but obviously, Im not someone who has stake in this nor is someone that deserves influence in the space. From a totally outside perspective, it just seems very game-able given the right circle of people and im surprised that it runs this deep for comp play. Do other games' scenes have these issues??

Okay, I think this all finally clicked for me in how it works hahaha
Its kind of unfortunate that it feels like a political game just participating in these kind of servers or trying to make your way through the ranks.
I can only wonder why it was structured this way in the first place

thats actually criminal

So if you're in a +3 server, that's more like a rank then as a pickup?
Please forgive me for going in circles if i am. It is genuinely confusing as hell lmao I really am trying here

I appreciate this explanation a lot. Thank you. So ultimately it actually *is* used for team building, but for practice. If you want to be eligible to be someone who can accept being a team's +1, you need to be approved in the sendouq server? Am i understanding that right?

I am not the biggest fan of 4 through Infinite, but they're still parts of the story and I think despite the issues 343 had with the games i do find myself returning to at least Halo 4. Halo Infinite I've actually played a few times now which I like so much more than Halo 5

I think it would be a lot of fun. I wish that I could have done so later on when I had a larger audience to share my love for these games to, but I guess I can always just do it again in the future