When mentally preparing for playing ranked VALORANT, the biggest question one can ask themselves is whether to find teammates to play with or jump into the queue by themselves.
Players in the competitive queue can queue either solo, as a duo or trio, or as a full stack of five (only groups of four are not allowed to queue together to avoid placing a solo player with a four stack). There are many reasons for and against both going in solo and bringing a full team into competitive, but did you know there’s a way to see which style has been more effective?
How to check your solo queue, duo, trio, or five-stack results in competitive VALORANT
Tracker.gg, one of the go-to sites I use for tracking my personal agent stats and rank rating gains, actually features a “party size breakdown” section that tells you your specific K/D, win ratio, and average scoreboard place matches played in solo, duo, trio, and five-stack queue.
The section was a little hard for me to find at first, but you can get there by following these steps:
- Go to tracker.gg, log in with your Riot account connected, and then go to the VALORANT section.
- Click on your profile button (the big red button with your VALORANT in-game name on it).
- Click on the Matches tab, and then select Competitive. You will have to select a specific act to look at the data.
- Under the Teammates section, select View Details.
Doing this will open a Teammates window on the right-hand side, which will have your party size breakdown at the very top. Below your breakdown will be a list of all your teammates, sorted by the number of games you played with them, and their K/D, win rate, and average scoreboard placement for all matches played with you.
Should I play competitive VALORANT in solo queue or with a stack?
Don’t just use the numbers to weigh your decision between solo queue and playing with a full five stack.
If I’m looking to improve my rank rating, I would prefer to play in a five stack that has good, clear communication and is made up of five players serious about winning. But if the majority of the stack isn’t interested in playing competitively, then solo queue could be the better option. Solo queue can be a risk given you’re playing with four randoms, but the odds are good that any player queueing for ranked by themselves probably cares about winning, unless you get unlucky and are stuck with a smurf or a thrower.
Related: VALORANT competitive is in dire state despite Riot’s efforts
Some solo queue games feel like punishment, but the good ones are so much more rewarding and they restore just the tiniest bit of faith in random VALORANT players. But if you’ve got a competent, dedicated five-stack that really wants to rank up, stick with them.
