Valorant devs respond to Shroud, confirm 5-stack teams are in the works for competitive queues

Valorant players will soon get a 5-stack system in competitive queues, as has been confirmed by a Valorant dev’s reply to Shroud’s request.

Many players prefer a group of well-coordinated friends to play with, who would offer a distinct advantage in terms of teamwork, over random teammates. Hence, players are eagerly awaiting a 5-stack option in Valorant competitive queues.

I'm working on a way for 5 stacks to play together competitively, we agree we want something(unfortunately it's taking time). We are also talking about short term solutions, while we work on the bigger system. Unfortunately no ETA's :)

— EvrMoar (@RiotEvrMoar) May 15, 2021

Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek, the Canadian streamer, has gained massive popularity in the Valorant community. Shroud tweeted about the 5-stack queue, clarifying whether it could possibly come to Valorant. Later, Senior Competitive Designer at Riot, Jon "EvrMoar" Walker, replied to the tweet. He said,

“I'm working on a way for 5 stacks to play together competitively, we agree we want something (unfortunately it's taking time). We are also talking about short term solutions, while we work on the bigger system. Unfortunately no ETA's.”

The estimated date of arrival has not yet been revealed by the Valorant dev, but his response to Shroud’s tweet confirms that a 5-stack queueing mechanism is under development for the competitive scene.

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The Valorant community’s take on the matter

The 2.02 patch update has brought restrictions to competitive matchmaking after players get past the Diamond 3 rank or higher in Valorant. A player can only queue with one teammate due to the limitations on a full team of players with high ranks.

Pro players and the Valorant community alike have expressed their frustration about the ranked system. Competitive matchmaking with random people is a huge issue in Valorant because of the lack of cooperation within teams.

Pro players like Shroud have recently called out Valorant’s Competitive ranked system. The streamer branded it “hot garbage” during one of his Twitch streams because of the queue restrictions. Shroud said,

“Literally, ranked is hot garbage because of this duo queue bulls**t. It’s such a bad dynamic. It’s not fun when you’re playing with randoms. It’s also awkward that it’s duo queue because you have a duo pair, another duo pair, and then you have a solo.”

Apart from Shroud, 100 Thieves star Spencer "Hiko" Martin has also criticized the competitive matchmaking in Valorant. He called competitive games a “coin flip” and expressed his frustrations about the limitations in the ranked system. Many other players and members of the community have also expressed their disappointment with Valorant's competitive matchmaking limitations.