Ranked games and competitive mode in Valorant

It there’s one thing that Valorant players expect, whether they can play it via closed beta or not, it’s the competitive aspect of the game; in other words, the ranked games. Well, Riot Games has already told us about the ranked games, the competition and the matchmaking, just 2 weeks after the release of the closed beta. We take stock of this hot topic.

Ian "Brighteyz" Fielding, Senior Producer at Riot Games, gives us information about ranked games, matchmaking, rankings and the overall competitive system.

Competitive mode will be available soon after Patch 0.49. It’ll obviously evolve over time, based on feedback and the experience of the community. The important points to remember are:

EDIT : Since the release of the game, the best rank has been renamed Radiant, not VALORANT. In addition, a ninth rank has been introduced, the Ascendant rank, with patch 5.00.

• You’ll have to complete 20 games in unrated mode to unlock the Competitive mode (and therefore launch ranked games).
• There will be 8 ranks, which will have 3 levels each, except for the highest rank: the VALORANT rank.
• You’ll be able to play in a group of 5 players maximum (caution, 2 ranks maximum between two players).
• Your rank will no longer be displayed if you didn’t play in Competitive mode for 14 days or more. You rank doesn’t decrease during this time however.
• The rank of all players will be reset at game’s launch.

Ranks in ranked games

Once you’ve played 20 parts in Unrated mode, you’ll therefore access the game in Competitive mode. Obviously, winning games in Competitive will increase your rank, but the better you play, the faster your rank will progress. Losing games will lower your rank.

There are 9 ranks in Competition mode, each with 3 levels: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Ascendant, Immortal and Radiant.

Riot Games insists on competitive integrity: the ranking system is designed to create balanced playing conditions in Competitive mode, and thus minimise irregularities. The system will be able to detect smurfs and will avoid “rank boosting”. In short, the publisher wants to make sure that they have a really optimal competitive mode on their new FPS. Even if this is promising, it will take a few months to see the results. In the meantime, you can find here all the information given by by Riot Games regarding the Competitive mode.