WARNING: I was banned in Halo Infinite for ‘inappropriate behavior’ and I think it was from performing too well in Ranked with lower skilled friends

[taahahmed]

Moving this to the top-> we were all unranked when we started playing ranked. All of us played 10 matches of ranked, got our ranks, played 3 more, and bailed. We started playing ranked for battle pass challenges.

Another edit- I assert my stance ONLY because I saw my nearly exact circumstance with another person who was banned for the same reason (inappropriate behavior). Otherwise, I don't think I'd have a case tbh.

READ THIS: if you play with lower-skilled friends and significantly dominate each match consistently, YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY GET FLAGGED AND BANNED FOR "INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR." Specifically, if you perform exponentially better (much higher K/D) in a given period than you usually do, the system will think you are CHEATING (because I guess, why would you suddenly start playing better?) and ban you automatically as a result. You could try to appeal to Halo Support but as I did and others, you will be ignored.

My ban

Despite playing Halo ever since the OG days, I am not that great of a player. Yes, maybe above average, but I have been getting destroyed with generally negative K/Ds (kill/death ratios) across the board in ranked. But sometime in November, I WAS CRUSHING IT because I was playing Crossplay ranked with lower-skilled friends.

My three friends I was playing with are more casual Halo fans…they are essentially wood-tier level players that don't really understand how to play Halo at a competitive level. So as a result, when I was playing the "Ranked Crossplay" playlist (for battle pass challenges) with three teammates that were, for all intents and purposes, "bad," the matchmaking system essentially paired us with equally "bad," low-skilled opponents. I was able to dominate and earn extreme high K/Ds (at least relative to my average performance) each match.

You can look at my stats below and see that my K/D during this time was SIGNIFICANTLY higher than my average K/D. And you can look at my stats per match and see I was literally consistently dominating from match to match.

Ranked Crossplay K/D
Quickplay K/D (much lower than Ranked Crossplay K/D
K/D of multiple Ranked Crossplay matches with friends
https://i.imgur.com/16gKNF1.png , https://i.imgur.com/kdl3P0s.png - Sample of two matches to show I was playing with the same three friends
taahahmed's Profile Overview - Halo Infinite Tracker (halotracker.com)

At some point in early December, the system banned me from playing matchmaking. You might be asking: how can you pinpoint your performance to your ban? What is your evidence? See gamertag- TrainWr3cks:

I stumbled upon Trainswr3cks on Reddit for complaining about being banned for a similar reason and eerily at around the same time I was banned, so I dug into his stats to see what was up. AND WHAT I FOUND WAS THAT HE WAS BANNED UNDER THE EXACT SAME CIRCUMSTANCES AS ME. He was playing "Ranked Crossplay" with two of his friends who were nowhere near as skilled as him. And as a result, the matchmaking paired him with low-skilled opponents, and he was able to CONSISTENELY DOMINATE every match + earn K/Ds significantly higher than his usual average.

Curiously, he was then banned in early December… See his stats below:
TrainWr3cks Ranked Crossplay K/D
Quick Play K/D (much lower than Ranked Crossplay K/D)
K/Ds of Ranked Crossplay matches with friends
https://i.imgur.com/Gl4M69E.png , https://i.imgur.com/TcRBa1Z.png - sample of two matches to show he was playing with the same two friends
TrainWr3cks's Profile Overview - Halo Infinite Tracker (halotracker.com)

You can clearly see that if you play with lower-skilled friends and you consistently perform much higher than your average, YOU WILL GET BANNED.

I caution everyone here to play it safe and when you are performing so much better, purposely kill yourself or throw matches in order to prevent an unjust suspension. I have a feeling that 343 enacted a rule after Thanksgiving that led to me and TrainWr3cks to getting banned. BE CAREFUL AND CAUTIOUS EVERY TIME YOU PLAY WITH CASUAL FRIENDS.

I also implore 343 to fix their absurd banning system, as it basically punishes players for playing with their friends. I hope they reverse ALL suspensions related to these circumstances and redesign their automated banhammer so that others aren't unjustly punished for…playing with their friends… This is unacceptable and will harm the community in the long run once more and more people are suspended.

