With the end of VALORANT’s first episode, a slew of changes are coming to the game’s ranked reward system. The intent behind these changes is to provide “more rewarding recognition for your accomplishments, and … show who is the best of the best,” according to Ian “Brighteyz” Fielding and Jon “EvrMoar” Walker of the VALORANT competitive team.
Episode one officially ends at 10pm on Jan. 11 for all regions. That’s 10pm PT for North America, CDT for Latin America, BRT for Brazil, GMT for Europe, SGT for APAC, and KST for Korea.
Competitive mode will be briefly disabled until the beginning of Episode Two on Jan. 12. When that begins, players who participated in episode one ranked will receive a gun buddy based on their highest achieved Act rank.
Going forward, players will receive a rank triangle for the rank that they end the match with, as opposed to earning the triangle for winning at that rank. Additionally, the number of placement games is now consistent for each Act at five, regardless of whether you’ve done your initial placements. The highest achievable placement rank is Platinum Three.
Regarding rank distribution, expect to see far less Iron players in the near future and for the distribution to be “more forgiving.” Riot has “significantly reduced” the number of Iron players while increasing the percentage of players in Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. If you’re one of the players who slipped from Bronze to Iron, you won’t be able to hide your rank since Riot has removed that feature.
When Act One inevitably comes to an end, players will earn an end-of-Act rank and badge, which will commemorate their final leaderboard position. When Act Two begins, players will receive “rank rating bonus progression” for their initial ranked matches.
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Published: Jan 11, 2021 11:01 am