VALORANT’s ranked matchmaking is creating extremely unbalanced matches for some players

VALORANT’s matchmaking algorithm tries its best to create balanced matches, but it may sometimes skip a beat or two, according to community reports.

In a recent Reddit thread, a VALORANT fan showcased a situation that no player would like to be in. As a Diamond player, they were put into a lobby with Ascendant and Immortal players, and this wasn’t a one-off occurrence.

Based on their match history, fans can pinpoint more than a few matches where players were punching above their weight. While these instances can happen when there are noticeably fewer players queueing at the same time at late hours of the day, this one looks to be tied to the hidden MMR system.

Players have a hidden MMR and a visible rank rating in VALORANT. These may not always be on par with each other, and hidden MMR can increase faster than the visible rank rating. While battling through Diamond, the game’s ranked system may consider a player worthy of a higher rating like Ascendant, and start placing them in higher-tier matches.

From a statistical standpoint, the affected Diamond player would be expected to hold their own in a more difficult match, but this may not always be the case. The sudden increase in the overall gameplay level may make a player nervous, causing them to underperform. When this is the case, the affected Diamond player only gets to play Ascendant and Immortal matches without ever getting to those ranks and miss out on the rewards.