VALORANT will be no more

VALORANT is launching officially in a few days, and while we won’t get ranked queue on June 2nd, this might be because of the fact that Riot Games decided to make some changes to it. In Closed Beta, VALORANT’s ranking system worked similar to League of Legends’ or Teamfight Tactics’ rankings: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond; after that, there was Immortal and Valorant itself. That last one will be renamed.

Polygon.com had an interview with Senior Designer Sean “Drevarius” Szopinski where he explained that the top rank’s name was a bit confusing to some people, so they decided to change the name of it. Players were wondering - why does the top rank have the same name as the game? The answer is simple: it’s the name of an organization that most VALORANT’s Agents are working for, just like heroes in Overwatch work for... Overwatch.

The confusion might be because of the fact that we still didn’t get any lore-based movies, which could explain some of VALORANT’s story and we really hope Riot is working on them! Sean Szopinski also points out that VALORANT’s team brainstormed and came up with a conclusion: “What could be cooler than climbing the ranks, aspiring to become an elite and heroic Valorant, the personification of the game itself! You guys are right though, it’s a bit confusing. We get it. I get it. We’ll change it for launch.” Unfortunately, Riot Games is keeping the new name as a surprise, so we might get to know it on the launch of the game, or maybe on the launch of competitive queue.

Lastly, there was no real reward for getting a Valorant rank in the Closed Beta. After all that hard work, players couldn’t even see how high in the ranking they actually were (besides the fact they were in the top rank). The only thing that was awaiting them at the top was dropping to a lower Immortal rank, but that’s something Riot Games is already looking into. “As for showing specific ratings for top players, this is something that we have discussed a lot and will eventually be part of Valorant’s Competitive Ecosystem,” said Senior Designer Sean Szopinski.

We really wonder what rewards there will be for the best VALORANT players and if there will be any for lower rank players. Maybe similarly to League of Legends, players will be able to gather points by winning ranked games, or maybe players that are gold or above will get a weapon skin. What do you think?