Valorant is coming out on June 2 and everyone who didn’t get a beta key will finally be able to try out the game. One thing will be missing though – ranked.
Riot’s upcoming tactical shooter is closer than ever with exactly one week remaining until the official launch on June 2. Valorant spent almost two months in closed beta and the shooter is finally ready to be launched. What will change with the official release?
No ranked matchmaking
The news came from a Reddit thread where Riot Games Global Communications Lead, Chris "PWYFF" Tom shed some light:
We're not going to be launching WITH ranked, probably turning it on in a few weeks after once everything's stable. Your ranked MMR is going to be reset, but the 20 match requirement isn't. We'll probably carry over some (maybe all) of your unrated MMR to keep the shark pool from eating the incoming fish. Anyone who was eligible to get the Valorant drop will get the exclusive player card. Not just the people who were eligible for the Valorant drop but didn’t get it. Unrated MMR is completely separate from your ranked MMR. if you only ever played enough unrated games to unlock ranked and then played 200 ranked games never playing unrated, you would have two different MMR values and that your unrated is merely a snapshot in time.
While there won’t be ranked at launch it’ll only be for a few weeks until Riot get their algorithm's right. On the other hand there’s a plus side as brand new players won’t be matched against veterans of the closed beta. This will no doubt improve the overall new player experience.
- READ MORE: Valorant is set to release on June 2
Pro players were also not content with the ranked system as a whole. Both Daniel “dafran” Francesca and Jacob “pyth” Mourujärvi expressed their dissatisfaction with the competitive mode for Valorant.
I am extremely dissapointed in the Valorant ranked system. What to do after grinding to Valorant? No solo/duo Q? Honestly Valorant announcing they gonna release the game earlier didnt make me hype at all, made me feel sad. And lets not forget the fps issues also
— Farmer Dafran (@dafran) May 24, 2020
Anyone who managed to reach Valorant during the closed beta was stuck at a dead end. For now there is no progression further than that and there’s little incentive to play the mode. This is one area where Riot definitely need to improve upon with the official launch.
- READ MORE: dafran gets banned in a Valorant tournament
Days before the official release, the Valorant closed beta will come to an end on May 28. Servers will light up once again on June 2 and we’re sure that the Riot team will have some extra features to keep player interest. The game servers will be down from May 28 until the official release. With the closed beta concluding Twitch drops for beta keys will also be removed.
- READ MORE: dafran now banned on Twitch
On June 2 a new agent will become playable along with a brand-new game mode which will supposedly be less intense than the main one. Until then, stay tuned for more Valorant updates and make sure to check out EarlyGame for more gaming content.