Behemoth, a medium-sized Multiplayer Map in Halo Infinite, has been removed from the game's Capture the Flag rotation in Ranked Play.
Behemoth may well be my favourite map in Halo Infinite. Now, that doesn't mean that people won't disagree with me – and that's fine – but it does mean that I am a little confused about why there is so much hate for it. The map centres around an incredibly large structure, and is one of only few smallish maps in Halo Infinite that feature epic vehicular combat. It's an insane amount of fun, and we certainly recommend checkout out our Behemoth Map Guide if you want to learn about the map in more detail.
This isn't the point of the article you're reading though, is it? Well, no, the point is that Behemoth is under attack. Not the usual attack you would expect – so, you know, the battles we enjoy whilst playing multiplayer – but an attack on a much larger scale... It is in a war against an existential threat: Ranked Play. We'll get into the details in a minute but we first want to make one thing very clear: there are tonnes of great maps in Halo Infinite, why the hell can't players who don't like Behemoth just, you know, play another map?
Behemoth is fun, and Ranked Play is fun, and so is Capture the Flag! So what the hell is going on? Well, that's what we're going to get into. 343 Industries seem to have made a rather questionable decision due to fan feedback. It's all fair enough, and is well-explained, but I am not – as you have probably already guessed – particularly happy about this decision. Let's dive in.
Behemoth's Capture the Flag Ranked Matches Removed from Halo Infinite
A post made by a 343 Industries spokesperson on Halo Waypoint has announced that the developers of Halo Infinite are removing Behemoth "Capture the Flag" from Ranked Playlists. Now, this is not necessarily permanent, but it does mean that we will not be playing Capture the Flag matches on Behemoth, in Ranked Play, anytime soon. The change has already come into effect, and is part of the update that you would have downloaded on January 26/27.
In the statement, the 343 representative justified the decision with the following explanation:
We’ve seen enough data to show us that the map is not performing in ranked as intended. Most of this data revolves around spawning and effective cover around the map.
Spawning on the perimeter of the bases with a direct line of sight to the flag stand, in addition to BR 75 starts, is creating a more frenetic match pace than desired. This leaves players feeling that even a well-coordinated team push into the enemy base can fall apart quickly; resulting in flag pulls being much more difficult than they should be.
Similarly, players seem to be respawning in places that can often feel unpredictable and therefore frustrating to deal with. This goes for both attacking and defending teams.
There also appears to be a lack of viable cover opportunities throughout the map, which is exacerbated when all players are wielding a BR 75. As a result, players often find themselves engaged in firefights with limited options from the outside of the map.
Overall, we want to improve the Ranked CTF experience on the map before reintroducing it to these playlists.
So, what does this all mean? Well, it basically means that Behemoth was not working particularly well for Ranked games, especially during Capture the Flag matches. It seems that spawning is a little broken and that the cover makes the map rather unviable for the purpose of capturing and transporting the flag effectively. This especially seems to be going when players are wielding longer-ranged weapons like the Battle Rifle.
So What Will Happen to Behemoth?
Don't fear! It might seem a shame that Behemoth has been removed, because it is a very fun map, but it seems that 343 Industries have taken the map offline for the purpose of fixing the various issues that have been brought to their attention. These issues, as addressed above, are all things that will simply need a few weeks (probably) of work to iron out. Once this has all been done, we're sure that we'll be seeing Behemoth back where we want it in no time at all! Until then, keep playing Behemoth on other modes, it's pretty great.