How Does Valorant Ranked System Work - Fully Explained

Valorant is a competitive FPS game with a ranking system similar to other Riot Games titles like League of Legends. Before you start climbing the ranked ladder, it’s important to understand how Valorant ranks players and how you can improve your rank over time. Since I'm a professional Valorant booster here at Boosting Factory, I must know the system inside out.

Let's explore the Valorant ranks and ranking system so you can aim for the top.

How To Unlock Valorant Ranked Mode?

Valorant's ranked mode, also called Valorant Competitive modeis available only to players who have reached Account Level 20. Riot Games implemented this requirement in Episode 4 Act 1 to ensure players have enough experience and to reduce smurf accounts. Players can reach Level 20 by playing non-competitive game modes. To level up faster, check out our guide on How to Level Up Fast in Valorant.

What Are The Valorant Ranks?

Placement Games in Valorant

Once you unlock Competitive mode, you need to play five placement matches to determine your MMR and Act Rank. The system evaluates your performance in these matches, adjusting your rank based on how well you play. It uses your casual MMR as the baseline before these placement games.

For the best results from your Valorant placements, I suggest our Valorant placement boosting service where one of our pros can play the placements for you or with you and achieve the best possible win-rate.

Act and Episode Resets

After you've placed your account successfully for the first time, know that you will need to play 1 placement match everytime a Valorant act resets, and 5 more placements once the Episode resets.

An Act is a competitive period in Valorant. Each episode has three acts, with each act lasting around two months. This includes four or five patches, each about two weeks long. Meaning that the whole Episode lasts for 6 months. Players coming from similar games would consider an Episode a so called Season.

Note that if you do well in your placements every subsequent Act and Episode, you can expect your rank to be about 3 ranks lower due to the soft-reset.

What's the maximum rank you can get from Valorant placements?

If you do placements on a new fresh account that never played competitive and do really well (4 or 5 wins out of 5) you will be placed in Gold/Platinum in most cases which is the maximum for new accounts.

For accounts that had a very high rank last season (Immortal or higher), the maximum they can get from placements is Ascendant 1.

Read more: Top 30 Tips To Rank Up Fast in Valorant

All Valorant Ranks

To begin with, here’re all of VALORANT’s existing ranks in order from lowest to highest.

Iron

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Platinum

Diamond

Ascendant

Immortal

Radiant

Each of the ranks above, except Radiant, has three divisions within it. For example, Iron 1, Iron 2, and Iron 3. After a player promotes from Iron 3, he moves into Bronze 1 and so on.

Within each of the divisions, players have so called Rank Rating (RR). Your rank rating (RR) is the total points you earn in each competitive match. You gain RR points based on wins and your performance in the match. Collect 100 points to move up to the next tier. Players with 0 RR in a tier risk demotion, but only after losing a game at 0 RR. In the lower tier, their RR won't drop below 70 with that loss they just incurred that demoted them.

The exception being Immortal 1, 2, 3, and Radiant. Immortal and Radiant players can earn more than 100 RR to climb the leaderboard. The top 500 players in each region make up the Radiant rank, provided they pass a certain RR threshold, which varies by region. These are the thresholds for Immortal and Radiant ranks for every region:

NA - Immortal 2 (90 RR), Immortal 3 (200 RR), Radiant (450 RR + Top 500)

EU - Immortal 2 (100 RR), Immortal 3 (200 RR), Radiant (550 RR + Top 500)

LATAM/KR - Immortal 2 (90 RR), Immortal 3 (150 RR), Radiant (200 RR + Top 500)

APC - Immortal 2 (80 RR), Immortal 3 (200 RR), Radiant (400 RR + Top 500)

BR - Immortal 2 (100 RR), Immortal 3 (230 RR), Radiant (340 RR + Top 500)

Additional Valorant Ranked Tips

Initially, personal performance significantly impacts a player's skill evaluation, but this decreases in importance compared to wins as they play more Competitive games. For games that end in a draw, a player's rank may increase but will never decrease.

Dodging a Competitive lobby results in a small RR loss.

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

What is MMR in Valorant?

MMR (Matchmaking Rating) is a system most competitive online games employ. The main difference between RR and MMR is visibility: RR is visible to you, while MMR is not. Both influence your Act Rank, which is the rank you achieve in a competitive Act.

