Riot's popular tactical shooter, Valorant, is getting a sizeable update in Episode 2 – specifically, the developers are retooling the game's ranking system.
Riot's Ian 'Brighteyz' Fielding and Jon 'EvrMoar' Walker explained that "for Episode 2 our goal with our rank update was to (hopefully) show players that we are and have been listening by delivering on what we’ve seen as the most consistent asks from the community: An easier to understand and fairer rank system, more rewarding recognition for your accomplishments, and a way to show who is the best of the best".
Valorant: Riot Introduces Big Changes To Ranking System
The headline addition is undeniably a new leaderboard display within the Valorant client (and a web version online) allowing players in the game's higher tiers to compare stats.
Riot confirmed that the top 500 players per region (Radiant) and 1% of players per region (Immortal) will be represented alongside their leaderboard rank and rank rating, with the ability to hide player names, too.
Riot requires that players fulfil the following requirements to place on the board:
- Requires 50 ranked account games to place on leaderboard
- Requires playing at least 1 Competitive game a week (within 7 day period) to stay on the leaderboard
- Banned players will not show on the leaderboard
It'll now be easier to tell how your rank has been affected, too, with a new progress bar showing how far you've come and how far you have yet to go.
This works from Iron to Diamond, and for Immortal and above you'll see your leaderboard position instead.
“One of the interesting things when developing ranked was that we actually added it fairly late in VALORANTS’s dev cycle. We really wanted to make sure that we felt our game balance and service supported a high degree of competitive integrity," Fielding and Walker note in a new Q and A session.
"The active debate during development was whether it was worth the risk of trying to launch our rank mode (along with trying to not delay getting this game in players hands for too long) when we knew we would be learning a ton from players about the game and needed to support a large scale launch. We had a gut feel as players that it was worth getting out at least a lean version of rank for launch."
"But what tipped us over the edge was when external players—brought in during development playtests— near unanimously told us that they expect rank at or near launch. That bolstered our confidence that it was worth expediting our ranked launch timelines."
Players will earn new gun buddies at the end of Episode 1 (tonight at 10pm), so be sure to log in and grab yours.