Valorant supports say ranking system stacked against them

Buzz has been circulating within the Valorant community that support players are being unfairly judged by the ranking system.

The vast majority of multiplayer-focused games have had some sort of complaint about the way the ranking system determines where players sit on the leaderboard. Valorant is no exception, and because it is so early in the game’s life, it’s only natural for there to be growing pains in the rankings.

A number of players have come together on Reddit to discuss the matter, with many agreeing that the algorithms that determine rankings favor those who play more offensive heroes over those who help their teams. Determining player rank is always a delicate affair, but Riot Games’ love of first blood and multi-kills makes things quite a bit harder for healers and defense-focused agents. 

Why are Valorant’s support agents harder to rank up?

The ranking system seems to be heavily weighted by a player’s average combat score, which has a tendency to determine that support players are not contributing much to the outcome of the game. Combat scores often suggest that duelists contribute more, and therefore have a higher combat score and gain ranks faster than someone who plays a support character. Though support agents could hypothetically make up for it by taking bigger risks, that’s more difficult than just playing a duelist and puts their team at a disadvantage.

Another reason is that support characters don’t often draw first blood, particularly on attack, and those points are worth far more points in determining rank. Support players are more likely to get clutch kills at the end of a match, but that likely won’t be enough to make up the difference.

Will Riot fix Valorant ranking troubles?

Players are now understandably frustrated with the system. Many suggested that kill points be adjusted to reflect this issue. For example, if a player is the last one standing and takes out almost an entire enemy team by themselves, those kills should be weighted accordingly. There is currently no reward for a player going from being the last one standing against five other players to winning the match besides the opportunity for a multi-kill bonus.

Riot has already adjusted the way that rankings are handled in the past, but fans are urging them to reconsider the weight of the rankings rather than the structure. There’s no word from Riot about this as of yet.