As far as I know, I have been permanently banned. Support refuses to tell me how long my suspension is…

Apologies for any spelling or grammar issues.

 

[Deleted member 8166]

there are some 343 devs on this forum. maybe you should (politely) link them.

 

[TheMink]

Me (Diamond 6) and my cousin (Onyx) match with my wife (Silver 1) and with that setup I have only felt that matchmaking has heavily been against us.

 

[julia crawford]

what are you doing playing videogames if you have friends? honestly

 

[DvdGzz]

This happened to me in Halo 2. I was also ignored and had to make a new gamertag to play it. It was frustrating.

 

[Bony Manifesto]

Why do they even let you play together in ranked playlists? Most other games enforce a level of skill parity with people you group with in ranked.

 

[take_marsh]

Sounds like an extremely archaic way of trying to catch cheaters. 343 incompetence on full show with this one (if 100% truth, sorry to have a bit of doubt).

 

[Allietraa]

I dont think they banned you for cheating they banned(suspended?) you for smurfing in ranked

if its perm thats pretty silly, they should just do what most games do and tell you the skill gap is too big for ranked

 

[MerluzaSamus]

Oh dear...
Finally managed to convince a group of friends to hop on, so it's good to know about this.

there are some 343 devs on this forum. maybe you should (politely) link them.

Click to shrink...

Unless those devs are here on a Community Management capacity, don't do this.

 

[zma1013]

Well there is only one solution then... drop my friends who are bad at Halo. Sorry fellas.

 

[Fantastical]

Oh boy, I did this last weekend. Probably didn't play enough matches to be banned though.

 

[Rodelero]

I dont think they banned you for cheating they banned(suspended?) you for smurfing in ranked

if its perm thats pretty silly, they should just do what most games do and tell you the skill gap is too big for ranked

Click to shrink...

Unless I'm misreading the OP, they are playing on a single account.

If anything this flaw would encourage smurfing and trashing one's own rank.

 

[Mirage]

I dont think they banned you for cheating they banned(suspended?) you for smurfing in ranked

if its perm thats pretty silly, they should just do what most games do and tell you the skill gap is too big for ranked

Click to shrink...

If that's really why they banned someone then it really shouldn't be possible in the first place.

 

[xMM4nsonx]

Only for ranked or even quick play is affected?

 

[XR.]

How is this even possible? I'm a bit reluctant to continue playing if that's the case because I'm in the same situation.

Why not restrict this from the get-go, like CSGO and several other games are doing, before the potential issue can even take place?

 

[Lobster Roll]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

 

[Dyle]

Punishment for gitting too gud

Smurfing, whether maliciously or not, is such a non-issue, all attempts to solve it always create a bigger mess

 

[SunBroDave]

I'm continually shocked how busted this game is. To 343's credit, they seem to have absolutely nailed the prioritization of tasks because the one thing they got right - the sandbox - is making up for literally everything else about the game that is broken or undercooked.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

 

[Juturna]

git bad.

That sucks though, hopefully someone here will be able to help you out.

 

[Rixan]

Late stage sbmm

 

[Deleted member 16876]

Man what is going in with this game?

I hear it is the best Halo since 3 yet the devs seem to be trying to kill it...

 

[Sonix]

I caution everyone here to play it safe and when you are performing so much better, purposely kill yourself or throw matches in order to prevent an unjust suspension.

Click to shrink...

I get that you're angry and all and that the system for flagging is probably malfunctioning but please, telling people to feed in response is such utter bullshit, what the hell dude.

 

[HOTSPUR]

Man now I'm just spooked I'm going to get banned. I played my placements before my friend (who is better than me) finished his and I played his with him.

 

[XR.]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

Click to shrink...

Smurfing should be something they should tackle on their end, not punish players for merely playing the game. As I mentioned, why even allow them to play together if they're already aware of the skill discrepancy and think it's a problem?

 

[Lant_War]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

Click to shrink...

Is it really smurfing if you're playing on the same account and it's the matchmaking placing you with bad players? It's not an issue in other games.

 

[taahahmed]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

Click to shrink...

They should then have no challenges for ranked. Only reason we started playing ranked was for battle pass challenges.

