I know I'm in the minority, but I just don't have any interest in Halo 5's competitive scene. Watching slayer on Plaza and The Rig is not interesting to me. Unless there has been a recent change I didn't hear about, the lack of previous gametypes also makes me not care. I've watched a few tournaments and I just don't feel the need to watch any more.

I don't have an issue with sprint, but I believe the maps are now too large to compensate. Halo 2 and Halo 3 maps would work perfectly with sprint (Guardian and Turf work perfectly with sprint with Halo Online). Halo 4's Haven was also a smaller map that worked competitively.

Even through the maps are large, the map design focuses too much on close quarters. Maps like Plaza have the potential for long sightlines but they seem almost pointless considering how closed off the rest of the map is. There are too many asymmetrical maps compared to the more symmetrical competitive maps we've seen in the past (Midship, Warlock, The Pit, Onslaught, Construct, and Haven). I understand Lockout was a great map and Construct is technically an asymmetrical map, but watching games on asymmetrical maps is boring to me.

I understand that HCS wants the competitive scene to be the same as the base game, but in my experience playing H5, the AR as a starting weapon doesn't feel right. The lack of autoaim makes the pistol, BR, and DMR harder to use, making the AR more efficient at times. The damage buff also makes it OP. As I mentioned earlier, the focus on close quarters in most of the maps makes the AR even stronger. I don't think an automatic weapon has any room in the competitive scene. Every shot should require accuracy and the AR/SMG dumbs this down.

I don't have an issue with most of the spartan abilites, but shoulder thrust is unbalanced. Allowing someone to sprint and possibly get a one-hit kill is ridiculous, especially in gamemodes like Breakout. Even ground pound feels cheap at times. I've never gotten a kill with either ability that felt rewarding or skillful, they felt cheap and undeserved.

I'm happy the game is taking off more than Reach and H4, and maybe we'll see more tournaments for other arena shooters, but this big change in Halo is too late for me.