Riot To Make Changes To VALORANT Episode 2 Act 1 Ranked Mode
Riot Games has announced that they are making changes to the ranked game mode in their tactical multiplayer FPS VALORANT. Among queue size restrictions and changes to rank rewards, the developers have also targeted the ambiguity of the ladder in VALORANT by introducing more detailed breakdowns how far along in your progression through a rank you are. After a long battle, top players have also finally gotten the idea of allowing players of Immortal or Radiant rank to only solo or duo queue pushed through. Previously, some of the best players in the game had criticised the hardship of having to compete against full stacks of opponents on the ladder when solo queuing.
The developers made sure to point out that a lot of the changes were put into motion due to feedback from their player base, continuing their run of being reactive to the player base’s input. “Please keep letting us know your thoughts around these changes and rank, in general, Our promise is to keep listening and making changes for years to come,” said Ian "Brighteyz" Fielding and Jon “EvrMoar” Walker in a press release.
Regional Leader Boards and changes announced
VALORANT will soon introduce ladder for the top 500 Radiant players directly in the client. The Immortal rank has been squished into one rank only and will also be part of the display on the client. The ladders will use a new metric called Rank Rating (RR) to indicate rank progression. Those unwilling to appear on the leaderboard can hide their name from the list by putting the placeholder “Secret Agent” instead. Riot has also said that the ladder will be region-specific, breaking down into Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Korea.
Click to enlargeIn order to be ranked your account will require 50 games played. The team also introduced an anti-rank-camping system which requires you to at least get one game in any given seven day period.
Moreover, ranks will no longer be indicated by arrows but instead by a new progression bar that uses the new RR to show progress. Particularly interesting is the breakdown of how you will be able to gain RR, with a minimum gain of 10 RR for a loss and a cap of 50 RR gain depending on your and your team’s performance. Draws will give you a maximum of 20 RR if you performed exceptionally well. A lost game maxes out on a 30 RR loss, making the ranked system a non-zero-sum list that will reward active play and grinding ranks out. Riot hopes to incentivise queuing up while also protecting your rank from bad downswings when having an off-day.
You may also still demote from your rank, though it will require you to lose sitting at zero RR in your respective rank. If you do demote, you will not drop below 80 RR in your new rank range. Riot has also disclosed that the most important factor in gaining or losing RR will be the outcome of the match rather than your personal performance.
TL;DR summary
Alongside some new designs on the progress bar and tweaks to balancing exceptional performances, Riot will be implementing the following into the ranking system:
- Winning or Losing is the most important factor in gaining RR, but personal performance is also considered
- Minimum of +10 RR for a win, -10 RR for a loss
- Maximum of +50 RR for a win, -30 RR for a loss
- The maximum gain on a draw is +20 RR
- De-ranking happens when you lose a game at 0 RR
Click to enlargeSeason Rewards
Disabling competitive, Episode 1 will come to an end at 10pm on January 11 for all regions. With the conclusion of the current season, rewards will be gifted, determined by your highest rank achieved. Respective gun buddies per rank will be awarded to players, who will also receive each buddy of the lower ranks.
These will land in your inventory as of the start of Episode 2, which will then see all the above changes commencing.
Going into the new season, Riot insists on all players being capped at Platinum off the rip, with no player being able to be placed at a higher rank straight from placement.
Happy shooting, agents. The grind begins again.
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Image via Riot Games
