Big changes are coming to how Valorant handles matchmaking. Valorant’s developers have released a dev diary on their youtube channel, explaining their design choices for the game’s next update, Act III.
“Climbing ranks is at the heart of the competitive experience of valorant,” said Joe Ziegler Design Director of Valorant. “This system is still in its early stages and we know we need to do a better job of improving understanding of the system, rank progress and high rank play.”
Competitive Design Lead, David Cole said that the team originally saw allowing players from various ranks to play together as a positive. However, feedback suggested that players felt this system minimized the importance of ranking altogether and minimized feelings of accomplishment.
In Act III, a higher emphasis will be placed on bringing competitive integrity to the matchmaking system. Competitive queues will have smaller rank disparities between matched players, with a reduction in allowed rank differences from six to three.
Players will also be able to select a preferred server or servers for matchmaking. However, there is no guarantee that players will be placed in their selected server.
Another update, Episode 2, is slated for release early next year, and will feature a public, region-based leaderboard for players at the highest ranks. In addition, a potential queue restriction at these levels is in the works with the goal of helping balance matchmaking.
Cole acknowledged that the new queuing system would negatively impact the ability of players with friends of a wide skill disparity to play together, but that competitive was not the place for these kinds of games. Cole said that the team has something on their roadmap for these sort of player groups, but that it is still in the works.
You can check out the full dev diary below.
Nicolas Perez is an editorial intern at Paste and opinion co-editor for New University. He’s rambling on Twitter @Nic_Perez__.