Valorant competitive guide: How does the ranking system work in 2022

For a tactical shooter like Valorant, a ranking system was essential in helping the growth of its competitive circuit. Despite existing for over two years, the game already has an active community, including an active professional circuit.

The ranking system in Valorant is straightforward. Players need to play competitive games to rank up. Competitive matches in this title are pretty similar to their unrated mode.

Users will have to win 13 rounds to win the match. However, the stakes are higher, and by ranking up, they receive badges that they can display on their profiles.

These ranks in Valorant serve as an indicator of skills. The higher the rank of gamers, the higher their skill level. A higher rank counts for bragging rights as well.

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Explaining ranks in Valorant

The ranking system in the game is simple. There are nine tiers, starting with Iron and ending with Radiant. Earlier, there were eight ranks, but a new one, Ascendant, was added very recently.

Riot Games implemented this rank to further simplify player distribution amongst all the ranks in the game.

Each rank has three sub-ranks, with Radiant being the only exception. It is reserved for the most skilled users in the game and usually consists of the top 500 gamers from each region.

The other ranks, from Iron all the way to Immortal, have three sub-ranks that are also known as tiers.

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How to unlock ranks in-game

All the ranks in Valorant (Image via Riot Games)

Earlier, unlocking ranked games was relatively easy. Users would have to complete ten unrated matches to unlock the ranked mode.

However, that opened a different can of worms altogether. Riot quickly addressed this issue by changing the requirements to unlock the ranked mode.

Right now, gamers will have to reach account level 20 to unlock the competitive mode in Valorant. Although making it to account level 20 sounds easy, it's a long grind. However, the struggle lets players familiarize themselves with the Agents in the game and helps them get the hang of its overall flow.

Once the competitive mode is unlocked, users must play five placement matches to get a rank in Valorant. During these games, it doesn't matter if they win or lose. Only their individual performances count heavily during these placement matches.

Once placed in the rankings, individual and overall team performance counts when climbing through the ranked tiers in the game. The lowest placement rank that anyone can be placed in is Iron, while the highest placement rank that one can receive is Ascendant.

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Understanding workings of ranking system

The ranking system in the game is relatively easy to understand. It determines the rankings of an individual based on a rating known as the matchmaking rating (MMR).

This is nothing but a number that keeps on changing after every competitive match in the title, moving players across different ranks.

Interestingly enough, the game takes into account the number of wins and losses that users have gathered, including their personal performance during matches, when it assigns a rank to someone.

However, this holds true but only up to the Ascendent tier. For Immortal and Radiant, the title considers the individual performance of gamers while giving them a rank.