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Since it underwent a full release in June, Riot Games’ Valorant is topping the charts when it comes to first-person shooter games. During these few months, the game has seen a host of changes, from exciting additions to balance updates.
Valorant Act 2 is fast approaching its conclusion after a recent announcement confirmed October 13 as the day it comes to an end. Although the current season has been a success, there is always room for improvements to the existing systems.
With Act 3 just around the corner, Valorant developers Joe Ziegler and David Cole have detailed some of the upcoming changes to the game’s competitive mode, in a video. Riot has been listening to player feedback. And now, they’ve responded by improving the overall ranking system and competitive experience in Act 3.
Changes to Competitive mode for Act 3
Systems Design Lead David Cole explained that a primary goal was to embrace the social game. It allowed players with large skill disparities to play together. However, after listening to the comments, the team is aware of discontent over the skill disparity in ranked matchmaking.
“For us, while the above values of the social game are important, they should never come at the cost of your rank achievements.“
The developers understand that ranked game is about the competition it offers. Therefore, in Act 3, they are bringing more competitive integrity to the queue, allowing players to focus primarily on winning.
Since a team with a large rank difference makes winning more difficult, Riot will tighten restrictions on rank disparities for competitive queues. Act 3 will reduce the rank difference for players to queue with others from 6 to 3. This means that the lowest rank a Platinum 3 player can queue with is Gold 3, while the highest rank is a Diamond. 3.
Also, rank progression for Immortal and beyond will be purely affected by wins or losses and the outcome of the match. In addition to that, players will also have the function of selecting a preferred server in competitive mode. Although developers cannot guarantee preferred servers at all times, this feature will increase a player’s chances of getting one.
Also read- 100 Thieves Announce Their Complete Valorant List
Some other changes for Valorant episode 2 and beyond
Next on Valorant’s priority list is enhancing the experience for high-ranking players as they move up the competitive ranks. David Cole revealed that the team is already working on some features for that purpose. Some of those features include the creation of a public leaderboard based on the region and a possible restriction on the size of the queues to only 1 or 2 players in Immortal and beyond.
Finally, the team also has plans to appease a certain group of players who like to queue up for competitive matches with friends of a wider range of abilities. They intend to offer these features early next year with the release of Episode 2. There will be many more changes coming to Episode 2 next year. For now, the focus is on the improvements that come with Law 3, which is just around the corner.
