Valorant senior competitive designer RiotEverMoar confirmed that Riot is trying to improve the experience in the higher ranks of matchmaking. Is the 5-man queue going to make a return?
Valorant's matchmaking has been a hot topic for months with plenty of players experiencing a lot of frustration with it. Some have problems with the hackers, others aren't fans of the system, and pro players like Tyson "TenZ" Ngo don't like the queue limitation in the higher ranks. Ever since the start of 2021, Riot made some serious changes to the matchmaking system that limited the number of players that can queue up together in the higher ranks.
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Valorant's Matchmaking
Anyone at Immortal or Radiant was capped at queueing up with a two-man party. This change was also added to the Diamond 3 rank in February with the arrival of patch 2.02. But why did Riot reform matchmaking in the first place? Here's their own explanation:
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+.
Everything below Diamond 3 is considered "proving grounds" by Riot, but once you're above it, you can no longer play with your friends. Is it simply Riots way to fight boosters? Perhaps, but it's also detrimental to queuing times, and it might discourage a lot of players from playing more than they would with friends. These changes didn't go unnoticed by many of the pros and streamers that reported a much lower match quality. Tyson "TenZ" Ngo was one of the more vocal players.
Really think adding some form of FPL or Pro 10 man hub would be super beneficial to the top players who don't want to touch ranked. I know for a fact that the Pro players that do play ranked only play it because of their streams. Reasons why it would be so good to have 1/?
— TenZ / Tyson (SEN) (@TenZOfficial) April 14, 2021
Will Valorant 5-Man Queue Return?
He even managed to grab the attention of senior Valorant competitive designer RiotEvrMoar who confirmed that the team is working to improve the quality by "currently looking into ways 5 stacks can play together competitively".
We can still try to solve it My statement on this topic is "We are currently looking into ways 5 stacks can play together competitively" - This isn't exactly what TenZ was asking about but I think it will help this space a bit! We are thinking of how to solve these issues.
— EvrMoar (@RiotEvrMoar) April 14, 2021
Does that mean we'll soon see the 5-man queue return to the higher ranks? Nobody knows but we'll probably find out soon. Maybe Riot will make a separate queue for 5-man stacks? Valorant Patch 2.08 is set to arrive tomorrow, and we might get a surprise with it. We've already compiled what you should expect from the upcoming update.
- READ MORE: Valorant Patch Notes 2.08: What To Expect
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