The huge problem with Valorant’s new ranked mode

Since day one of the closed beta, fans have been pleading Riot to add a competitive playlist to Valorant. After some hard work and fine tuning behind the scenes, the developers recently pushed “Rated Mode” live in North America, however players are facing a frustrating matchmaking problem.

Riot have always made it clear that Valorant is a game designed with competitive integrity at the forefront. It is plain to see the tactical shooter’s potential as a future major esport, and this is why ranked mode was so highly anticipated.

It seems though that the measures that were taken to keep things as competitive as possible, have also had a negative effect on people queuing with friends. A massive number of complaints are circulating Twitter and Reddit that players can no longer search for matches with their preferred teammates.

What is happening is that after playing their first “placement match”, users are being told that there is a skill disparity issue preventing them from queuing together. Riot previously confirmed that earlier ranked matches would place a higher weighting on individual performance and that the more you play, the more this weighting would shift towards wins.

Whilst placing value on each players performance is a great concept, it shouldn’t completely stop groups from being able to team, at least not so early on in the placement process. Of course we all want a ranked mode to be as competitive as possible, but it’s not fun if you can’t play with your friends.

Judging by Riot’s excellent communication so far, they will respond soon with their view on the matter, and any adjustments they plan to make. It is important to remember that we are still only in closed beta, and finding issues like this is the whole point.