 

[Rodelero]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

Click to shrink...

Playing with lower skilled friends is not 'smurfing'. Smurfing involves creating a new account to bamboozle skill based matchmaking.

 

[neatsaux]

how long is your ban?

e: oh. i should read, a perm? jeez sorry to hear that

 

[Goodacre0081]

Doesn't the matchmaker take this into consideration?

Your MMR should boost the party rank high enough where this can't happen.

Players should also have the option to stall rank progress if they play with lower skilled friends.

 

[thankyoumerzbow]

they should add a csr cutoff so this doesnt happen but yeah, this is literal smurfing

 

[Roli]

I had a similar situation happen to me with Black Ops back on the PS3. Over the holiday break I was on an absolute tear and my stats were a lot better than usual. Then one day when I logged on I get a notification I was banned. Soured me from COD where the moment you improve above your norm it's considered worthy of a ban. Sad to see it's happening with Halo too.

 

[beelulzebub]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

Click to shrink...

I have never heard of this term. I don't understand why this should result in a ban at all, there are probably a good number of players in my boat that would fall into the OP's situation and wouldn't even know they need to be babysitting the matchmaking algorithm like that. The responsibility for this lies solely on the matchmaking algorithm.

 

[neatsaux]

Shouldn't it be that if you are say, Platinum 5 and you queue up with friends who are say, Silver 4, that the game puts you in games with people who are matched to the skill of the highest person in the fireteam?

 

[Lobster Roll]

Smurfing should be something they should tackle on their end, not punish players for merely playing the game. As I mentioned, why even allow them to play together if they're already aware of the skill discrepancy and think it's a problem?

Click to shrink...

I agree with that. It should be a front-end issue that the developers solve. Like if a team is very unbalanced, it shouldn't allow them to matchmake with others in ranked.

Is it really smurfing if you're playing on the same account and it's the matchmaking placing you with bad players? It's not an issue in other games.

Click to shrink...

That's why I mentioned "whether your intentions were pure or not". I don't think the player did anything malicious - they simply set out to play with their friends. Given how the developers currently approach how to detect this type of behavior, it's kind of impossible for them to separate the people who are linking up with their friends organically the ones the who are linking up with their friends to intentionally carry them to higher ranks. There's an opportunity here for the developers to address this on the front-end.

 

[Allietraa]

Playing with lower skilled friends is not 'smurfing'. Smurfing involves creating a new account to bamboozle skill based matchmaking.

Click to shrink...

eh if you throw a bunch and lower your MMR to play against trash players its also smurfing. Yeah maybe not the exact right word but the behavior(from the dev side) is the same. OP queued up with really bad players and destroyed low ranks. Either way the matchmaker should just stop OP from playing with those people in ranked instead of banning them after the fact

 

[Hailinel]

I have never heard of this term. I don't understand why this should result in a ban at all, there are probably a good number of players in my boat that would fall into the OP's situation and wouldn't even know they need to be babysitting the matchmaking algorithm like that. The responsibility for this lies solely on the matchmaking algorithm.

Click to shrink...

Smurfing is a legitimate issue in online multiplayer to the point that in many games, high-tier players have created alternate accounts with fresh, low rankings just to be able to play against and obliterate actual newcomers and low-level players for giggles.

 

[HylianSeven]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

Click to shrink...

LMAO that isn't smurfing. The OP is using their main account and just want to play ranked games with friends. They did absolutely nothing wrong. In fact the solutions like killing yourself intentionally ENCOURAGE smurfing.

Also I want to point out that Dota 2 has this problem solved: Say you have 2 Divine (rank right below Immortal) players and 3 Herald (lowest rank) in a stack. The matchmaking tries to find you a game against two high MMR players and three low MMR players. Dota 2 has a lot less players than something like Halo does. Halo can absolutely do this. There should be nothing to prevent people from playing together like this.

Late stage sbmm

Click to shrink...

I will never understand the hate for skill based matchmaking. You would want to be matched with people around your skill level.

 

[Tappin Brews]

I play almost exclusively with my silver buddy and nothing so far (knocks on wood)

 

[Mukrab]

Shouldn't it be that if you are say, Platinum 5 and you queue up with friends who are say, Silver 4, that the game puts you in games with people who are matched to the skill of the highest person in the fireteam?

