Ranked mode is coming to the Valorant closed beta

Valorant players have been calling for a competitive mode since the closed beta begun, and soon they will have a chance to put their skills to the test. A recent blog post from Riot’s Senior Producer, Ian “Brighteyz” Fielding discussed the details of this new addition.

Rated mode will arrive as part of the 0.49 patch, which according to Game Director Joe Ziegler is expected to release at some point during the next week. Just as a prewarning, Fielding advised that “competitive matchmaking may be disabled for short periods throughout the closed beta as we work to refine the mode and incorporate your feedback”.

In order to unlock this mode, you must first play and complete 20 Unrated matches. Once you’re in, you will be able to queue with up to 5-player parties, as long as your friends are all within 2 ranks of each other. There are 8 ranks in total, each one encompassing 3 tiers, except the top rank, VALORANT.

The system in Valorant has been designed to combat some of the common pain points from ranked modes in other titles. This means, especially early on, that your personal performance will have a good impact on your evaluation. As you get deeper into your competitive career, the emphasis will shift a lot more heavily towards winning matches.

By taking these steps, Riot are hoping to better fight against smurfing and rank boosting, whilst getting a more accurate display of your skill as quickly as possible. Something that I was very pleased to see was that the competitive matchmaking takes into account your pre-made party size. It then “automatically optimizes your match to favor similar premade sizes on the opposing team”.

If you do get a chance to play some competitive matches over the coming months, just remember that your closed beta rank will not carry over to launch. However, once the game is officially released, your rank will not decay over time. If you haven’t played a competitive match in 14 days, then your rank will no longer be displayed, but you can just hop back in whenever you’re ready.

You can check out the full blog post from the Valorant competitive team here.