New Ascendent Valorant rank may help you escape ELO hell

Fariha Bhatti Published 16/06/2022

Hard-stuck silvers have prompted Riot Games to whip up a whole new rank, with the new Ascendant rank coming to Valorant. 

You’re not the only one stuck in silver. It turns out most Valorant players are struggling to get out of bronze and other low ranks. Statistics reveal that about 35.3% of players are Silver, the highest percentage number of any rank. This saturation has created an imbalance in Valorant ELO, prompting the developer to introduce a brand new rank badge. 

Valorant had a progress problem. The rank pipeline gets clogged as soon as players enter silver. Famously called the “ELO hell,” silver became any player’s worst nightmare. Riot is hoping that introducing a new rank will help create more movement for players stuck on the ladder. 

How does the new rank Ascendant work in Valorant? 

In order to better distribute players across ranks, the developer has added an additional rank dubbed Ascendant between Diamond and Immortal. Here’s how it’ll work. 

Fewer ranks in Valorant made ranking up harder for new players. Adding Ascendant will reduce the MMR required to climb the ladder, potentially making it easier to escape ELO hell. Ultimately, players under Ascendant will go up in rank post-update as Riot has moved the rank MMR targets that determine rank down. Immortal players and above will see the MMR cap will go up, making the climb harsher. 

Platinum players or below should have an easier time ranking up when compared to previous acts. Better distribution of ELO will allow for more evenly distributed matches. The new system will ideally push deserving players towards Ascendant to reduce overpopulation in silver and gold.

Due to increased MMR targets on Immortal and above, the leaderboard population in all regions may be reduced. The competition for higher ranks will eventually get more cutthroat, but Valorant Episode 5 should be breezy. 

“Next time we reset ranks, it will probably push you down more than this Episode’s reset. Please remember that the “less harsh” reset is unique to this Episode because of the introduction of Ascendant,” Riot said. 

It’s worth noting that the previous maximum placement cap has also been moved to Ascendant 1 from Diamond 1. At the beginning of each episode, high-ranked players will now land in Ascendant if they’re worthy. The rest will be placed into their respective ELO. 

Who can play with Ascendant players? 

Grouping restrictions for Ascendant are three ranks above or below the Ascendant ranked player.

By adding another rank, Riot has pushed the five-stack penalty and solo-duo restrictions into Immortal. Five stacking’s 25% RR penalty now starts at Immortal one, changed from the previous Diamond 3. So low-rank players should be able to stack with friends with minimal RR damage. 

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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