In a world where most shooters make you deal with competing against players both far better and worse than you, Halo 5: Guardians is going out of its way to provide a competitive and fair atmosphere.
When you queue up for Arena, which is where the bulk of competitive players are going to be encouraged to go, you are going to be assigned a Competitive Skill Rating (CSR). This will be decided from finishing 10 placement matches that attempt to determine where your skill set lies among a set of seven ranks.
The ranks are as follows:
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Onyx
Champion
As seen above, all but the final two ranks have sub-ranks. So, once you're assigned a rank, as you improve you'll see incremental rank ups until you make a big transition to the next rank (i.e. Silver to Gold). It's worth noting that you can only de-rank among sub-ranks. In other words, you'll never drop from, say, Diamond to Platinum.
The goal, as with any balanced team based game, is to try and settle you in a 50:50 win/loss ratio. In the event that you improve and become better, you'll win a few games and thus have an increase in rating. As the rating goes up, you'll face tougher competition until the game finds you winning as many games as losing them. At that point you'll stagnate until you get better at the game.
The system relies on the fact that a good player is also a good teammate. Being great individually is important, but teamwork is essential to winning matches. Players with sub-average aim will want to learn the ins-and-outs of working together with comrades to achieve victory consistently.
In addition to the ranks, 343 Industries has announced Seasons. These will run in single month intervals, at the beginning of which your rank will be reset. Every season is treated as a new start for everyone to compete for high ranks and unique rewards.
Lastly, it was emphasized that matchmaking has been given similar attention. Low-ping is a priority, and so is punishing players who have bad manners (i.e. quitting early, team killing, disconnects). It's possible to be banned if you are selfish.
The goal of all this is to push Halo 5: Guardians beyond just being a fun shooter that says that it's a good competitive game. It aims for the eSports space where there's a ton of gameplay depth, a high skill ceiling, and all the functionality to support a competitive gaming scene. It's a big bet, but one that Microsoft seems to have given a ton of time and attention.
