Valorant Match-Making System Pitting Diamond Ranked Players Against Ascension and Immortal Ranks

Valorant’s Ranked Play has a very well-defined set of rules and functioning, but recently, players have found out some of the discrepancies in the match-making system. A Reddit thread has fans complaining of being pitted against players with Ranks above theirs, and getting sucked into matches way beyond their league. However, this isn’t really a brand new discovery, and the match-making system has been designed in a way that allows this to happen. Here’s more.

“Valorant MM is making it excessively hard to climb”- says Redditor

The Reddit thread in question was started by a Valorant player, with Reddit username JuanTapMan. They complained about how hard it is becoming for them to grind and climb out of their current Diamond Rank. The main issue that they highlight here is that they’re being sorted into lobbies with players of higher ranks like Ascendants and Immortals.

For context, Valorant’s Ranked Play matchmaking is dependent on the hidden “Match Making Rating” or the MMR value. This determines the lobby that the player will get sorted into, irrespective of their Rank Rating. As a result of this hidden MMR value, players can get matched up against players with higher Ranks.

While the player who started the Reddit thread is aware of how Valorant’s match making works, they also highlight the flipside of the system. Pointing out how it becomes increasingly difficult for the player with the lower ranking, to grind and climb the ladder of ranks, especially when they keep losing such matches. They explain,

“Putting a Diamond into low Immortal lobbies feels cruel. When I feel like I’m starting to play better, suddenly everyone becomes an aim demon. I’m being punished for improving, without ever seeing the reward in rank. Especially when I’m consistently performing mid-low field (check my Tracker), it doesn’t feel consistent. I doubt any Immortals/Ascendant 3’s are happy that they get a Diamond player in their matches either.”

The player mentions that they hope that “one day, Hidden MMR can just become your visible rank”. We don’t know if Riot has any plans of changing the match-making system, but at present, it sure looks like players have a lot of grind in front of them.