Halo 5 CSR explained

The Competetive Skill Ranking, or CSR for short, is your rank within the Arena experience and determines who you'll be pitched against. If everything goes right that should be opponents within your skill range and this ensures you that you and your team won't be annihilated by higher levels and that you won't stomp on lower levels.

Just like we saw in the beta you'll have to complete 10 placement matches that determine what rank you'll start off as. Since the beta there have been a couple additions to the ranking though. Below you'll find all the ranks through which you can progress (or drop).

The ranks Bronze through Diamond are pretty straight forward. Win a couple of matches and you'll progress in ranks. Notice that I said 'win matches' and not 'be on the top of the leaderboard' as being the top player on your team doesn't mean a thing to your CSR, only winning does.

There is the chance that you'll drop a rank after losing too many matches but we are assured that you won't drop an entire rank by going on a bit of a losing spree. For example, if you've been working towards that Silver rank for who knows how long you won't be dropped back down to Bronze just because you weren't having a good day.

The Onyx and Chapion ranks behave in a different way. Once you reach Onyx, your CSR score will be shown to allow better comparison between players. Winning no longer increases your tier, your CSR score does. Once you reach the top 200 within a playlist you'll be placed in the highest tier, the Champion tier. All shall quiver before thee!

Later in Halo 5's lifespan seasons will be introduced. It looks somewhat like the seasons we had back in the Halo Reach days. When a season starts your CSR will be reset and you'll have to play your placement matches again to be ranked. This allows you jump start your ranking and prevents you from being stuck in an what seems to be endless progression through the rankings. Of course, you can also fall a bit short but do not fret as there is always next season.

Reaching a CSR ranking within a season also makes you eligable for a neat cosmetic award, no matter if your Bronze or Onyx. Think of it as a souvenir. First thing we'll get is this emblem:

Each time a season ends 343i will update the game based on your feedback. So don't stop complaining!

Join in progress is disabled in Arena to prevent you from being placed in losing games and losing a rank as a result from that. Quitting is frowned upon and if you decide to be a bum you'll not only suffer a loss and forfeit any EXP or REQ points earned that match, you'll also recieve a temporary ban to think about what you just did. Betrayals, idling, intentional suicides and excessive disconnects will also earn you a ban of which the length is determined by how heavy the offense is. Each successive infraction will increase the timeout exponantially so don't you even think about it Spartan!

What are your thoughts on this ranking system?

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Thank you for reading!