Riot Games’ VALORANT will be getting competitive matchmaking in upcoming patch 1.02, the developer team revealed today. The update will also bring in revamped rank icons and a change to the top rank’s title.
VALORANT launched earlier this month without a ranked game mode, after having had one throughout most of the closed beta. Riot held back on adding competitive matchmaking right away in order to focus on maintaining VALORANT’s servers upon launch, and to give new players the same time to learn the game that beta players had.
Three weeks after the game’s official release, VALORANT will be getting competitive matchmaking, set to come in patch 1.02. In addition to the new game mode, VALORANT’s rank icons have also been updated. The revamped icons are more distinct than their closed beta counterparts, making each rank easier to identify. The top rank, titled “Valorant” during the closed beta, has been renamed to “Radiant” to avoid any confusion between the rank and the game itself.
Players will be able to queue with friends in placement games, even with a large difference in skill, though only “to a certain extent.” Competitive matchmaking will still prevent especially low and high ranked players from queueing together. The VALORANT team plans to focus on maintaining match balance as ranked mode launches. The team will also introduce a means to track your rank progression in a future patch.
VALORANT patch 1.02 is likely to go live later this week.
Source: Riot Games
