Riot Unveils New Top Rank and Other Changes to Valorant Ranked Play
Riot Games recently announced that ranked play will soon be coming to Valorant, launching as part of the upcoming Patch 1.02. Now, the studio has revealed the final ranks and progression mechanics which will feature in this mode when it does release, as it’s a little different from how Valorant ranked play worked during the Closed Beta.
The Valorant Competitive Ranks Revealed
According to Riot, there are three main changes to Valorant’s ranked competitive mode from the beta. The first two are coming at launch, while the third will be coming “soon” after Patch 1.02. The first of these changes is new rank iconography along with a new top rank name; not only do the ranks now have a range of new icons, but the coveted top rank will now be known as ‘Radiant’ rather than ‘VALORANT’. Apparently this latter change was done in order to reduce potential confusion between the rank and the game itself. The new icon redesign also means that ranks are easier to distinguish due to improved colour clarity.
The second change, according to Riot, is that it will be; “easier to play with your friends”. What this means in practice is that it will be possible for players to play ranked with friends even if there is a large skill discrepancy between them. Previously, players had to be of a very similar rank to play together. This limitation hasn’t been completely removed from Valorant ranked play, however. If you’re a highly-ranked player trying to play with a total beginner, you may find that you’re not able to. The change isn’t to remove this block entirely. Rather, it’s to increase the discrepancy which is allowed between teammates to allow more people to play together.
Finally, Riot is reportedly working on making rank progression more clearly visible to players. However, this is a change which will not be available at launch. “We will start tracking your rank progress as soon as we launch Competitive with patch 1.02,” writes Riot; “and soon after we will be providing you visible info in your Match history, and eventually in other locations, around your overall performance for the Act.”