Valorant is Riot Games’ newest team-based tactical shoot that has taken the esports scene by storm and even put CS:GO, a modern classic, under intense competition. With around 2 million players logging in daily, it’s no surprise that the game’s competitive spirit is both unwavering and inspiring.
Likewise, developers at Riot Games have shown how serious they are about nurturing the game’s competitive spirit by crafting an intelligent ranking system. This ranking system claims to accurately reflect an individual’s skill level by placing them in a wide range of ranks, a statement backed by the Valorant rank distribution.
This guide will explain and analyze the Valorant rank distribution across the game’s 28 ranks.
What Is The Valorant Rank Distribution?
Riot Games wants the low-ranked players that are improving at the game every day to eventually get their dream rank. The developers themselves expressed this desire on multiple occasions as their desired ranked distribution for Valorant. But has Valorant been able to achieve this vision?
Valorant’s API, released in December 2020, has been a great tool for monitoring the Valorant rank distribution and producing official rank data. Going into Episode 5 Act 1, the current rank distribution and the percentage of players in each rank right now are as follows:
| Rank | Rank Rating Range |
|---|---|
| Iron 1 | 0 – 100 RR |
| Iron 2 | 100 – 200 RR |
| Iron 3 | 200 – 300 RR |
| Bronze 1 | 300 – 400 RR |
| Bronze 2 | 400 – 500 RR |
| Bronze 3 | 500 – 600 RR |
| Silver 1 | 600 – 700 RR |
| Silver 2 | 700 – 800 RR |
| Silver 3 | 800 – 900 RR |
| Gold 1 | 900 – 1000 RR |
| Gold 2 | 1000 – 1100 RR |
| Gold 3 | 1100 – 1200 RR |
| Platinum 1 | 1200 – 1300 RR |
| Platinum 2 | 1300 – 1400 RR |
| Platinum 3 | 1400 – 1500 RR |
| Diamond 1 | 1500 – 1600 RR |
| Diamond 2 | 1600 – 1700 RR |
| Diamond 3 | 1700 – 1800 RR |
| Ascendant 1 | 1800 – 1900 RR |
| Ascendant 2 | 1900 – 2000 RR |
| Ascendant 3 | 2000 – 2100 RR |
| Immortal 1 | 2100 – 2190 RR |
| Immortal 2 | 2190 – 2390 RR |
| Immortal 3 | 2390 – 2550 RR |
| Radiant | 2550 RR+ (Top 500) |
In order to better understand how the Valorant rank distribution data has come about, it warrants a deeper understanding of the game’s ranking system.
Also read: Best Valorant Skins
How Does Valorant’s Ranking System Work?
Valorant’s ranking system works based on MMR, a value used to match players of similar skill levels. At the start of the game, all players are placed at the bottom with 0 MMR (Match Making Rating) – this is natural as you are a new player, and the game has yet to gauge where you stand.
As you start playing your first couple of games (note that Ranked is not immediately available), your MMR fluctuates and affects other players around your MMR. To better illustrate, one can think of MMR as a ladder, where climbing up means pushing others down and vice versa. As such, Valorant’s philosophy is that if you truly deserve a high MMR, you will eventually climb up to it by consistently performing well against players at lower MMRs.
In other words, your MMR reflects your skill and progress in the game.
How Are Rank Rating and Match-Making Rating Different?
It’s important to clarify that MMR does not equal rank rating, which is the 100-scale progress bar you see under your rank’s icon under the “Career” tab. Of course, there is no icon in the beginning, as you are yet to be judged by the rank system and assigned a rank. As such, in order to start competing in Valorant’s ranked mode, your account must not only be at rank 20, but you must also play five Unrated games, which serve as placement matches.
Regardless, the driving force behind Valorant’s rank system is to ensure that convergence occurs between a player’s Rank Rating and Match Making Rating. So while you can not see your MMR value, you can get a rough estimate of it once your RR value catches up to it. But how does Valorant ensure that every player eventually converges on their MMR?
How Does Valorant Ensure MMR And RR Converge?
Anyone who’s been playing Valorant ranked for a long enough time has experienced times when they were gaining more RR per win than losing per loss and vice versa. This is no coincidence; instead, it falls under the grand design of Valorant’s ranking system.
- If a player’s RR is less than their MMR (e.g., they are Platinum 1 but get matched with low Diamond players), then to ensure that their RR catches up to their MMR, that player must be rewarded more for winning and punished less for losing.
- If a player’s RR is more than their MMR (e.g., they are Ascendant 1 but get matched with low Diamond players), then to ensure that their RR falls down to their MMR, that player must be rewarded less for winning and punished more for losing.
- If a player’s RR has already converged on their MMR (e.g., they are Ascendant 1 and get matched with low Ascendant players), then they will be rewarded for winning and punished for losing just the same. Moreover, in order for them to rank up, they will have to improve their overall performance; otherwise, they will be “hard stuck.”
Ultimately, these principles ensure that players earn the rank that accurately represents their skill and is actively held accountable for that rank. So, if you were at Diamond 2 and took a relatively long break from Valorant, don’t expect the game to treat you the same when you come back – it’s only fair for you to earn it again because, after all, you’ve done it before.
