Riot Recently Changed Its Mind About A Huge, VALORANT Update That Increased Rank, But Was This Really Necessary?
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Gaming Headset
Logitech G733 Wireless Gaming Headset
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AOC C27G2Z 27″ Curved Frameless Ultra-Fast Monitor
Sceptre 30-inch Curved Monitor
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Gaming Vehicle Control Systems
Superdrive – Racing Driving Wheel
VALORANT Update
In response to the game’s escalating botting and rank-boosting difficulties, Riot Games’ VALORANT Patch 7.07 saw the firm roll back a competitive enhancement.
It appears to have happened when players resisted the change.
Although considering user feedback is crucial for a live service game to succeed, it seems the developers could have handled it better.
Riot announced that the strengthening of VALORANT’s Competitive party restrictions in Patch 7.06 will prevent Ascendant players and above from queuing with Gold players and lower, even in five-stack situations.
Community complaints regarding an increase in bots, smurfs, and rank-boosting activities led to the implementation of the change.
Unfortunately, Riot said just one patch later that it has abandoned the change after considering user feedback.
To prevent players from falsely upgrading to the highest ranks, like Radiant, the rank restriction was initially introduced.
Never have I been more disappointed to read in the patch notes that “in the end, we realized that your ability to have flexibility with your 5 stack was more important than the extremely small number of people who abuse this exploit.”
Sincerely, I thought it was a great upgrade that could at the very least minimize some of VALORANT’s most critical issues.
Why would Ascendant players prefer to line up behind Gold and lower-ranked players in competitive games?
There is friendship, of course. It is simple to separate in ranks when your friend grinds harder than you do.
It could be disappointing to not be able to play with a friend just because they have a higher Elo than you.
However, the law itself was not all that bad. Gamers that were Radiant, Ascendant, or Immortal could still line up alongside Platinum players. Is not this flexibility enough?
Ultimately, VALORANT is a competitive game, and rather than just “playing with friends,” all of us want to climb the ranks.
The matching rating (MMR) is messed up when there is such a big rank gap in the wait, making the gameplay very imbalanced.
Other problems include longer wait times, smaller RR increases, and bigger RR losses.
Furthermore, rank boosters and smurfs might easily abuse this free system, which is why Riot initially put the change in place.
Riot should have loosened the rank distinction rather than fully changing direction.
In place of raising the threshold to Platinum, Ascendant and higher-ranked players could choose to queue with those who are Gold or Silver in rank.
It is utterly insane that Radiant players are still allowed to queue with Iron players in five-stack parties.
Since friendship is not the primary aim of a competitive tac shooter of this kind and VALORANT’s Competitive is a serious mode, queuing with such a large rank gap should not be allowed.
There are always other unrated, spike rush, and team deathmatch casual game modes available if you wish to play the game just for companionship. Or perhaps you might try a less intense game?
Even though I disagree with Riot’s change of heart, they did acknowledge that “boosting is a risk to competitive integrity” and that they are “working on an appropriate long-term solution” to the issues.
Boosting is not just a “risk,” but it has already significantly harmed VALORANT’s ranking experience.
Since I am continuously exposed to the game’s drawbacks, I am interested to see what Riot has in store for the future.
