Valorant Dev Tracker

Hard switch on topics. I know that a lot of players view smurfing as a problem, and some view it as a bigger problem then others. Some people believe smurfing is more prevalent than we say it is, and others don't. Every decision we've made for ranked has always had the question "will this reduce smurfing" or "how can we change this to reduce smurfing" during the design phase. We've done things to make it easier for friends to group up together by reducing grouping restrictions or creating the 5 stack rule. We've improved our detection and MMR system to quickly move smurf accounts to their correct MMR, and are testing a new method right now in NA. We've made it harder to get into ranked, helping new players learn more about VALORANT and the maps before diving into the deep end, while also making it harder to make an alt-account just to smurf. We've done an investigation into smurf motivations, as well as how often it occurs. We aren't done, we have bigger ideas in the works but we h...

First, I really want to call out something that I think "humanizes" the shadowy people(me and other Rioters) that these posts seem to call out; often viewing dev's or employees as evil shadowy figures trying to manipulate their community. Most Rioters love games and play games all the time. Even if a Rioter doesn't play games, they are passionate about what they are working on and want to work on awesome things that make people happy. For example; I use to play in esports, I'm on discord every single night looking for that new exciting game for our group, I'm grinding aimlabs, raiding every Monday and Tuesday on FFXIV and this is just me - I have way too many discords full of Rioters playing games every night and hanging out. It's very rare to find someone who wants to work in a place to make a bad game, or something that is just not fun to play/manipulative because it's mentally draining to do so. We all have our opinions, but generally we know what feels bad in a game and we are ...

This is super interesting data, and a lot of what you found "makes sense to me" in terms of doing better on days you don't work etc. I know this is just your experience and matches, which can really effect your results/info but it's still interesting and a fun experiment non the less.

I definitely can see attitude can go a long way. I mean, "flow state" is a thing and outside forces can pull you out of it or essentially make you overthink and play incorrectly. It's a meme, but really the moment you are toxic you are turning the game into a 4v6.

Thank you for all the conversations we've had about ranked and matchmaking, and I look forward to whatever you work on next!