The VALORANT competitive changes coming to Episode 3

Riot Games’ Competitive Team Designer Jon “EvrMoar” Walker spoke about the competitive changes coming to VALORANT during Episode 3.

VALORANT is still in its infancy, after recently celebrating its first birthday on June 2. This includes Competitive, which has seen multiple changes over the past six months in attempting to perfect the mode. None of these changes have stuck with the community as a valid solution for the competitive queue. However, EvrMoar discusses some positive changes that are soon coming to VALORANT.

Accurate matchmaking and Rank Rating distribution

“When we first launched, we had a system that had every player at the same MMR,” EvrMoar said. “That system would adjust your MMR based on the number of games you had played up to a hundred games. It was just to get people into their rank very quickly and build that pool of players. Now that we have been out for a year, we don’t need that so we are turning it off.”

EvrMoar went on to explain that since there are so many players now in VALORANT, there is no longer a need to have an “explosive” distribution of ranks. By turning this system off, EvrMoar says that players will have opponents match to their actual skill level. No more coin-flip games where players carry and then get obliterated.

Join us for a Twitch hangout June 21, 10AM PST on https://t.co/rDsTuLSxsf to learn what's new in Episode 3. Devs will talk Competitive, Agents, weapon skins, and more with host @RivingtonThe3rd pic.twitter.com/CK2Ov6Olrt

— VALORANT (@VALORANT) June 19, 2021

Another avenue to go, alongside turning that system off, was to make Rank Rating distribution less severe. EvrMoar explained that they don’t want the system to be “like a cliff” in terms of losing much more than you gain. To combat this, VALORANT will be changing the rank distribution to a number that is closer to one another. Instead of gaining 14 and losing 22, players may, instead, gain 14 and only lose 17.

Placements and re-introducing Immortal 1, 2 and 3

Episode 3 releases on Tuesday, June 22 and will be a fresh start for all players in terms of rank. In each Episode, players must play five placement matches before they receive their latest rank. EvrMoar warns that, with all the major changes, players may be placed much lower than they expect. With this, VALORANT will also allow players to be placed as high as Diamond 1 after placements, instead of the previous highest ranking being Platinum 3.

Immortal 1, 2, and 3 will also be returning in Episode 3 Act 2, according to EvrMoar. There are estimated over 18,000 Immortal players in Europe alone; which makes having a number next to people’s names seem less special than when it was divided by numbers. This system will create new goals for players in Immortal to achieve and launch after Act 1 concludes in summer, 2021.