How Does Valorant's Ranked Mode Work

The ranked mode is a central part of Valorant’s design. While there are several more casual game options, at the end of the day, it is the competitive element that attracts players to this shooter. Ranked play offers seasoned competitors a chance to show off their skills, work their way up the ladder, and face enemies of comparable ability.

The systems used to ensure a fair and challenging ranked mode can be rather complex, making them difficult to understand at times. To complicate matters further, they receive frequent finetuning, not to mention the major updates carried out earlier in this Episode. However, the core principles behind those systems remain mostly the same and are not difficult to grasp.

Getting into Ranked Play

To unlock the ranked mode, you must first win ten regular (non-special mode) unrated games. In addition to filtering out less able or committed players, this prelude serves as an introduction to the game rules and mechanics. It is especially useful because aside from the rating system described later in this article, ranked play follows nearly the same rules as normal unranked play.

Two five-member teams alternate between attacking and defending over the course of multiple 100-second rounds. The attackers need to detonate a payload, which means delivering it to a designated location and defending it for 45 seconds after activation. Defenders must either prevent them from setting off the payload or stop it after it has been activated. Both sides may also win the round by eliminating all enemies. Whichever team wins 13 rounds first carries the entire match.

The main gameplay difference between unranked and ranked modes is what happens in the event of a 12-12 draw. In unrated games, players face off in a single sudden death round. Clawing out a ranked win in those circumstances may be much harder, as the game goes into overtime in which both teams continue to take turns on the offense until one of them gets a two-win lead. Each round starts off all players with 5000 credits and four points less than their ultimate ability’s requirements. Every two rounds of overtime, players get to vote on ending the game in a draw. The first vote requires six players to agree to the draw, the second vote calls for four, and all subsequent votes only need one player to end the match.

The Rank Ladder

After unlocking the ranked mode and playing five placement matches, all competitive players join the rank ladder. It consists of twenty ranks, from lowest to highest:

• Iron I
• Iron II
• Iron III
• Bronze I
• Bronze II
• Bronze III
• Silver I
• Silver II
• Silver III
• Gold I
• Gold II
• Gold III
• Platinum I
• Platinum II
• Platinum III
• Diamond I
• Diamond II
• Diamond III
• Immortal
• Radiant

The highest rank that anyone can start at is Platinum III. Movement from one rank to another depends on losing or gaining Ranked Rating (RR) as a result of competitive game outcomes. All players start with 50 RR after placement and must get to 100 RR to promote to the next rank, at which point RR resets to 0. Losing at 0 RR means demoting back to the previous rank and losing up to 30 RR in that rank.

As the pinnacle of competitive achievement, Radiant Rank works a little differently. It always consists of the best 500 players in a server region. To enter their company, you will have to earn more RR than the lowest-rated Radiant player in the region, in addition to clearing a regional RR threshold based on the local rank populations.

Likewise, falling below this threshold or being outearned by another challenger will bump you back down to Immortal. Both Immortal and Radiant ranks have their own leaderboards to help competitors check their progress. Together with Diamond III, they limit players to solo and duo queues to make them rely more on their own skills (at other ranks, you can form pre-made teams of up to five people, which makes it easier to coast).

Unlike in many other games, there is no rank decay. At the end of an Act, Radiant and Immortal players all lose 90% of their RR, and Radiant holders become mere Immortals until they earn their way back to the top. Other Ranks are unaffected and only one Placement Match is needed to display them again. The end of an episode would be a more drastic shake-up, requiring another five Placement Matches.

Nine ranked wins in an Act unlock the ability to permanently display one’s highest rank achieved during the Act, regardless of any later demotions. This Act Rank shows off other stats as well, like the number of games won. The highest Act Rank achieved during an Episode will be immortalized with a gun charm at that Epsiode’s conclusion.

Rating and Matchmaking

RR determines not only your progress through the ranks but also who you can play within the ranked mode. While there is some tolerance for the Rank disparity between acceptable participants in a match, it narrows down as you progress through the Ranks. For instance, Iron, Bronze, and Silver players can all fight together, but only Immortals can play alongside Radiants.

Winning a match can get you from 10 to 50 RR, while losing may cost you between 10 and 30. You may also receive up to 20 RR on a draw. RR changes are influenced by many factors, including victory margins and particularly impressive plays. Probably the most important factor is a hidden system called Matchmaking Rating (MMR), which depends on your win rate. In other words, you push it up by winning more of your games, rather than just winning more games (and losing others). The MMR is hidden largely because it is more fluid, changing drastically between games and possibly giving a misleading impression.

You will always start out below your MMR and get a bonus to your RR gain to help you catch up with it. RR losses are decreased as well. If you go above your MMR, however, those effects will be reversed – you will gain less and lose more. This system exists to prevent players from rising too high by a fluke. If you can prove your skill through consistent victories, you need not worry about your ranked progression stalling. On the other hand, if your losses start to exceed your income, you should probably focus more on improving your game and less on other objectives like fulfilling Agent Contracts.

There are some other mechanics that can influence RR gain. For example, if you manage to exceed your own usual performance, your profits will be greater. On the other hand, you may also lose RR for going AFK for more than five rounds or repeatedly leaving a ranked queue before the game starts. The main takeaway is that you should strive to win consistently in order to rise in ranks and keep up with your friends. That means playing smart, mastering different Agents to fill in any holes in your team, and possibly receiving coaching to avoid foolish mistakes.

Conclusion

The ranked system has evolved considerably since its release, becoming more smooth and transparent with time. Although some parts of it, like MMR, are hidden away from players, the overall rules are fairly straightforward. The climb may be frustrating at times, but it is the price of a system that tries to recognize real skill rather than blind luck. For many players, the steeper challenge makes the rewards all the more appealing.