Riot opens up about Ranked Rating, Convergence, and competitive integrity in latest Ask Valorant

Valorant has a fairly complicated Ranked Matchmaking system in place. Over the course of patches and matchmaking changes, it has created quite a bit of confusion among the players about how exactly Ranked Rating and MMR work.

To explain all the intricacies regarding Ranked matchmaking, the Valorant devs went on to address the player base in the latest Ask Valorant Q and A. They explained in detail how it all works behind the scenes.

This special edition of Ask VALORANT goes out those who feel like the system might be holding you down. Our Competitive team explain and clarify how Rank Rating and MMR works in VALORANT: https://t.co/WoAEQmqUvt pic.twitter.com/Oat7X7MlR3

— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) March 18, 2021

It is important to note that Ranked Rating (RR) is what players can see on their profiles and can keep track of as they play ranked matches. On the other hand, MMR is a hidden metric that keeps track of a player’s performance skill level. So RR and MMR in Valorant, although ideally the same thing, can vary, and in some extreme cases, have a lot of disparity between them.

Valorant Ranked Rating system as explained by the devs

To start, it needs to be reiterated that a Valorant player’s rank is separate from their MMR. The players can never see their MMR— it’s what the Valorant matchmaking algorithm uses to create fair matches.

When a player queues into ranked for the first time, or after an Episode reset, the Valorant ranked matchmaking algorithm makes a ballpark guess of where a player’s “Rank” belongs, because it relies on the player’s MMR as a guideline. Unfortunately, the algorithm only has an “idea,” so it places the player on the low end of where it thinks the player belongs.

Convergence and how it works

Subsequently in the Q&A, the Valorant devs explain why placing the player on the lower end of the spectrum is the better solution to the problem at hand. It is what they explain as “Convergence.”

As the player wins more, since they are being matched with players technically lower than their actual skill level, they will get more RR points per win, and less per loss. Now, as the algorithm puts a player in their appropriate rank, the RR gain/loss for per game win/loss would become even. When the player is at their MMR, the players will expectedly maintain a 50% win rate.

The devs reiterated that just because a player has a good win streak or a few good games, does not change the fact they are still only maintaining a 50% win rate and now have risen above their MMR. This, along with the demotion protection, will sometimes lead to players sitting one rank above their MMR.

Protecting Competitive Integrity

Now, on the flip side, there can arise situations where a player might end up having a Rank Rating higher than their MMR. The devs elaborated how their systems work to address that scenario:

If you do end up with a rank above your MMR, the system will try to push you back to your intended rank—this is what losing more RR on a loss, than gaining on a win, looks like. This is something you can fix by winning more matches than the players above you who are around your current MMR. This was an issue seen even by top players on the leaderboard. When there are very few players ahead of you it can become very difficult to climb. If your MMR isn’t truly above a player ahead of you, the system does not want you to take their leaderboard spot.

The devs went on to address the issue of "out-grinding MMR" in Valorant and how their designed system fixes that problem. They reiterated that all Valorant players are held to the same standards: in order to climb, one must prove that they are better than those above them.

So if they are winning slightly over half their games and have 200 wins, but another player is winning the vast majority of their games but only has 100 wins, that player with 100 wins will likely sit higher on the leaderboard because of their MMR.

Rank Rating and MMR Demonstration from Ask Valorant

To sum up all the points,

• If a player’s MMR is higher than their rank, they’ll gain more RR on wins than they lose on losses
• If a player’s MMR is even with their rank, they’ll gain and lose closer amounts of RR for wins and losses
• If a player’s MMR is lower than their rank, they’ll gain less RR on wins and lose more on losses

this is exactly what they want and it makes perfect sense. If you were consistently better than your opponents in Gold III you would rank up, but you are not.

— hakari (@TheHannessexy) March 18, 2021