A group of Halo Infinite players have published a report showcasing how Match Making Ranking (MMR) appears to work for individual players in the game’s multiplayer.
Three players posted the report to the Halo Infinite subreddit on April 14 (thanks, PC Gamer), which highlighted how the MMR system seems to create unfair lobbies based on player skill.
In most online competitive video games, Match Making Ranking (MMR) is a value assigned to each player that either worsens or improves depending on their skill level, with the idea being that a player’s MMR helps match them up with others of a similar skill level to create the best matches possible.
Since Halo Infinite’s launch last November, many players have thought that the game’s MMR has been off. The recent player report has found that MMR doesn’t differentiate between Ranked and more casual playlists (in this case Big Team Battle), meaning that players with incredibly high MMR in more casual game modes who jump across to Ranked play for the first time will be met with players much better than them.
This also means that player MMR will decrease, in an effort to adjust their experience in something like Ranked, but this will also carry over to other game modes, which could make player matchups way too easy for them when moving back to modes they are more comfortable with.
According to this Imgur post, a player who loves Big Team Battle and has played it for years across the franchise saw a huge decrease in MMR thanks to entering Ranked play, which they had never really played before.
MMR is a backend statistic only visible by developer 343 Industries, but the Reddit post suggests a way individual players can find their MMR. Whilst it requires info 343 Industries sends from its servers to a players PC or Xbox console after a Free For All (FFA) match, this data can be directly attributed to an individual player.
As shown here, team MMR values are sent out at the end of FFA match, which can then be mapped to a players gamertag by referring to the Xbox User ID. So if a player regularly plays FFA games, and uses that to create a chart of their MMR over time, they can see how their rankings have been trending during play.
In response to this investigation into how MMR works in Halo Infinite, one player said: “I feel like tracking me, a [Big Team Battle] main, with hidden MMR is like scientists in bushes using binoculars and taking detailed notes while observing me — as I try to put the triangle shape into the circle hole”.
Back in March, a 343 Industries blog post explained how Ranked and MMR work, which goes into detail on the terminology and technology used in Halo Infinite’s matchmaking experience.
In other news, Sega’s upcoming “Super Game” projects reportedly include reboots of both Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio.
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