Click to shrink...

It takes an average, i just looked at what looks like OP's best game and OP's team was diamond (him), two bronze and one gold. The enemy team were two plats and two gold. Seems fair on paper. Personally i doubt OP was banned for that. I play with friends that are much worse than me too. Played over 100 matches with them already, one of them over 300 matches. Not all ranked but still.

 

[MisterB_66]

I have never heard of this term. I don't understand why this should result in a ban at all, there are probably a good number of players in my boat that would fall into the OP's situation and wouldn't even know they need to be babysitting the matchmaking algorithm like that. The responsibility for this lies solely on the matchmaking algorithm.

Click to shrink...

Because you're ruining the game for the other team, if your going 34-8 the other team has no chance to even compete. While it's usually done intentionally, it's still sucks for the other team when done unintentionally.

 

[HonestAbe]

I dont think they banned you for cheating they banned(suspended?) you for smurfing in ranked

if its perm thats pretty silly, they should just do what most games do and tell you the skill gap is too big for ranked

Click to shrink...

How were they smurfing? Smurfing is using multi-accounts other than your "main" to fool the system. If OP is just playing with friends, that's not smurfing.

I feel like we may not getting the entire story here. It's hard to imagine getting a ban for playing with friends and doing "too-well" based on the system 343 created.

 

[Trakan]

There are people actually blaming the OP for this? What the fuck.

I will never understand the hate for skill based matchmaking. You would want to be matched with people around your skill level.

Click to shrink...

The problem is I've never encountered a game that's done it well. You shouldn't have to play laggier matches or endure longer queue times because you have a K/D higher than 1.0.

 

[PancakeFlip]

Wait, so I was placed in gold and I'm on average much better than what I've found in that tier and easily keep a high K/D in all matches even if I end up losing. I did eventually get into Platinum but I was at risk of getting banned because of that?

 

[NekoNeko]

if i'm playing with low skilled friends and get matched with other low skill players i usually start goofing around. i don't see the need or the fun in stomping garbage players.

 

[Ada]

It's called smurfing. Understandable ban. Other games put grouping restrictions in place for exactly this reason. It leads to horribly unbalanced games and screws with the matchmaking system. The matchmaker starts to think your lower rank friends are better than they are as you keep winning (boosted).

 

[Deleted member 13798]

If this is true and this is their actual implementation and main way of catching that, then they really need to review it and fix it. That seems like such a backwards, old way of addressing cheating.

Just prohibit people from joining ranked matches together when your MMR is too different from your friends. R6: Siege does this and it works better than a good player catching a ban for what is ostensibly developer oversight in ranked implementation.

 

[Deleted member 22002]

Once you imagine how fun it was for the other players to get crushed repeatedly by an overly skilled player they should not have been matched with, you'll realized the ban is perfectly reasonable.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

Whether your intentions were pure or not, you were smurfing. I don't think that should result in a permanent ban, and I also feel that the support staff should be more open in communication with you to let you know how long and why they banned you. However, you should probably stick to non-ranked play with wood-tier teammates if your presence in the game means that you're going to be pubstomping people who can barely aim. It's annoying, but it's also like going to play pickup at the park and bringing your good friend LeBron James with you and expecting the park to assemble a team that can compete with you.

Click to shrink...

Jesus Christ, no.

They should be able to play the game with anyone they want. If this is a problem, the game needs to account for it like all other games have.

Also I wouldn't even call this smurfing. They didn't intentionally lower their own rank to play against lesser opponents, the game failed to give them decent opponents based on their combined rank.

You guys ever heard the phrase "don't hate the player, hate the game"?

C'mon now!

 

[Lothars]

Once you imagine how fun it was for the other players to get crushed repeatedly by an overly skilled player they should not have been matched with, you'll realized the ban is perfectly reasonable.

Click to shrink...

lmao no it isn't. This is a backwards ban, OP wasn't doing it to lower their rank, OP was playing with friends. There is nothing wrong with what OP did and the ban and anyone defending it is in the wrong.