Valorant Patch 2.02 Nerfs Running Accuracy, Improves Ranked Systems

Riot Games has finally addressed a major issue with Valorant’s gunplay that fans have long been asking for. Patch 2.02 will nerf the accuracy of rifles while crouch-walking, walking, and running, which will (hopefully) reduce the chances of being randomly decapitated by strafing enemies.

It’s a change that is designed to bring Valorant more in-line with other tactical-shooter such as Counter-Strike, in which the higher skill ceiling punishes players for “running and gunning” as opposed to learning how to accurately shoot.

Elsewhere, Patch 2.02 also makes some very welcome changes to Valorant’s Competitive mode. Namely, an improved Rank Rating convergence to ensure players are channelled toward their Rank at a faster and fairer rate.

So what does that mean, exactly? Well, since Patch 2.0 and the overhaul to Valorant’s Competitive system, many players have found themselves stuck at a given rank due to the small disparity between the RR you receive when winning and losing. From now on, more RR will be awarded for wins, and less will be taken for losses.

Moving forward, Riot has also promised that measures will be taken to ensure individual performances will also count for RR boosts — hopefully, for losses as well as wins.

Here’s a full overview of the Patch 2.02 notes (no word on its exact launch time, in case you’re wondering):

WEAPON UPDATES

Rifle Movement Accuracy update (Bulldog/Guardian/Phantom/Vandal)

We’ve significantly increased the amount of error that all Rifles get when moving and shooting to help combat the sensation of running kills with rifles. These changes will make kills while moving with rifles more rare, especially at longer ranges—but still possible up close. We’ll be monitoring this closely and will continue to fine-tune as necessary.

• Running Error across rifles increased 3.75 >>> 5.0
• Walking Error across rifles increased .8 >>> 1.1
• Crouch-moving Error across rifles increased .3 >>> .8

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

[Editor’s Note: Please read our full 2.02 Competitive changes rundown, which also goes into what’s next for Episode 2]

• Increased the effectiveness or Rank Rating convergence: players will now converge to their match making rating (MMR) faster, requiring less games to prove their rank
  • This will make it so players get to the rank they deserve in fewer matches.
  • This will help everyone get to a rank/Leaderboard Rank that best illustrates their skill more quickly. We wanted to be a little conservative launching the new ranked system, but believe in some cases you were having to play too many games to reach your intended rank. By doubling the effectiveness of convergence, players on the extreme ends might see 40+ Ranked Rating gains, pushing them to their proper rank faster.
• Players Iron through Diamond who perform exceptionally well in a match (weighed against their own average performance) will gain bonus Rank Rating
  • We want to reward players that “pop-off” in a match, performing above expectations.
  • This will help highlight those matches where you “outclassed” your average performance. In turn, you will rank up just a little faster, and be rewarded for games where you kill it. Remember, this is you doing better than your average, not you doing better than your teammates or opponents.
  • Consider this another system that helps combat the smurfs who do real well in a game. They will now more quickly rank up so that their rank better reflects their skill (along with getting put into higher skilled matches).
• Changed Diamond 3 to a premade size capped at 2 players
  • We needed “proving grounds” before getting into Immortal, and this should prepare players for the leaderboard and create a 5-stack buffer before Immortal.
  • While we value and want to support those of you able to play and compete with your friends as much as possible, we also want to ensure there is a high degree of trust and competitive integrity for players who make it onto the Leaderboard.
  • We want to maintain the prestige of Immortal+, and believe we need a small buffer to ensure players are proving their skill before getting into Immortal. This will prevent 5-stacking just before Immortal, and prepare Diamond 3 players for what they are about to get into. Diamond 3 will essentially become the final proving grounds for Immortal+.
• Your current leaderboard rank will now display on your Career: Act Rank tab. At the end of an Act, your final leaderboard rank will be preserved and displayed on the Act Rank Badge you earned.

MODE UPDATES

• Added a rate limiter to the in-game weapon store to keep players from spamming purchases in quick succession, which caused a potential performance issue
  • The rate limiting is lenient in most modes, but more strict in deathmatch.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a bug where players could silently plant the spike (credit here)
• Fixed issues where players couldn’t move after exiting a Sova Drone or a Cypher camera (thanks to you, you, and you)
• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t leave Cypher’s camera view or couldn’t move their mouse (shout out to you and you)
• Fixed an issue where picking up weapons stacked on top of each other, resulted in attempts to pick up both
• Fixed a bug where the Chat Box would remain open in-game
• Fixed a bug where enemy messages would still appear in Deathmatch while the Mute All Enemies setting was enabled
• Fixed a bug where the queue restriction penalty did not always scale properly for players who queue dodged repeatedly
• Fixed a bug that was causing the Promotion screen to show for a shorter amount of time than intended
• Fixed a bug that was showing the wrong Immortal icon in some places
• Fixed various localization issues that made it hard to read text in End of Game screen, Lobby, and Match History for some languages
• Fixed issue where various abilities did not work inside Brimstone and Jett’s smoke, even when they were visible to their target
• Fixed issue with Omen’s Shrouded Step targeting that caused it to get stuck on corners at a much greater distance
• Fixed issue where throwing Yoru’s Fakeout through a teleporter caused another projectile thrown afterward to play the Agent audio instead of the object audio
• Fixed Skye’s Seeker’s not being able to find enemies on the zipline platform on B-Site of Split
• Fixed Yoru getting stuck in various spots on maps when using Gatecrash
• Fixed Sova not playing a proper walk animation right after his Owl Drone ends
• Fixed issue where Omen could swap equipables right after selecting a map location for From the Shadows
• Fixed issue where Omen’s camera could become detached when using Dark Cover in poor networking conditions
• Fixed issue where the Spike could be planted on Sage’s wall on the sites on Icebox
• Reduced brightness on initial visuals when blinded from flashes

In related news, Valorant’s esports got off to a flying start last weekend. Read Twinfinite’s report here.