Should Riot tweak Valorant’s LP gain/loss system in competitive matchmaking to make it more balanced?

Valorant has had a smurfing problem in its servers for quite some time now.

And though Vanguard has been able to keep much of the hacking in check, the smurfing issue is an entirely different ball game for which Riot Games still needs a viable solution.

Smurfs ruin the competitive integrity of the game in more ways than one. However, what’s bothering the Valorant community is the incredible loss in LP that they receive when they get dunked on by a smurf.

Valorant’s LP loss/gain, or the arrow up and arrow down feature displayed after every competitive match, is not constant for every game.

Unlike in Riot’s other IP, League of Legends, where the LP gain and loss figure is constant in each tier, Valorant’s equivalent fluctuates with how greatly or how badly the game went in the player’s favor.

In a recent Reddit post, a Valorant player, HanzoOneTrick, shared some insights on how smurfs and the disparity in LP loss and gain between matches ruin the shooter’s competitive integrity.

“In no world should one single 0-13 loss be worth the equivalent of 3-5 close victories in weighting.”

The post got a tremendous amount of support in the Valorant subreddit, and it would seem that a large part of the community is unhappy with the current LP loss/gain system in-game.

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Valorant’s current LP loss/gain system needs a tweak

Image via Riot Games

Smurfing in Valorant has mainly affected the lower-ranked tiers, and that is precisely why the inconsistent LP system has been affecting the Silver, Bronze, and Iron ranks the most.

HanzoOneTrick added:

“I know the high ranks of the community will say the smurfing problem isn’t that big of a deal, and we low ranks blame every single 20+ kill on smurfing, which absolutely isn’t true, but it’s beside the point.”

“If I encounter a smurf, a CS: GO refugee, someone who is just ON FIRE THAT DAY, whatever it may be, and my team gets absolutely obliterated, why is it okay for days on days of 60-70% win-rate close fought games to be erased in a matter of 1-2 games?”

One match loss can ruin a player’s entire week of hard work in the lower ranks. And as the issue primarily stems from the smurfing pandemic in Valorant, Riot will either need to fix that or balance the LP system.

When comparing Valorant to League of Legends, Hanzo feels that the MOBA’s ladder system is much more forgiving. Sure, climbing through the ranks may not be as fast as in Valorant when on a winning spree, but at least the system feels fair no matter how badly a player loses.

The Redditor commented:

“If I’m playing League of Legends and my team gets annihilated 0-35 scoreboard, and we forfeit as soon as we can in 15 minutes, I don’t lose 170 LP after the game. I lose the same amount as any other loss.”

“It feels terrible to spend literally days grinding 1 or 2 arrows at a time to finally rank up and have two games knock me down two ranks because there was a Reyna w keying and one tapping everyone both games. It’s entirely out of my control, and feels like I have to spend another week just to have it happen again. I’m trying to improve, trying to learn, and this is really demoralizing.”

Valorant’s current LP system in competitive matchmaking takes into consideration individual performances during both wins and losses. Though the system was put in place to help players acquire the rank that their skill level deserves, the smurfing issue is completely ruining that.