Valorant pros complain about the new matchmaking system, devs respond

Valorant Patch Update 2.0 has completely tweaked the matchmaking system, making it difficult for high-ranked players to get matched.

It's not a surprise that high-ranked players face long queues for the Valorant competitive mode. This issue has been prevalent since the beta. A small proportion of all Valorant players fall under the category of high rank. This leads to very long queues that can go on for 45 minutes or even an hour.

After the latest Valorant Patch update, the game's top players have been facing an insanely long queuing time.

Tenz, who has recently retired from professional Valorant, tweeted this yesterday:

4 hours into my 24 hour stream and we couldn’t get 1 game on my main sadge

— TenZ / Tyson (C9) (@TenZ_CS) January 14, 2021

As a result, Tenz has no other option but to play with a new account. Valorant devs are also trying to prevent smurfers from ruining the game but situations like these encourage smurfing.

Been in queue overall 3-4 hours on my main so far only found 1 game but it looks like I'm going to be unranked hardstuck... :(

— TenZ / Tyson (C9) (@TenZ_CS) January 14, 2021

Valorant developers have acknowledged this issue. The devs did not expect such mishaps in the competitive mode. Now that they are working on it, some changes can be expected in the system with the upcoming updates in the game.

We are currently talking about how to fix this, and looking into your que to figure out solutions. Unfortunately it may not be as fast of a fix as we'd like, but know that we are looking into it. I personally feel bad that one of our best players can't engage with the new system.

— EvrMoar (@RiotEvrMoar) January 14, 2021

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The new matchmaking Rank placement system in Valorant has left players frustrated

Players, even the professionals, are complaining about how broken the system has been lately. The rank placements are strange, and players who were in the Diamond tier now find themselves as Radiants.

This has led to frustration among the original Radiants, who are now being matched with low ranked players.

Valorant Ranking system in a nutshell @WARDELL416 @Subroza pic.twitter.com/IPLxrvrMAU

— NRG Aiden (@AidenSPhan) January 16, 2021

While the professionals are complaining about high-ranked systems, the same issue persists in lower ranks too. The current silvers claimed to have been in the Platinum rank in the last Act.

In a recent Reddit post regarding matchmaking, a Valorant dev opened up about the competitive mode and hidden MMR.

Cloud9 content creator Keeoh had a Twitter thread about the system. He suggested the solutions which Riot Games could implement to help upgrade the situation.

Dear @PlayVALORANT Dev team:Ranked needs immediate attention. (thread)A solution:- Keep the new radiant/immortal system, but do a hard rank & hidden MMR reset.- Lock Top 500/radiant for the first two weeks (so that no one rushes radiant act rank)- Max placement D3.

— C9 Keeoh (@Keeoh) January 17, 2021

These solutions can actually have a good effect on the game. Considering it has not even been a week since Episode 2, Valorant devs might consider the solutions and apply the same.

Keeoh further explains the skill disparity problem in simpler words:

"Currently, the skill disparity in games is SO HIGH, one game we'll have all previous radiants, the next a diamond/plat player will be in the same lobby. As a support player, (Killjoy) this is very hard to play around as they don't have the same amount of game knowledge."

In a Reddit post by u/PappyVPoodle, an overview of the current matchmaking placements has been given.

It seems Valorant is experimenting with different ways to make the game more competitive. They have not provided a concrete solution or an actual date for the fix, but one should be expected soon.