How does the rings work exactly?

doesn't seem the cable is working right. I use the xbox to vga cable for a 22 inch monitor and it is just fine, and I send the optical to a sound system, and its fine there also. I'd call xbox support.

There is NO matchmaking in MP, its totally random. Let me rephrase that. In normal core modes the ONLY matchmaking may be a "locale" type search (to have you in games with people near you), but I dont think rank or stats nor "skill" effect this in any way.
I have been in parties of 5 and we were the top5 scorers on the leaderboards, but the next game will start and we pick up (by matchmaking or whatever) the top scoring player from the other team, LOL). There may be a small stat/rank matcher in there somewhere,
but I think its mostly just searching for the best host after it places you in lobbies with people near you (which helps connections, theoretically). League Play has a "skill" matchmaking , but its based off of wins and losses ONLY. I would assume it places
you in lobbies after a "locale" type search (which is good), then it matches off WL. Most of the time core searches seem random, JMHO.

Regular matchmaking = ping & latency; League Play = skill-based. There's no locale search in here, unlike Black Ops 1.

^^Regular play--latency and ping to people close to you (or just like a locale search). League Play is NOT "skill based", its based off of wins and losses ONLY.

[quote user="CursedOptimus1"]i have it connected to a 37 inch hdtv.[/quote]What's the make/model number? Many TVs do not support VGA well.

Also, how do you get the optical cable to work... I have it connected directly to the tv and i don't get
any sound...

While most TVs can accept 5.1 audio over an optical input and convert it to stereo, it's possible yours does not. Go to Settings, System, Console Settings, Audio, Digital Output, and set it to Digital Stereo. See if that fixes it.