Valorant's ranking system is set to get a much-needed overhaul

Valorant’s ranking system was in a whole lot of trouble ever since the shooter got an official launch.

Both amateur and professional players were quite disappointed with how the ranked match-making and MMR system played out. And to make matters worse, the person behind Valorant’s ranked match-making and tier system just upped and left the company in July, leaving Riot Games in dire straits.

A game mode that was supposed to be the most positive aspect of Valorant turned out to be one of its most underwhelming and, at times, infuriating features.

Popular streamer and professional Valorant player for NRG, Brandon “Aceu” Winn, even took to his stream to talk about how bad match-making in ranked is at the moment. He said that he ‘cannot stand’ ranked games, and one of the biggest issues for him is how players who don’t deserve to be at a higher rank are there because they ‘five-man stacked’ their way to it.

The problem of the inflated ranks in Valorant

Five-man stacking your way up the ladder is what we like to call ‘inflated rank’, and it does not accurately represent a given player’s current skill level.

This causes a lot of problems with solo-queue players who get paired with such teammates, making for an incredibly frustrating ranked experience- one that Aceu seems to be alluding to.

Moreover, a 5-man team being able to queue against solo players causes serious balance issues, which makes the game very unfair and one-sided.

This type of matchmaking system will, in a way, force players to play in a group rather than try ranked solo. While not everyone wants to play in a team all the time, a solo grind has its own charm, which Valorant seems to be taking away from its player base.

Riot Games' Joe Ziegler addresses the issue

Last night, Valorant’s game director Joe Ziegler took to Twitter to address the ranked system issues and talked about how the devs are planning to change many aspects of ranked.

Hey everyone, on the design side we are currently analyzing the ranking system top to bottom. We’re looking into changes that will improve many aspects of competitive, but have not committed to any solutions yet. Thanks to everyone for their feedback!

— Ziegler (@RiotZiegler) August 13, 2020

He says:

“Hey everyone, on the design side we are currently analyzing the ranking system top to bottom. We’re looking into changes that will improve many aspects of competitive but have not committed to any solutions yet. Thanks to everyone for their feedback!”

What changes Riot Games will be bringing to Valorant’s ranked system is anybody’s guess. However, fans are of the opinion that employing something similar to Riot Games’ other IP, League of Legends, might just do the trick.