Wow, what an event HCS Salt Lake City turned out to be. Congratulations to Shopify Rebellion on an epic performance and being crowned champions! The best players on the biggest stage always provide some amazing Halo Infinite moments.  

As we move forward, the Fall Update for Halo Infinite is almost here! Before we dive into what’s next for Ranked players, we wanted to say thank you for trying out our newest mode: S&D Extraction. We hope you had fun out there, and you can expect to see this again (with some tweaks) as a Ranked Rotational playlist in the future. Make sure to submit your best S&D Extraction plays here for a chance to be in our next Ranked Top 10 video!

Ok, so what’s next for Ranked? In our upcoming Operation: Shadows, there will be 2 new maps and a new weapon entering the Ranked suite! 

Let’s get right to the details on what you can expect when you launch into Ranked when Operation: Shadows is live. 

LATTICE

Lattice, an original asymmetrical design created by timmyforges and Kat Rat A Tat, arted by dellsoto and h8yse with support from Squally DaBeanz is coming to Ranked play and the HCS rotation.

This fast-paced map brings with it versatility and a unique look. Players will be able to find Lattice in Ranked Arena and HCS in the form of King of the Hill, Oddball and Strongholds. It will also be available in Ranked Slayer, Ranked Doubles and Ranked Tactical. When Ranked Snipers rotates in, Lattice will be available there, as well. Great job to all the forgers who worked hard to get Lattice into Ranked and ultimately onto the main stage at HCS! 

Serenity - Ranked

This one is tried and true – Serenity, a remake of the iconic “Sanctuary” from Halo 2, now has a Ranked version. With some sandbox tweaks and adjustments made to improve sightlines and map flow for competitive play, Serenity will be making its Ranked debut.

While Serenity (Ranked) will not become a part of the HCS map pool, you’ll still be able to play the modes you’ve played on this map for as long as you can remember - CTF (3 Captures to win) and Neutral Bomb in Ranked Arena. Arena isn’t the only Ranked playlist where you will be able to play Serenity either – it will be in Ranked Slayer and Ranked Tactical with the launch of Operation: Shadows too. It will be implemented into Ranked Doubles in the near future, and of course, be included in the Ranked Snipers playlist when that rotates back in, just like with Lattice.

Thank you again to UneeQ, Mr Greencastle and MikRips for designing this beautiful remake! 

VESTIGE CARBINE

Along with two maps coming to the Ranked suite, we’ll also be introducing Halo Infinite’s newest weapon into Ranked: the Vestige Carbine!

As beautiful as it ever has been, the Carbine is a precision weapon that gives players another way to compete against other medium and long-range weapons like the Battle Rifle, Stalker Rifle and more. You’ll find the Vestige Carbine available on the Ranked versions of Forbidden, Lattice, Live Fire, Origin, Recharge, Serenity, Solitude and Streets.

Jump in now and try it out! 

HCS MAP POOL

As mentioned at the HCS Salt Lake City Major and above, Lattice will be entering HCS with King of the Hill, Oddball and Strongholds. With that, we felt it was appropriate to swap out some gametypes as new ones are introduced.

Starting with the HCS Open Series: Road to Charlotte Open #1 (August 16-17), Solitude King of the Hill and Streets Oddball will be exiting the HCS map pool. Based on feedback, Streets Oddball will be exiting the Ranked Arena map pool as well, while Solitude King of the Hill will still be available in Ranked Arena, but at a lower weight. As for HCS, we will continue to monitor community feedback and data on all gametypes as we move towards the final stretch of the season. 

All new Ranked content will be available tomorrow with the launch of Operation: Shadows – good luck and have fun out there, Spartans!