Valorant Episode 4 Act 1 will not allow players to queue up for Competitive matches before they reach account level 20 

Episode 4 Act 1 Disruption will arrive in Valorant on January 11 and a preview of the patch notes for the update has been released. The Valorant community is already pouring in over the changes that will come early next week and wondering how those will affect their gameplay.

Patch 4.0 is set to bring a number of massive changes to the game. One of the most important changes includes the alteration being made to Competitive queueing in Valorant. As per developer insight, the move is focused at providing new players with more experience before they jump into Ranked matches.

Along with some minor bug updates, the developers are bringing numerous tweaks to a number of weapons in the game, along with a couple of maps.

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Valorant Patch 4.0 brings changes to competitive queuing

Come Episode 4 Act 1, players who have not yet played ranked matches will not be able to queue for Competitive matches. The notes state that:

• Starting with Patch 4.0, accounts that have yet to play in Ranked are required to reach account level 20 level before they are able to enter the Competitive queue.

For players who have played Ranked before and are yet to reach level 20 on their account, they can queue in just the same. Riot has explained that according to its obervation, new players are finding it difficult to get acquainted with the game and get accustomed to the dynamic.

With the ever increasing number of Agents and maps, the developers feel that providing more time to these players will help them have a better understanding of the ins and outs of the game. The Account Level requirement is set to ensure that.

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An overview of Valorant's ranking system and the last changes that were introduced to it

Valorant Competitive ranks are divided into eight tiers - Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal and Radiant. Each of these ranks are further broken down. Earlier there were restrictions that impeded players from a certain rank to play with others, if the gaps between their ranks were too big.

Valorant lifted these restrictions from Competitive queuing back in Patch 3.10. 5-stacks were allowed for all ranks on higher the gap, lesser the reward basis. The patch also banned 4-stack from Competitive queuing. Changes like these bring more parity to the game going forward and makes the experience more balanced.