Valorant to Feature New Mode in Upcoming Patch

Valorant is evolving with every passing week. The closed-beta has been live for a few weeks now and Riot Games has been making changes to their tactical shooter as per the feedback. Given its popularity, Riot has now concluded the time is ripe for a ranked mode. You can expect to see the new mode introduced in the upcoming patch 0.49.

The tactical shooter that borders between CS: GO and Overwatch (to oversimplify), has invoked an immense response from the gaming community. The developer’s marketing strategy has worked out perfectly up to this point. They got many streamers and influencers hooked on the game, which in turn fueled the community’s interest in it.

Valorant to Feature New Mode Soon

Riot has also carefully analyzed the feedback on their title and has worked on polishing up the game. The game will soon be primed for a full public release. Unsurprisingly, however, there is one major aspect Riot wants to test and get right before the release- Valorant’s competitive mode.

Senior Producer Ian “Brighteyz” Fielding laid out the plans for the new mode but also stressed that it was still a work in progress. Take a look at the different aspects Riot is focusing on for the mode.

First off, players will have to complete 20 unrated matches to become eligible for the competitive mode.

Ranks

The Competitive Mode will feature 8 ranks, namely Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal, and the highest rank, VALORANT. Each rank will have three tiers within them. The tier system is quite similar to the popular BR game, PUBG.

Individual performance will prove very influential in the early stages in the mode. However, that will diminish over time, with more importance given to the wins and losses as well as the decisive nature of either result.

For the Valorant rank, the decisive manner of your wins and losses will prove very influential and will be factored in towards your ranking.

Riot will also keep track of your rank activity. Should you not play a ranked match for 14 days or more, your rank will be hidden from the public. It will be restored, as it was, the moment you play your first ranked match again.

If the comparisons weren’t enough already, it looks like Riot has taken inspiration from CS: GO’s ranking system. In CS: GO’s case, the rank disappears after 28 days of inactivity, and a rank decay is employed depending on the longevity of your inactivity.

Party with Friends

Players can team up with up to 4 other friends to compete as a party. However, each member of the party has to be ranked within 2 ranks of you. This will ensure that there is little disparity in terms of the skill of the individuals in the team. In other words, Valorant will employ a Rank-Based Matchmaking system(RBMM).

One of the biggest issues that all games face in their ranked modes is that of smurfs and rank boosting. Riot will take into consideration your overall performance in order to detect any dishonest means of gaining rank.

Riot is working towards making the new mode a success before the game launches world-over. For now, the patch will introduce the mode in Europe and North America only. You can read up on a more detailed layout of Riot’s plan for the Competitive Mode here.