Competitive (2024)

Competitive (also known as Ranked) is a game mode in VALORANT. It uses the same in-game rules and format as Unrated, but with a focus on higher-stakes competition.

Gameplay[]

See also: Unrated

Competitive has the same gameplay rules as Unrated. In brief summary, two teams of five players select their agents. One team starts on Attack and the other on Defense. To win a round, the attacking team must kill all enemy Defenders or detonate the spike. The defending team must kill all enemy attackers, prevent the spike from being planted, or (if the spike has been planted) defuse the spike (killing all enemy attackers will no longer be enough to win the round should defusing be required). Before each round start, players have 30 seconds to buy weapons and utility, get into position, and set up any utility. Each round lasts 100 seconds, which is reset to 45 seconds if the spike is planted. The game is split into two halves; after 12 rounds, teams will swap sides. The first team to reach 13 rounds wins the game.

Competitive does however have a different system for resolving 12-12 games, going into Overtime instead of Endgame. In Overtime, the teams play two rounds, one on attack and one on defense. For all players in every round, they get 5,000 credits and have their ultimate points set to being 3 short of what they need to use it. If a team wins both these rounds, they win the game. If both teams win one round each, Overtime repeats again and again until either one team wins both rounds and wins the game or the players vote to end the game with the result being a draw for both teams. Each vote will happen with every new Overtime set. To end the match in the draw, the first vote needs 6 votes in favor, the second vote needs 3 votes in favor, and every other afterwards needs only 1 vote in favor.

There are slight differences with surrendering. Competitive requires a unanimous vote instead of the usual 80% from Unrated to be able to surrender.

Accessing and playing Competitive[]

Starting in Episode 04, to be able to play Competitive, players must have reached Account Level 20. Accounts that have not yet reached level 20 but have already played Competitive before 4.0 will still be able to play Competitive. Forfeited games will not count towards this requirement for the team that forfeited.

Parties[]

Players can queue into Competitive with up to five people in a stack or party, excluding parties with four players. Matchmaking takes party size into account, and will attempt to match them with opposing teams who have a similar party size. Parties of five will always match against enemies who are in parties of five as well, thus expecting queue times to be longer. In general, the ranks within a party must fit within the restriction range to be eligible to play Competitive:

Party restriction range

Player's rank	Within rank range
	Parties of two	Parties of three	Parties of five
Iron	Iron 1 to Silver 3		No restrictions2
Bronze
Silver	Iron 1 to Gold 3
Gold	Silver 1 to Platinum 3
Platinum	Exactly one tier apart1
Diamond
Ascendant
Immortal	Exactly one tier apart1	Cannot queue
Radiant
Notes
1 One tier apart examples: A Platinum 2 player can queue with a Diamond 2 or a Gold player of any tier An Immortal 1 player can queue with a Radiant or an Ascendant 1 player A Diamond 2 player cannot queue with an Ascendant 3 or a Platinum 1 player An Ascendant 3 player cannot queue with a Radiant or a Diamond 2 player
2 Parties of five will be affected by reduced RR gains/losses should they meet one of these conditions: 25% reduction: if any players are outside of the usual restriction range made for parties of two and three. Example: A Gold 1 player can queue with a Diamond 3 and/or an Iron 1 player, but the entire party of five will result in 25% RR reduction. if any players are Immortal 1 to Immortal 3. 75% reduction if any players are Radiant. Having any players in the party that are below Radiant automatically reduces your potential RR by 90%.

Players in their placement games can still join a party with already ranked players, taking into account of the player's previous Act's rank(s) to determine whether or not the player can queue with the party within the restriction range.

Ranks[]

List of Competitive Ranks
Rank	Tier	Image
Radiant
Immortal	3
	2
	1
Ascendant	3
	2
	1
Diamond	3
	2
	1
Platinum	3
	2
	1
Gold	3
	2
	1
Silver	3
	2
	1
Bronze	3
	2
	1
Iron	3
	2
	1
Unranked

There are 9 ranks in VALORANT; Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Ascendant, Immortal, and Radiant. Ranks Iron to Immortal are divided into three tiers from Tier 1 to Tier 3, with Tier 3 being the highest tier within a rank. Players ranked in Immortal and Radiant are featured on a leaderboard.

