VALORANT Ranked System Explained: Ranks, MMR, RR and Acts (2021)

Since its closed beta launch in April 2020, VALORANT has brought a fresh breath to the first-person shooter genre. Now a full-fledged strategic shooter from Riot Games, it has become one of the best free PC games on the market with the opening of a highly competitive VALORANT ranked mode. VALORANT has also grown into a massive global esports scene thanks to Champions.

Like many multiplayer games on the market, VALORANT has a casual mode, but its competitive ranked mode is much more intense than that, since, as in every game, points and a rank system are involved.

If you have mastered Raze, or want to show off your Reyna skills against like-minded people, you need to get ranked to begin with.

With a tiered ranking system that rewards proper teamwork above all else, VALORANT's ranked mode will bring out the best in you and your teammates. Without further ado, you can find everything you need to know about VALORANT ranks, how rankings work and how you can climb to Radiant right here.

WHAT ARE VALORANT RANKS?

In VALORANT's ranking system there are eight tiers, starting with Iron and ending with Radiant. All tiers except Radiant contain three sub-ranks; the first is the lowest and the third is the highest. Therefore, if you exclude Unranked, there are 22 ranks in Riot Games' tactical shooter.

The top 500 players in each region will reach the Radiant rank, and roughly the top 1% of players per region will reach the Immortal rank.

If you played the beta, you have probably noticed that the top rank in VALORANT was renamed. Now those at the peak of their game can call themselves Radiant instead of VALORANT. Riot said it chose to rename the rank to "help reduce potential confusion" and keep things fresh.

HOW DOES THE VALORANT MMR RANKING SYSTEM WORK?

Valorant's ranking system works like most competitive games on the market. You will need to win ten unrated matches before you get the chance to play ranked. Once the mode is available, you can play Valorant ranked - but you need to play five matches to get your first rank.

Valorant also uses a matchmaking rating system known as MMR to rank players. Every player will have a number tied to their account that changes over time; as they improve, these will move them up and down the queue.

Valorant Episode 3 made extensive improvements such as better matchmaking accuracy in ranked, along with matchmaking changes and adjustments to players' Ranked Rating curves to make rises and falls in the rankings "less volatile".

The ranking system in Valorant is largely based on whether you win or lose a match, and your individual performance plays a slightly smaller role.

That changes once you reach the higher ranks, though. In the Immortal and Radiant ranks, Riot will only take into account how you win and lose your matches, and individual performance will not be the main factor in the matchmaking process. The developer says this is because it "trusts you and your teammates to find your way there".

If you are inactive for 14 days, your rank will also be hidden. It will return when you play your first match back. Your rank does not drop if you are away for more than two weeks either.

At the start of a new Act, you only need to play five games to get a rank, but remember: your MMR from the previous rank will be taken into account, so expect a "conservative placement" that you can work off at first as your way back up the ranks. In other words, expect to be placed a few tiers below where you were in the previous Act.

WHAT ARE VALORANT ACTS? WHEN DOES COMPETITIVE START?

Acts basically mark the seasons in VALORANT. Each VALORANT Act will last about two months, during which you can work on your rank and track your overall progress. There are three Acts in each Episode, so Episodes last about six months.

Right now we are in Episode 3, Act 1, which started on June 22.

So when will Valorant Episode 3, Act 2 start? Well, Episode 3, Act 2 will start on September 8.

WHAT ARE VALORANT ACT RANKS?

Valorant now has Act Ranks, a way to show your proven skills over the course of a season and at its end. This is currently determined by taking the results of your best nine games in an Act.

However, after Patch 2.03, "your highest triangle rank on your Act Rank Badge" became your Act Rank title.

If you are not sure how the Act Rank Badge triangles work, here is a rough outline. Every time you play a match in an Act, your Act Rank badge is filled with a new triangle representing the rank you played. As you progress through the ranks, new triangles representing matches at higher ranks replace those from lower ranks. The badge's border will also change based on the number of wins you got in that rank. For some, the badges at the end of an Act will look quite colorful, but those at the top who dominate Radiant hope to see a solid gold triangle, and they will.

In Episode 1, triangles were given only for winning matches, but from Episode 2 onward you get a triangle based on the rank you finish the match in, regardless of the result.

You can view your Act Rank badge on the career page at any time.

HOW CAN I TRACK MY VALORANT RANK/RANKED PROGRESS?

Your ranking progress can be tracked in Match History, but with Episode 2 a scoreboard and progress bars were introduced to make things easier. Instead of Episode 1's arrows, the Valorant Rank Rating is now shown on a progress bar that shows how close you are to the next rank.

You can earn Valorant RR by playing matches, mostly determined by winning or losing. You will always gain Rank Rating (RR) on a win and always lose Rank Rating on a loss. However, at lower ranks your individual performance can help you progress faster.

You will earn 10-50 Rank Rating for a win and at most 20 Rank Rating for a draw. Between the Iron and Diamond ranks, individual performance will be taken into account when calculating your Rank Rating.

After being promoted to a new rank you will always start at 10 Rank Rating, and after dropping to a lower rank at a minimum of 80. You can find each Act's ranked rewards on the rank info page.

WHAT CONCESSIONS ARE GIVEN TO NEWLY JOINING PLAYERS IN VALORANT RANKED MATCHES?

Right now, VALORANT allows parties of up to five in ranked mode, as long as every player is within one rank (three tiers) of each other. VALORANT product manager Ian 'Brighteyz' Fielding says this is because VALORANT is a team game and Riot believes that "playing as a team is an important component of your overall mastery in the game". However, from Diamond 3 onward you can only queue solo or as a duo, and cannot enter games as a large party.

While at the lower ranks, if you are queuing alone and find yourself up against a five-stack, do not worry - depending on your performance against that team, your rank will rise faster or fall more slowly. Matches are generally optimized to place players in fair and balanced games regardless of their pre-made sizes. Some improvements have been made on this front for solo Immortal and Radiant players, but Riot does not yet have all the answers to fix this problem because there is a smaller player pool.

Even if there is quite a large skill gap, it is now easier to play with teammates in placement matches. Elite players will not be able to be matched with new players in ranked matches, to preserve the competitive integrity of the game.