I've given up on the competitive side of Halo, it's gone way too casual. Give this a view:
http://gameroom.mlgpro.com/view/ItLqFlLygPk.html
and then decide for yourselves if they've made Reach even more noob-friendly in these two new vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMwQ5wDGypY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGhpRV3tNq0
I'll still buy it just to fool around with friends in Forge and for the addictive Firefight mode, that was an awesome addition to ODST.