Riot Announces New Ranks and Competitive Play for Valorant
| Tags: Valorant
| Author Malik Shelp
Riot has announced the changes that will be coming to ranks and competitive play for Valorant.
Sitting in my room introducing one of my friends to Valorant, I remember why it is so hard to play the game. Unrated mode can be a crapshoot, not only with your own team but the enemy team as well. I have had no reason to practice the game, grind, and get better, considering that Ranked play has been gone for a month and the community has flare-ups like bad IBS. Waking up in the morning to see Riot blessing us all with the promise of competitive play soon is exhilarating.
It's the moment you've all been waiting for… Senior Producer Brighteyz updates you on what Ranked and Competitive mode will look like for launch. https://t.co/ZDrFC1Gwtr
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) June 22, 2020
There was no official date listed as to when Competitive Matchmaking will be available on the live client. The new mode will be coming in Patch 1.02 and will offer a solo queue and group queue. A major issue in the closed beta was that often, solo plays could find themselves against a five stack. I’m all for fighting the odds, but in a game like Valorant, coordination and communication can outweigh personal skill.
Competitive play isn't perfect
Ranked or competitive play, is the heart and soul of Valorant. The game mode provides a place for serious players to put their skills to the test and improve. Unranked doesn’t give much sense of progression or improvement since most players come into the mode for different reasons. Some treat Unrated as the place to learn new heroes, others treat the matches like tournament scrims. There is no wrong answer here, and the disparity of expectations will be limited once competitive is live. A few of the ranks have received graphical changes, but the only major change is that now the Valorant rank will be renamed to Radiant in order to reduce confusion with the game's title.
Valorant has had numerous tournaments despite competitive play having yet to make its way to the main client. Riot has made it abundantly clear that their focus is on refining the game, while third-party organizations host tournaments. Some have decreed that Valorant may be the end of Overwatch and other various esports scenes, but the title is still in its infancy stages.
Malik specializes in esports photography, videography, video editing, and graphic design. He has also written Overwatch and Dota articles for over 2 years for DBLTAP and other esports outlets. You can learn more about Malik on our About page.