Valorant's competitive ranked mode is now live

M Alzamora Published 23/06/2020

Less than a month after Valorant officially released, Riot Games is sending the shooter’s competitive mode to its live servers.

During the beta, Valorant’s top rank was named after the game. It is now called Radiant. Players can start their grind to Radiant rank in Valorant’s competitive play starting when the game updates to 1.02.

Pros and fans have clamored for the release of Valorant’s ranked mode, and its announcement is finally live. Riot Games announced that they will officially release the game’s ranked mode with update 1.02, alongside several changes to the game’s weapons and agents. The update also features a surrender option for when games get a little too one-sided, as well as an adjustment to “tagging.”

When bullets hit players in Valorant they slow the player’s speed, but Riot’s change means that the effect will lessen when the player is closer to cover. The change gives players more of a chance to escape when under fire by lowering the stopping power of tagging by 10% and doubling the amount of time it takes for the slow to reach its full effect.

the change to tagging ???? pic.twitter.com/QsJI19MW59
— Valorant Leaks & Updates (@ValorantUpdated) June 23, 2020

Valorant Ranked update buffs Viper, adds Cypher fixes

Viper was the first agent to see changes in Valorant’s 1.02 update. Her Snake Bite ability will now apply a debuff to players called “fragile,” making them more vulnerable to damage. This allows Viper’s team to properly punish any players that decide to push through her smokes. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Viper’s Poison Orb has had its activation cooldown increased by .5 seconds to a total of 6.

Jett and Reyna were two other agents that Riot adjusted. Jett’s Blade Storm ultimate now refreshes when it kills Phoenix during his own ultimate, Run it Back, and Reyna’s soul orbs are spawned when she kills an ulting Phoenix.

Riot targeted Cypher and his cameras yet again, fixing a few more bugs that could allow players to place the agent’s cameras in unintended places and also fixing a bug in which a camera could prevent a defending player from disarming the spike.

Valorant’s new update also changed several angles on Ascent, Bind, and Split to make them easier to clear. While they were at it, Riot also made changes to the main menu UI to make most buttons and other visible options do the same thing, no matter what page a player is on. This should improve the logical flow of the game’s menu.

Players have been waiting to get their hands on Valorant’s ranked mode since the game’s beta ended at the beginning of June, and now they finally can. Valorant’s 1.02 update goes live on June 23.

M Alzamora

About M Alzamora

There are few things that writer M Alzamora loves more in life than Pokemon. And there are even fewer things that she loves more than her favorite Pokemon, Eevee. But M’s appreciation for gaming isn’t just limited to Nintendo’s famous pocket monsters. She’s interested in every type of game across every genre of gaming, and she has the credentials to prove it. M’s work has also been seen on Working Classicists and gaming sites.

View full profile