How the Valorant rating system works

Valorant’s ranked competitive mode is live. Like other competitive team-based games like Riot’s League of Legends or Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which Valorant gains influence from, the new competitive mode is available along with its informal mode, “Unranked”. Once you unlock Competitive mode, playing enough rounds will grant you a rank, which is a reflection of your skill level and will affect how Valorant’s matchmaking system matches you with other players in the ranked game. But how does Valorant’s competitive ranked mode work? How many unsorted matches do you need to play before the competition is unlocked and how do you get your first competitive rank? And what are Valorant’s ranges anyway?

In this guide, we’ll break down all of your questions about the Valorant ranking system, as explained on Riot’s official blog, so you know what to expect when diving into Competitive mode for the first time.

How to Unlock Competitive Ranking Mode

To unlock Valorant’s ranked mode, which is officially called competitive mode, you must complete 20 unsorted games.

How many competitive ranks does Valorant have?

There are a total of eight ranks in Valorant. Each has three levels, except Valorant, the highest possible rank. That makes a total of 22 possible skill badges. Riot has provided a handy graph showing his tiering system, which you can see below. The ranges and their corresponding skill level badges are as follows:

• Iron 1
• Iron 2
• Iron 3
• Bronze 1
• Bronze 2
• Bronze 3
• Silver 1
• Silver 2
• Silver 3
• Gold 1
• Gold 2
• Gold 3
• Platinum 1
• Platinum 2
• Platinum 3
• Diamond 1
• Diamond 2
• Diamond 3
• Immortal 1
• Immortal 2
• Immortal 3
• Valorant

How does ranking in Valorant work?

According to Riot, “winning games is the most important factor in gaining rank,” but his personal performance also plays a role in that. Acting “exceptionally well” can help you rank up faster, while performing worse than you did in previous games can hurt your competitive range. However, it does get a little more complicated. As Riot explains, the way Valorant determines his starting rank puts a lot more scrutiny on his personal performance, but eventually winning games becomes the most important determining factor. Once you receive your Competitive Rank from Valorant, you will only be paired with players within two ranks of you.

Much of the ranking mode works, according to Riot, it is designed to combat the Smurf, increase rank, and ensure balanced matches for all competitive players. But please note: Ranking mode was only activated in late April, when the Valorant beta hadn’t even been active for a full month, so the more nuanced ins and outs of this system may change as Riot gathers data and comments.

Will my range be reset if I haven’t played in a long time?

No. Your rank is not reset in Valorant if you have not played for a while, but if you are inactive for 14 days, it will be temporarily “hidden” until the next time you play a match. That doesn’t mean it’s gone or deteriorated, just that it won’t show up to other players until you become an active player yourself.

“We want to be sure that when others see your rank, it is an accurate reflection of your ability,” Riot explains.

Will my competitive rank move after beta?

No. After the Valorant beta ends and the game officially launches, all competitive ranks will restart. You will have to follow Riot’s instructions to achieve a new competitive rank based on the rules at the time. We don’t know how the competitive ranking system could change before launch, so we can’t say much more than that.

Competitive and unclassified differences

The new Competitive Valorant mode was introduced shortly after patch 0.49, and is currently only available in the EU and NA regions. As for the gameplay, it is no different from the Unrated mode. They are still team-based 5v5 matches set out on the same maps, with the same goals and victory conditions. You can still stand in line alone or stand in line with a full party of five. The only difference is that Competitive mode has a ranking system, which means that after playing a few unsorted rounds, you will receive your first ranked badge, and then only be matched with other players of similar ranks. Winning matches can increase your rank, and losing matches can decrease your rank. That also means that if you stand in line with a party, everyone will have to be within two rows of each other.

Valorant is still in closed beta, so the balance of its rating system is likely to change. We’ll keep you updated on Riot’s Valorant updates, including future patches and other adjustments to its rating system. For now, read up on how to get your Valorant beta key if you haven’t already, and if you’re ready to dive in, check out some of Valorant’s best tips and tricks.