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As we are going onto the 3rd week of the season, I have to ask a question. But first let me tell you my story.

I was Plat 3 during the previous season with tons of win, even touched the Diamond 1 twice. As the new season starts I wait a few days to let the things settle down, then easily win 4 of my 5 placements games some friends and end up P1, which is fine since the max achievable rank is now P3.

But since that, it's been a nightmare : it is now impossible for me to win a game. Whether I play alone or with friends, do 25/10 or 5/10, choose KJ or Omen, cheer my team or not, play with/against players with Silver or Immortal Act Rank ... I know there is coinflip in Valorant, but I've barely won 6 matchs out of 25 and I'm now down to Gold 2, where I was 6 months ago.

So I am asking now :

What is going on with ranked ?

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about 3 years ago - /u/EvrMoar - Direct link

Originally posted by _MuadDib_

I guess it might be different in higher or lower elo than I am, but I don't really feel like the matchmaking changed. The number of games where one team stomp the other is same as before.

Same with ranks, there are players who I'm matched with that have higher act range, but they don't play better than me.

Tbh I think it's kinda a placebo and a lot of people complain cuz they have few bad games and know that there was some change to the system so they are looking for an excuse. For some reason people think the previous system was better at judging players skills and rank. Which I'm not so sure of anymore. I guess most people were ranked correctly, but not a small number of people were either boosted or on the other hand setback.

I'm that dev!

And yes we did not change match making or the fairness of matches compared to last Episode/Act. You are getting the same matches you would have 4 weeks ago.

That being said lots of players come back at the beginning of acts, along with lots of new players coming to the game! The game has only been out for 7-8ish months. A player who played at the beggining of last Act, over two months ago, may have been immortal and filled out their Act rank then. If they left and didn't come back till now they have missed over 30% of the games lifespan since it released. That means players that didn't leave have had potentially 30% more time(since launch) with the game.

Something like this really effects the community and average skill. Early on, especially with new games, meta's change fast and strategies are constantly shifting. As the game gets older, and the community as a whole starts to learn the game, there are less drastic swings in skill/meta(without major game changes).

We've been investigating match quality and try to hit any people who are posting major red flags like "A Diamond Player is in my Silver match". So far we haven't been able to find anything that shows the system not working, but that doesn't take away how players feel.

We have improvements we want to make, the system will never be perfect. We are always out here reading feedback, even the tough posts where people are venting their frustrations. Our goal is to keep improving the system.

about 3 years ago - /u/EvrMoar - Direct link

Originally posted by EvrMoar

I'm that dev!

And yes we did not change match making or the fairness of matches compared to last Episode/Act. You are getting the same matches you would have 4 weeks ago.

That being said lots of players come back at the beginning of acts, along with lots of new players coming to the game! The game has only been out for 7-8ish months. A player who played at the beggining of last Act, over two months ago, may have been immortal and filled out their Act rank then. If they left and didn't come back till now they have missed over 30% of the games lifespan since it released. That means players that didn't leave have had potentially 30% more time(since launch) with the game.

Something like this really effects the community and average skill. Early on, especially with new games, meta's change fast and strategies are constantly shifting. As the game gets older, and the community as a whole starts to learn the game, there are less drastic swings in skill/meta(without major game changes).

We've been investigating match quality and try to hit any people who are posting major red flags like "A Diamond Player is in my Silver match". So far we haven't been able to find anything that shows the system not working, but that doesn't take away how players feel.

We have improvements we want to make, the system will never be perfect. We are always out here reading feedback, even the tough posts where people are venting their frustrations. Our goal is to keep improving the system.

!pin

about 3 years ago - /u/EvrMoar - Direct link

Originally posted by Meta-link

So I guess it really is just a (very long) streak of bad luck ? I can live with that, even if I must admit that it is kind of depressing when I feel that I play well better than usual but the games are still unwinnable.

Anyway thanks for your time and your answer, it is always a pleasure to have some clear informations :)

I think there are also a lot of people coming back to see the new Episode. So people who may have been high rank come back and are trending down. Then suddenly you have lots of players coming back and now all these players have to learn new Agents, Maps, etc. on top of their skill that atrophied since they've been gone.

You also have new players to the game in general, new Episodes bring new hype and interest in the game.

Unfortunately these returning/new players need to be tested and corrected in the system, so that on top of all the crazy ranked changes we did probably created a huge feeling that something was up. We are collecting data and will keep watching, if there is an issue I'm confident we will find it and make a solution!

Thank you for spending time writing feedback! Without people engaging with the system, venting their frustrations, or shouting out their wins we wouldn't know how people feel. We all help each other in making Valorant better!