straightforward, the Competitive Skill Ranks have always been a bit nebulous. 343 originally promised to go more in-depth on the system, but has yet to do so. It seems they are still fine-tuning the system post-launch, and this update should address that situation.
According to the in-game description, your CSR improves as you perform well. It doesn't necessarily just count wins and losses, as some other game's ranked modes do. This means that you can lose a match, but if you carried the team, you still could rank up depending on a number of nebulous factors.
What does this mean for your rank?
Unfortunately, a rank reset for competitive Halo Infinite means exactly what it sounds like. Everyone, even players at the top, are going to have to start from scratch. This means that progress made is going to start over, and there doesn't seem to be any rewards or carry overs for hitting Onyx at present.
This rank reset is earlier than the originally scheduled end of season one, which means that folks have even less time to grind than expected. The original plan was for seasons to last three months, but 343 extended this window to May. This ranked reset almost brings it in line with the original vision, but without the new features that season two was going to launch with.
Indeed, 343 added content to season one to make the season extension feel more worthwhile. So, while your ranked reset will affect your competitive matches, you'll still be able to progress on things like the Battle Pass, which is not resetting.
Also mentioned in this upcoming patch are changes to Big Team Battle, which is not in ranked play. Bots backfilling will also have their difficulty increased to ODST from Marine, which should help out if your teammates bail on you.
For all the latest on Halo Infinite, keep it locked here to Esports.gg.