Is Valorant’s competitive mode becoming a nightmare for solo players?

Valorant’s current popularity as an esport has a lot to do with how well-balanced the shooter is for a competitive tactical FPS.

Its gameplay is beloved worldwide, and Valorant’s competitive mode helps classify players into different ranks, starting from Iron all the way to Radiant.

However, there are some issues with ranked matchmaking. Recently, some solo players have started feeling that they are not having much fun with Valorant’s competitive system as much as before.

Gamers are often teamed up with unresponsive AFK players. And in a low-TTK shooter where team communication and cooperation is vital, AFK teammates make it feel like a tedious grind that players want to get done with.

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Solo queuing in Valorant ranked matches isn’t fun anymore

The rank system in Valorant is used to categorize players based on their skill level. A gamer’s rank is used to team him up with and matched against players of similar skill levels, which may change based on the player’s recent rank changes and in-game performance.

As the game skill improves, so does a player’s rank. But having an uncooperative team does become a handicap when it comes to enhancing the gamer’s skills. Players aren’t able to perform their best, and neither can they have fun.

AFK players are being a big bother to players (Image via Riot Games)

In a recent Reddit post, a Redditor, u/SquidTv_, mentioned the unfortunate ugly side of Valorant faced by solo queuing.

He wrote:

“It’s hard to rank up or even enjoy it when half of the time, you can’t even talk to anybody or your teammates.”

AFKing in-game with a bot/script could be a significant cause of unresponsive teammates, and smurfing leads to deliberately playing badly. Often, some players may intentionally play badly to de-rank and get into a lower MMR. They do so in the hopes of getting easy kills and enjoying the game.

There is a certain satisfaction when a gamer can work with his/her team to win a game. A well-coordinated side can function well and execute complex strategies. However, an unresponsive teammate becomes a burden rather than an asset. Hence, it becomes incredibly tedious to play a ranked game by solo queuing.

A lot of players express their frustration of not having a good team to play with. Some note that their friends might not be interested in Valorant, so they end up solo queuing.

u/SquidTv_ also stated:

“I’ll still play Valorant, but I feel like I’m not enjoying it as much as I should be when not playing with friends who also want to rank up and be good at the game.”

Not all players have a team in their rank range to team up with and play Valorant. There are a lot of solo players playing for the fun and action-filled gameplay. Hopefully, Riot Games will improve matchmaking in the coming months.