Riot Has Made Big Changes to Valorant’s Matchmaking For Episode 2

While almost all the new content coming in Valorant’s Episode 2 had already been revealed, the anticipated changes to its matchmaking system were still being kept tight-lipped by Riot Games. That is until a live stream aired last night detailing a major overhaul that should hopefully improve its competitive gameplay experience across the board.

At its center is a new point-based system that replaces the notoriously unclear arrow system previously. Riot hopes the numbers better communicate to players how much XP they should expect to gain and why they’re moving either up or down the ranks in the first place. you’re moving in the first place. There’s also a new progress bar to help further clear up the picture.

Here’s a breakdown of how MMR is determined via Riot’s overview:

• Majority of RR comes from wins or losses (match outcome)
  • You will always gain RR on a win and lose RR on a loss
• On a win, you will gain between 10 and 50 RR
  • Min 5 RR gain for Diamond+
• On a loss you will lose between 0 and 30 RR
  • Max drop of 50 RR on a loss for Diamond+
• On a draw you will gain a max of 20 RR (performance-based)
  • Only for Iron through Diamond, where we take individual performance into account.
• Demotion protection: You must lose at 0 RR to demote
  • If you demote, you will not go below 80 RR at that rank
• Promotion boost where you start at minimum 10 RR on a win
• Decisiveness of a win and exceptional performance at lower ranks for individuals can help you earn rank faster (and more quickly boost smurfs to accurate ranks)
• New rank ceremony and celebration visual for getting promotions
• Rank info page updated along with providing info around rank rewards

For those at the higher end of the rankings, another major change to note is that Immoral is now its own, single rank. Immortal 2 and 3 players will now be grouped with Radiants.

But before you go thinking that’ll essentially end progression for a huge number of the game’s best players, fear not: there’s an all-new leader board being introduced, too.

As you can see above, the top 500 players will climb up and down a ladder. It’s a similar system to games like League of Legends and Hearthstone. Here’s a full breakdown of how the leaderboard works:

• Leaderboard displays in-client (along with a web version on playvlaorant.com available within 24 hours less of the Episode 2 going live)
  • Radiant players (top 500 per region)
  • Immortal players (roughly ~1% of rank players per region)
    • Immortal will also only be one rank now, using the Immortal 3 icon
  • Leaderboard Rank and Rank Rating (we call it RR for short)
  • Riot ID, Title, and player card
  • Games won per Act
  • Ability to anonymize your name as “Secret Agent”
• Unique per region NA, EU, APAC, BR, LATAM, KR
• Updates in real time
• Requirements to get on the leaderboard:
  • Requires 50 ranked account games to place on leaderboard (retroactive for returning players)
  • Requires playing at least 1 Competitive game a week (within 7 day period) to stay on the leaderboard
  • Banned players will not show on the leaderboard

Finally, Riot is issuing new and improved rewards to those who complete its seasonal battle pass. Namely, a Gun Buddy to give players a “way to display their best-proven skill for a respective Act (their top Act Rank for that Episode).”

For high rank players on the Leaderboard, a Badge will also show the final leaderboard position with which you ended the Act.

Valorant’s Episode 2 launches later today in North America, while EU players will have to wait until tomorrow. You can check out Twinfinite’s full overview of all the new content here.