What Are All the Ranks In Valorant?
According to the game’s official rank data, Valorant features 28 ranks spanning 9 different leagues: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Ascendant, Immortal, and Radiant. Promotion to these ranks or promotion from these ranks depends on how much RR you are currently on, and rank rating gains/losses will dictate where you will go.
| Rank | Percentage of Players |
|---|---|
| Iron | 6.8% |
| Bronze | 17% |
| Silver | 21.9% |
| Gold | 20.8% |
| Platinum | 16.3% |
| Diamond | 10.6% |
| Ascendant | 4.9% |
| Immortal | 1.2% |
| Radiant | 0.03% |
What Is An Act Rank?
Act Rank is a buzzword commonly used in the Valorant community. Simply put, it is the highest rank you achieve in a particular rank, which Riot Games like appreciate as your “Proven Skill.” In other words, if you were able to reach Ascendant 2 in a particular act but couldn’t stay in it for more than five games, thus staying in Ascendant 1 for the rest of the act, it will still be recognized as your Act Rank.
Act Rank can be made visible on your player card, meaning all players in your lobby will be able to see that you were able to reach Ascendant 2 in the last act. Quite the flex!
What Does Rank Reset Mean?
The final part that completes the blueprint of Valorant’s ranking system is the rank reset feature that kicks in at the end of every act and episode. It’s important to note that the feature works differently depending on whether it’s an act that is ending or an episode. Furthermore, such a mechanic is necessary to make sure the Valorant rank distribution remains in check.
Rank Reset At The End Of An Act
An act lasts two months and is a subset of an episode, where generally, three acts make up one episode. The rank reset that occurs at the end of an act is considered to be a soft reset. In other words, while every player’s rank is reduced to nothing, all they need to do is play one placement game to get it back, where the rank under question is usually their last act’s rank.
The main motivation behind this soft rest is to make the Valorant rank distribution data more accurate by distilling all the inactive players. Since they won’t be playing that one placement game anytime soon, they’ll remain unranked and be excluded from the Valorant rank distribution. This will result in fewer players on the MMR ladder, allowing more lower-ranked players to rank up farther than they have ever before (should they continue to grind).
Rank Reset At The End Of An Episode
Since an act lasts around two months and three acts make up an episode, it’s fair to conclude that an episode lasts around six months. Moreover, if you’re also speculating that the rank reset that is put into place at the end of an entire episode must be more significant than the soft reset discussed earlier, then you’re right!
This hard reset, better known as the rank squish, adapts to the ever-improving Valorant community by placing everyone 1-4 below their previous Episode rank. Not only does this flush out botted or boosted accounts that went under Riot Games’ radar, but it ensures that players are held accountable. Regardless of how the meta may shift in the new episode, if one can not grind back to their previous rank, do they even deserve it in the first place?
What Factors Affect The Valorant Rank Distribution?
While it is indisputable that the Valorant rank distribution is still at a point where the lower ranks are concentrated, and the higher ranks are sparse, the situation has started to evolve. Particularly, the most prominent change that has finally begun to take shape is that the average Valorant rank is now moving away from Silver and towards Gold.
Even though the introduction of the Ascendant rank has played a role in this shift, other factors that influence the Valorant rank distribution should not be overlooked.
Average Skill Level
The most significant factor that has always been driving the Valorant rank distribution has been the average skill level. It’s easy to see that players who are good at Valorant will win more games and climb to high ranks (affecting the distribution positively), while those struggling with defeat will remain hard-stuck on lower ranks (affecting the distribution negatively).
However, if the average skill level increases, meaning those who are cruising through the ranks improve and that hard-stuck improves as well, won’t the Valorant rank distribution get better overall? Absolutely! Even so, with that said, it’s important to elaborate on what skill qualifies in Valorant and how it can be polished across the board.
What Is Skill In Valorant?
While skill in FPS games generally equates to having great mechanical aim and fast reaction time, the word is given more depth in Valorant. This has to do with how Valorant primarily differs from other tactical shooter games, that is, by having a versatile utility system with abilities that can accomplish things real-life military equipment can not.
Game Sense
While map awareness, positioning, and team coordination have been the core tenants of game sense in the FPS genres, Valorant has added a layer of utility to the word. Valorant’s diverse utility system vastly multiplies the different permutations in which every round can play out, something that is not often seen in tactical FPS.
As such, the ability to account for the enemy’s utility when trying to make a play, whether it be before hitting a bomb site or during post-plant, is what distinguishes the diamonds from the golds in Valorant.
Specialization
While the idea of having different roles is not unknown to the tactical FPS genre, Valorant has particularly emphasized it. By having four distinct kinds of agents (Sentinels, Controllers, Initiators, and Duelists), Valorant has been able to design each agent with respect to their type whilst also making them stand out.
As such, a good controller is not one who plays Brimstone well but one who is proficient at playing a suitable controller for each map (e.g, Brimstone on Fracture, Viper on Breeze etc.).
