It’s been only a week since Riot Games kicked off the VALORANT closed beta ranked testing, but the community already has a few gripes with the system and how it matches people among the various ranks in the game.
Multiple big-name streamers and talent have brought up problems that they’ve noticed during their time in the closed beta’s ranked system, including popular TSM streamer Ali “Myth” Kabbani, who said that playing in competitive solo queue by yourself is like “sabotaging your own rank.“
Many people refuse to play the game’s ranked mode alone, since solo players and duos are able to match against groups of four and five. Especially in higher ranks, this problem can be problematic due to the disparity in both communication and coordination between teams.
This issue has also been prevalent in another iconic first-person shooter: CS:GO. Veteran Counter-Strike talent Spencer “Hiko” Martin said that all the five-vs-five competitive shooters have suffered from the same problems, and “there’s never been a fix to it.”
There is, however, a pretty simple solution to solve these matchup problems: Riot can simply take the ranked system from League of Legends, and apply it to VALORANT.
From one Riot title to another
When VALORANT players hop into a competitive match by themselves, there’s always multiple problems that they need to think about besides their gameplay. The obvious problem is that they’re thinking about whether the opposite team has a pre-made group of four or five.
This makes for an uneven playing field where the majority of one team lacks communication and teamwork, while their opponent is made up of a squad of friends who are used to playing with each other. As a result, the team made up of solo players will be at a huge disadvantage. This will also prevent players from getting an accurate read of their solo skills, since they can rely on others a lot more in a four or five-man stack.
The other problem that presents itself from time to time, however, is whether a player’s own team has a group of three or four queued together. As a solo player, this means that your own teammates might also be in their own third-party voice call outside of VALORANT.
As a result, you won’t be able to get much information during the round since they’re focused on speaking to each other in their own call. Most people also won’t take the time—or won’t remember—to relay important information for players that aren’t in the call, leaving them clueless as to what the team is doing.
League of Legends players were experiencing similar issues in their own ranked system, which prompted Riot to implement separate queues based on whether people wanted to play alone, with a friend, or with a five-stack—and each queue had its own rank as well.
Hunt as a pack or as a lone wolf
Solo-duo queue has helped League‘s competitive system in multiple aspects, and should help VALORANT in terms of matchmaking. By having a separate queue for solo and duo players, it prevents any people from matching into uneven games.
Players will still have to use voice comms since most of the team is made up of strangers, and each team will have the same hurdles to climb. No one is able to have superior coordination, and each team will need to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses on the fly.
Meanwhile, team ranked queues can make sure that each five-man squad will face off against another five-man squad, maintaining an even playing field. Matches can still be decided by mechanically talented players, but each squad’s level of teamwork will also be tested to the max.
Additionally, Riot should make players have separate ranks for each queue. Currently, VALORANT ranks are performance-based, meaning that if you do well individually in loss, there is a good chance that you will still increase your MMR and rank. This system can still apply to solo and duo queue, since individual skill will probably take more precedent than team play.
In ranked team play, however, ranks and MMR might need to be focused more around team performance. This is because many players have complained about how they aren’t able to play with friends in ranked due to how easily people drop MMR with a few bad games.
If ranked team play is based a bit more off team performance, then players in the same group can still hover around the same MMR and rank since the whole team is losing and winning at the same time.
Ultimately, VALORANT is still in a closed beta stage for a reason, and Riot will surely make more sweeping changes to the game’s systems in the coming months. They might not need to look too far for some solutions, however.
Published: May 9, 2020 04:00 pm