Valorant Rank System Explained [How It Works]

Updated:

27 Dec 2021

How does the rank system actually work?

I mean, besides throwing you into a game against three smurfs, with a team that has no voice chat in your promo game. Well, it’s not as complicated as you’d think!

Before we dive deep into the system, let’s talk about the basics. What are the ranks and how do you get them?

All VALORANT ranks.

The rank hierarchy is fairly simple. You have 7 ranks:

Iron
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Immortal
Radiant

Iron being the lowest and Radiant being the highest. Only the top 500 players in the region can reach Radiant. Each rank, except for Radiant, is split into 3 tiers: 1,2, and 3.

With that out of the way, how do you get your rank and how do you rank up?

You can start playing competitively after winning 10 unrated games on your fresh account. That’s when the competitive queue unlocks, but you’re not done yet. For you to get your shiny new rank, you’ll have to play 5 competitive games.

But wait a second! If you don’t have a rank, who will you get matched up against in your first competitive game?

According to Riot, you’ll get teammates and opponents based on the performance you had in your 10 unrated wins. And with that out of the way, how do you rank up after finishing those 5 competitive matches?

Well, after your first few games, you’ll be placed in a rank ranging from Iron 1 to Platinum 3. Once you get your rank, you will also receive 50 RR(Rank Rating). If you want to advance to the next rank or tier, you’ll have to win enough games to get to 100 RR. Once you rank up, the game will give you a minimum of 10 RR. That’s to help you with ranking up faster and to save you from getting demoted if you lose a game right after you rank up.

But how does demotion work in this game? Unlike in League or CS:GO, demotion in VALORANT is also straightforward. You get demoted when you lose a game whilst having 0 RR. If that happens, you get bumped down by 1 tier. Even if you have 1 RR, you’ll need to lose 2 consecutive games to get demoted.

Now that we got the basics out of the way, what do you need to know to rank up faster?

Well, there are a few things worth considering if you want to fly through the ranks.

First of all, you need to understand that individual performance matters… a lot. And I really mean that! You could be winning 10 games in a row based on your strategies and shot-callin alone, but if you’re constantly bottom fragging your RR gains won’t be huge. That’s mainly because a more supportive playstyle leads to a lower ACS (Average Combat Score), and ACS is the thing that the scoreboard focuses on.

How do you get a high ACS?

Get kills and do damage.

That’s the simplified version of it, but the system is more complex than that. The score is calculated using a variety of factors like:

The damage you did to the player you killed
How many allies were alive
How many enemies were alive
If it was a multi-kill (quad-kills and aces get a lot more points)

Besides that, you also get points for assists, but the assist system is also quite complex. Mainly because it focuses on all types of assists. So you’ll get points if:

You damage an enemy
You reveal, slow, flash, or debuff an enemy in any way
If you heal/revive an ally and they get a kill
If an enemy dies by being killed through one of your smokes

Damaging assists will count for more points than non-damaging assists.

This can get pretty confusing for new players and even for some more experienced players, but the game allows you to see your stats on a per-round basis. So if you really want to, you can analyze specific rounds to see what you did to get a high or low Combat Score.

Another thing that the rank system really appreciates is consistency.

If you play consistently above your rank’s average you’ll get more and more points, and if you’re REALLY good, you’ll even jump over a tier or two. So if you are having a really good week, you could jump from Silver 2 straight to Gold 2. If you’re not that consistent, but you're having some fantastic games, you will still get a “Performance Bonus” which gives you a bit of extra RR at the end of a match. You’ll be able to see that at the end of a game, where you’ll notice a tiny star next to the RR you gained.

Now for tips on how to rank up faster and gain more RR:

Play duelists.

Duelists specialize in getting kills and getting out of sticky situations. The more kills you get, the more points you get. But that only happens if you win, so remember to help out your team as much as possible.

Some good duelists to main, if you want to rank up, are Jett and Reyna.

Jett is the Goddess of the Operator, so you can’t really go wrong with her. And Reyna is really good at entering messy fights, killing a few players, and getting out.

But what do you do if your aim isn’t on point or if you really like playing a more supportive role?

There are a few answers to that.

You can choose to main someone like Sova or Cypher and try to be as consistent as possible with them.

With Sova, you can learn lineups for your Shock Darts to kill people at the start of the round or to do some damage. You can use them to deny plants ordefuses. You can also learn lineups for your Recon Bolt. That way you can help your team enter a site or get easy wallbang kills. A perfect map to practice lineups for would be Ascent.

With Cypher you can learn a few camera spots and a few setups for every map, and focus on a more lurk-oriented playstyle. If you’re really confident in your game sense, but not in your aim, this playstyle should help you get a lot of easy, high impact kills.

But if you don’t like either of these agents, you can always go for a more niche pick like Breach and flash your way to victory or play something like Sage and help your team from behind. There are lots of options, but they require you to put in some time and effort for them to be truly effective.