Valorant has been taking the first-person shooter world by storm the past couple of weeks. The character designs, fluid gameplay, and improvements on the foundations of the genre have been some of the biggest draws in the game. We even detailed that in our impressions piece earlier this month. With all this fluidity and the fact that it’s coming from Riot Games, players have been eagerly waiting to see the first iteration of competitive Valorant. We’re happy to say that as of now, Valorant’s competitive mode is now available to try in the closed beta. It’s presumed that the game mode will be available from today until the end of the closed beta and the game’s full release.
The competitive mode works similarly to a lot of other shooters. You start out completing a handful of regular games before unlocking the competitive mode. In this case, it’s 20 Unrated games. After that, you can compete in the mode and be played in one of eight ranks. These ranks are known as Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal, and Valorant. Each rank excluding Valorant has three tiers, and you can play with people within two ranks. For example, a Gold 1 can only play with friends below Diamond 2 or above Iron 3. This is meant to keep games fair and not have the skill discrepancy be too high.
Above all else, wins are what matters the most. Your initial matches will have a more significant focus on your personal skill, and that will diminish over time and as you ascend ranks. Players at Valorant will have a sole focus on wins or losses to determine rank compared to the other ranks. This is to keep players working as a team, rather than playing as individuals along with not worsening the climb of other roles. To go with this, your rank will not be displayed if you don’t play ranked within 14 days. It won’t affect your rank, but no other player can see your rank until you play another game.
Overall, Valorant’s ranking system looks promising so far. Riot promises to keep an eye on the mode over the closed beta and will innovate as needed. If you jump into the ranking system, let us know where you place and what you think of the mode so far. This isn’t all that’s came in the recent update, as visual changes and other bug fixes are coming. If you’re interested in that, you can read the official patch notes here. For all your news, reviews, and more about your favorite games, stay tuned at The Nerd Stash!
