Riot Games talks climbing ranking struggles, story mode, and an extra surrender vote

Riot Games mentioned combating smurfs and AFK players in VALORANT players’ matches several times throughout the previous Ask VALORANT blog posts. This time around the studio wanted to address the current structure of the ranked ladder and why players believe it is harder to climb out of lower ranks, the possibility of seeing a story mode, and the addition of more surrender votes in matches.

There is always the perception of players struggling to climb the ranking ladder that it is extremely difficult to go up and easy to derank. The studio decided to tackle the situation directly, admitting the tactical shooter’s “unforgiving” ranked mode and mentioning the changes introduced in patch 1.14 and at the launch of Episode 2. However, the development team won’t stop there as they promised many more improvements and enhancements to the overall system will come in early January.

“We hear you on this, too often one bad day of play can result in significant rank loss and a good day doesn’t help you climb as much as you’d like. Our rank distribution bands are unforgiving and we have limited protection against rank demotion. We’ve been feeling this ourselves, and we’ve made some changes to address this with Patch 1.14, and more substantive changes will follow at the start of the year with the launch of Episode 2.”

“To be specific with Patch 1.14’s updates, we updated our rank distribution to make it easier to climb out of the lower ranks, significantly reducing the number of players in Iron and increasing the players at Bronze through Diamond ranks (Immortal+ will stay roughly the same).”

“With patch 2.0 (early January), we’re going to add increased protection for rank demotions, while giving you some initial buffer room after you gain ranks. There are also going to be a TON more changes to the rank system with Episode 2, and we’ll have more info on that to come in early January next year,” discussed Senior Producer Ian Fielding

You will probably find yourself often wanting to start the surrender vote more than once after it was done already. In Riot Games’ League of Legends, you can initiate it as many times as you want past 15 minutes, with a short buffer between each vote. VALORANT players are asking for the same mechanic to come to the tactical shooter, and the studio is reviewing the possibility of adding it in the future.

“While we don't see an issue outright with getting a sort of buffer between votes rather than just the one-and-done, we're going to be frank and say this is not at the top of our to-do list for now (AFK, Smurf, etc are hoarding that spot). We'll review and see if this makes sense, but no promises just yet,” explained Producer Sara Dadafshar

Riot Games mentioned previously their plans to dive deeper into the lore behind VALORANT’s agents, maps, and the game’s universe. The addition of a story mode is definitely one way to do it, but the studio doesn’t have it in their cards just yet. However, they didn’t rule out the chance of seeing one eventually, depending on the players’ feedback and suggestions.

“It's definitely our goal for players to discover more about Agents and their stories in the future. Right now, some of those details are seeded into the game itself, in Player Cards, Character VO, etc. —there are a lot of places where you can find and piece together snippets! However, a traditional story mode is not in our current plans but....never say never. Our goal is always to listen to players and so we will continue to adapt and create experiences based on what you are telling us you want.”

Would you like to play a single-player VALORANT story mode to learn more about the game’s lore? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!