The rank distribution is designed to have the average player holding a rank in Silver. Despite having target designs per act, the true distribution will never exactly fit this as the playerbase's skill is constantly shifting, though the true distribution should still be quite similar to it.^[1]

To earn a rank, new players must first play 5 placement games. The highest rank a player can place after completing their placements is Ascendant 1.

Rank Rating (RR)[]

A player's position on the Competitive ladder will go up and down based on when they win or lose games, respectively. Players who perform exceptionally well in game will rank up faster than average. This will be shown to a player at the end of each game where their current rank is displayed. A Rank Rating (RR) will show how their rank has changed after the results of that game. Wins earn a player around 5-50 RR depending on rank (higher ranks usually earn less RR), and losses cost a player around 0-30 depending on rank (higher ranks lose more RR). Draws grant a maximum of 20 RR (based on performance, though only for Iron to Ascendant players).

Players who reach 100 RR in a tier are promoted to the next highest tier and start at a minimum of 10 RR in that tier. Players will reach 0 RR in a tier are at risk of demoting, but only once they have lost a game whilst at 0 RR. Their given RR in the lower tier will not go below 70. Immortal and Radiant players can earn beyond 100 RR to climb up the leaderboard, and the top 500 players in each region make up the Radiant rank, so long as they pass an RR threshold (depending on region):

• LATAM, KR: 100 RR
• BR: 200 RR
• NA, APC: 300 RR
• EU: 400 RR

At first, personal performance will have a greater impact on the early evaluation of a player's skill, but will decrease in importance compared to wins as they play more games in Competitive. For games that end in a draw, a player's rank may go up but it will never decrease.

Dodging in a Competitive lobby will punish the player with a small RR loss.

Players who are inactive (AFK) for 3+ rounds will incur a penalty of 8-12 RR, increasing the more rounds they are inactive for, in addition to any RR lost from losing the game (the total can exceed the maximum RR loss cap). Any players who are inactive for 6+ rounds will incur the maximum penalty of 12 RR, even if their team wins.

Act resets[]

For every new act, all players must play 1 placement game to earn them back their rank from the previous act, though this rank could potentially change based on the player's performance in that game. Placements don’t give progress towards earning an Act Rank. Immortal and Radiant players keep their position on the leaderboard but have their RR reduced by 90%, with all Radiant players also being demoted to Immortal.

When a new act is also part of a new episode, the number of placement games required is increased to 5 and the player's rank placement will be around a couple of tiers below where the player ended the prior Act.

Act Rank[]

A player's act rank tracks their proven skill, highest ranked win, and number of wins during an act. As players win games, they fill up a triangular graphic with smaller triangles that represents their ranked match wins based on the rank they ended that game with. Once the graphic is filled, wins at higher ranks will displace triangles from lower ranks.

The border surrounding this graphic also upgrades as players win more games. These upgrades occur at 9, 25, 50, 75, and 100 wins.

When an act ends, the player's Act Rank is preserved as a badge seen on the player's card in Competitive games and in their career history. This badge is equal to the the top Act Rank they reached in that act. For Immortal and Radiant players, this badge will also preserve their leaderboard position for that act.

Rewards[]

Main article: Buddies → Competitive

At the end of each episode, players receive a buddy for a rank equal to the top Act Rank they reached in that episode. Players must obtain 9 wins in any of an Act within that Episode to be rewarded with the Buddies matching their rank.

Update History[]

Trivia[]

• A concept for Competitive ranks had different rank names; Mercenary, Soldier, Veteran, Hero, Legend, Mythic, Immortal, and VALORANT, from lowest to highest. However, this system has never been used whilst the game has been available since its Beta. Of these names, only the Immortal rank name made it into the current version. The other ranks were renamed to match a metal/gemstone system commonly used in other games, including Riot's other games. The highest rank remained VALORANT during the Beta, but was renamed to Radiant once the game was launched to avoid confusion with the game title itself.
• On April Fools 2021, all ranks were replaced with a Love Rank and Rank Rating was replaced with Love Rating. These were purely cosmetic changes that were displayed over a player's actual rank and RR changes for the day.
• In July 2020, some players were affected by a bug that caused their visual rank icon to be replaced by an "Unused" rank icon instead.^[2]

References[]