Big Team Battle

"Assorted games for full teams of 8 on 8. Work together, or die in a great big pile."

- In-game description for Halo 3's ranked Big Team Battle playlist

Big Team Battle (or BTB as it is also known) is a matchmaking playlist intended for games of 8 versus 8. These games are either objective based or kill based. The maximum number of players per game is 16 (minimum is 10) while the maximum number of players who can join Big Team Battle in a single party is 16. The maximum allowable imbalance between teams is 1 player. It is the largest playlist in terms of number of players in each game. As such, it is only played on the largest maps.

Big Team Battle exists in both Halo 2 and Halo 3 matchmaking. In Halo 2, it is an unranked playlist, although it had previously been ranked. Ranked and unranked Big Team Battle playlists exist in Halo 3; the ranked list is known as Ranked Big Team and the unranked list as Big Team Social. Note: In June the Ranked Big Team playlist had all restrictions removed (mixed party etc.) and featurex Double EXP until September 16,2008. The playlist was still not as popular as Bungie had hoped and so if the playlist continues to perform badly it may be retired, to make modifications to it. Bungie appears to have confirmed it will be retired in their update on the 22nd of August during the Sepember Auto Update, though for how long cannot be said.

Halo 2

 * Assault - Headlong, Terminal, Zanzibar
 * Multi Bomb - Containment, Waterworks
 * Multi Bomb BR - Coagulation
 * Neutral Bomb - Containment, Waterworks
 * Neutral Bomb BR - Coagulation
 * One Flag CTF - Headlong, Relic, Terminal, Zanzibar
 * One Flag CTF BR - Burial Mounds
 * Multi Flag CTF - Containment, Waterworks
 * Multi Flag CTF BR - Coagulation
 * Flag Wars - Waterworks
 * 3 Plots - Terminal, Turf
 * Land Grab - Containment, Headlong, Relic
 * Team Duals XTRA - Beaver Creek, Lockout, Midship, Sanctuary
 * Gulch Wars - Coagulation, Containment
 * Team Slayer Rockets - Ascension, Sanctuary
 * Team Slayer - Beaver Creek, Elongation, Foundation, Gemini, Ivory Tower, Lockout, Midship, Turf, Warlock
 * Team Slayer BR - Burial Mounds, Colossus, Headlong, Relic, Terminal, Waterworks, Zanzibar

Halo 3
(The Legendary Map Pack map Avalanche will only appear in this Matchmaking playlist if only all players in the matchmade party have the Legendary Map Pack.)
 * Big Team Slayer - Avalanche, Last Resort, Rat's Nest, Sandtrap, Standoff, Valhalla.
 * Multi Bomb - Avalanche, Rat's Nest, Valhalla.
 * Neutral Bomb - Avalanche, Rat's Nest, Sandtrap, Standoff, Valhalla.
 * One Flag CTF - Avalanche, High Ground (Beta), Rat's Nest, Valhalla.
 * Multi Flag CTF - Avalanche, Rat's Nest, Sandtrap, Valhalla.
 * Territories - Last Resort, Sandtrap, Valhalla.
 * 1 Sided VIP - Last Resort.
 * VIP - Avalanche, Rat's Nest, Sandtrap, Valhalla.
 * 2 Flag Heavy - Avalanche Heavy, Valhalla Heavy, Standoff Heavy, Sandtrap Heavy.

Issues with Ranked Big Team
Ranked Big Team, in Halo 3 is much more of a stake and gamble to play, chancing experience and rank greatly. It holds roughly a 50% success rate for winning. It all depends on how good you and your teammates are, as well as your commitment and devotion to the game's objective compared with your opponents'. This is why lots of people opt out of this playlist, choosing something much easier to win, such as Team Slayer, or even Lone Wolves. Another aspect, is that the Ranked Big Team playlist needs to match sixteen different NATs (Network Address Translator), thus the matches are prone to a high level of lag. Another problem has been the difficulty in matching players, as the spread of true skill is high, and because of the "mixed team" restrictions, the matching time was further increased; However, in June all restrictions in Ranked Big Team Battle were removed to attract more players to the playlist. To further interest in the Ranked Big Team, it was made a DoubleEXP playlist.