You gain RR with every win, and you can track it from your match history. The amount of RR you gain per match depends on your performance and your hidden MMR.

Riot explains MMR as a "giant ladder consisting of all players," with each player holding a unique spot. It helps the system decide if you should be placed above or below another player in your rank tier.

Here are the possible scenarios:

If your MMR is close to your Act Rank, you'll gain or lose similar amounts of RR for wins and losses.

If your MMR is higher than your Act Rank, you'll gain more RR for wins than you lose for losses. This is common after a new Episode starts, when Act Ranks are reset.

If your MMR is lower than your Act Rank, you'll lose more RR for losses than you gain for wins.

The system may seem complicated, but the goal is simple: win as many ranked matches as possible to boost your MMR and keep ranking up. Maintain a positive win rate (above 50%) to gain more RR with each win.

Also, while RR gains/losses depend more on wins/losses than on round differential, a dominant victory (e.g., 13-1) will still boost your RR gain significantly.

Can you get more more RR per win if you play good?

Yes, it's called the performance bonus. The game tracks your performance in every match and compares it to your usual performance, if you do better than usually, you will get more RR in that match than you were supposed to, up to a maximum of 10.

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Read more: Valorant Tier List - Best Valorant Agents

Double Rank Up in Valorant

In Valorant, a Double Rank Up occurs when you perform exceptionally well, showing the game's algorithm that you're significantly better than others in the match. As a result, you get promoted by two ranks at once. This is what's known as a Double Rank Up in Valorant.

How To Double Rank Up in Valorant?

The maximum MMR range on your account is capped at three ranks. If your hidden MMR is significantly different from your visible RR rank by four ranks or more, the game may double your rank increase.

Achieving a double rank up requires strong performance, but it also means your rank is now higher than what your MMR suggests. There's no specific strategy to achieve this; it's all about consistently playing well and demonstrating solid gameplay.

Rank Decay in Valorant

Rank itself doesn't decay over time in Valorant, meaning your tier won't drop just because you haven't played. However, your Matchmaking Rating (MMR) can decrease if other players surpass you on the MMR ladder. Immortal and Radiant players can also lose their leaderboard positions if they become inactive over time.

Party Restrictions in Valorant Ranked

Players can enter Competitive mode with a group of up to five players, but not with four players. Matchmaking considers the size of the party and tries to match them with opponents of similar party sizes. If you're in a party of five, you'll be matched against another party of five, which can lead to longer queue times. Generally, the ranks of players in a party must fall within a certain range to be eligible for Competitive play:


A party of five can queue together without rank restrictions, but they may incur RR penalties if there are significant rank differences among them. Here’s how it works:

If the party includes players ranked Ascendant 3 or below, they'll receive a 25% RR reduction for each member whose rank differs significantly.

Parties with one or more players ranked between Immortal 1 and 3 will also face a 25% RR reduction.

If there's a Radiant player in the party, all members will face a hefty 75% RR reduction.

So, while queuing as a 5-stack can be enjoyable and organized, be mindful that large rank disparities could greatly reduce the RR you earn.

Valorant Rank Distribution

Rank distribution is crucial in competitive shooters like Valorant. Riot Games has addressed this concern since Episode 3 Act 1, noting that there were too many players in the lower ranks and not enough reaching higher tiers. The distribution is structured so that the average player holds a rank in Silver. Here's an example Valorant rank distribution:

Valorant Ranked Fun Facts

Originally, the Competitive ranks were going to be Mercenary, Soldier, Veteran, Hero, Legend, Mythic, Immortal, and VALORANT, from lowest to highest. This system was never used during the game's Beta. Only the Immortal rank name made it into the final version. The highest rank was "Valorant" during the Beta but was renamed Radiant at launch to avoid confusion with the game's name.

On April Fools' Day 2021, all ranks were temporarily replaced with a "Love Rank," and Rank Rating became "Love Rating." These changes were purely cosmetic and displayed over a player's actual rank and RR changes for the day.

Wrapping it up

I hope you enjoyed my comprehensive guide on Valorant ranking system. I would also like to tell you about our Valorant rank boosting services. Boosting Factory employs professional Valorant players that help other players reach higher ranks.

You can allow us to log into your account and get the rank for you, or you can party up with us and get it yourself! There are no cheats used, only skill. Don't hesitate and lets get in touch today!