Valorant Game Director Joe Ziegler has revealed that Ranked will be coming to the game’s closed beta. An exact date is still unknown at this point.
ValoRanked
Valorant will soon be a full week into its closed beta and there’s already a handful of things the community would like to see. Most are pretty basic: like Raze not being able to one-shot people with her skills and maybe a skill-based matchmaking system. While there’s no word on the former, it looks like ranked mode will be making its way into the Valorant closed beta.
The news came from Twitter thanks to Valorant’s game director Joe Ziegler.
Our first "rated" testing is coming in a couple weeks, stay tuned.
— Ziegler (@RiotZiegler) April 10, 2020
We’ve already seen Ziegler in an early interview along with Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon where the duo answered some of the most requested questions.
Ranked or “Rated” matchmaking as Ziegler called it will probably be live by the end of April and it’ll give us a good idea of what we can expect in the final release.
A mixed bag
Valorant’s matchmaking in its current state during the beta is quite random and some might argue that’s due to the peak in interest. People from various gaming genres are joining in to try out the upcoming shooter, but there are also hardcore veterans from CS:GO, CoD, Overwatch, Apex Legends and more. Naturally, the latter have a noticeable advantage over everyone else who’s trying out a shooter for the first time. CS:GO players are probably having it best, as Valorant is also aiming for precise gunplay and from what we’ve seen, it succeeds
Additionally, the closed beta is also home to pro players from the games mentioned above. They were actually one of the first people to get access to the game and start streaming it. This makes the beta a mixed bag with people making their first steps in the shooter, veterans in the genre and pro players. The quality of each game can vary greatly depending on the combination of players – one game you’re stomping the enemy and they have no chance of fighting back and then you fill that role. That’s where proper matchmaking comes in. Hopefully, the “Rated” mode will not only serve as a template for the competitive aspect of Valorant but will also make the general matchmaking better.
The Valorant closed beta started less than a week ago, so there’s still a lot to discover and learn about it. Anyone who’s willing to dedicate their efforts to the title will definitely improve over time. Riot seems to be doing their best in order to keep match quality high – banning account selling, banning hackers, making sure the servers aren’t overloaded and now the promise of a ranked mode. Valorant is heading to a good start and Riot Games are doing a stellar job so far.
