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Valorant ranked matchmaking and leaderboards coming soon

If you want a climb in Valorant, as well as seeing where you stand against the world, ranked and competitive matchmaking and leaderboards are on the way, says Riot.

TJ Denzer

April 24, 2020 11:40 AM

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Nearly very Riot game features a mode in which players can see where they stand against the world’s best or climb to their highest heights, save for Valorant. According to Riot Games, that’s going to be changing pretty soon. Players can expect ranked and competitive matchmaking modes, as well as leaderboards, to arrive on the game in an upcoming update.

Riot Games spoke to the future of ranked and competitive options in a Valorant website post on April 24, 2020. Valorant Senior Producer Ian "Brighteyz" Fielding and Senior Designer Sean "Drevarius" Szopinski took to the blog to address requests for ranked matches and leaderboards, claiming they’re definitely on the docket for release in the near future.

“Competitive mode will be available soon after patch 0.49, starting with EU and NA,” Brighteyz wrote. “Valorant’s Competitive mode uses the same in-game rules and format as the Unrated mode, but with a focus on higher-stakes competition. VALORANT's competitive system is still in its early stages, and we plan to evolve it over time, but we have a core experience we wanted to share with you all in closed beta so that we can build and evolve the mode together.”

We've heard your requests to find out where you rank on the VALORANT ladder. Competitive mode is coming! Senior Producer Ian "Brighteyz" Fielding and Senior Designer Sean "Drevarius" Szopinski are here to guide you through it. https://t.co/EDnuMAT3cM

— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) April 24, 2020

The Valorant leads also took the time to go into deeper details on what the competitive mode and stat-tracking details for the game’s upcoming update would look like. Included below is a list of the major points of competitive Valorant and the leaderboards.

• Complete 20 Unrated matches to unlock Competitive mode
• 8 ranks, 3 tiers each, except the top rank, VALORANT
• Queue with up to 5-player parties, must be within 2 ranks
• Rank isn’t displayed if competitive matches aren’t played within 14 days, but your rank doesn’t decay behind the scenes.
• Closed beta rank does not carry over to launch

Lack of ranked position decay is a surprisingly pleasant addition for those who might not have the time to play frequently and don’t want to be penalized for it. That said, the requirement that ranked players must be in close proximity of rank to party up is a little questionable. Even so, Riot pointed out that this is a work in progress. While unrated mode should never go away, competitive modes should be expected to go offline at times while they fine-tune the system.

Hopefully, it will lead to a comprehensive and satisfying competitive mode and leaderboard for Valorant. If you want to be ready for competitive mode, be sure to follow our continuing Valorant coverage, including guides, the latest information on the game, and a recent update on Valorant esports.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.