“I cannot entry with Viper,” an instalocked Raze player shouted as I hovered over her portrait in the Agent Select screen of a competitive Fracture VALORANT game. I sighed, knowing what was about to come.
The past couple of weeks have been a roller coaster ride. Having endured a series of unnerving match outcomes in VALORANT Competitive and devastating misfortune in my games, I am now exhausted, but there couldn’t possibly be a better time to let my inner critic out.
It’s safe to say that Episode Seven hasn’t been what I had hoped for. Armed with training routines and new “aim bot” skins, I was determined to soar past Diamond, a rank I had been hard stuck on since Episode Five. Well, 20 matches after, here I am, still in Platinum One, struggling to get back to my proven Elo, let alone Ascendant and beyond.
Riot Games thinks it’s a great idea to demote players down two ranks every Episode and have them prove their last achieved rank yet again. Not for me it isn’t. It messes up my MMR, leading to chaotic matchmaking in the first few weeks of an Episode.
Some players get lucky in that commotion, reaching their proven Elo early, while others are left behind, having to endure painful low-rank lobbies all over again. In the meantime, undeserving players continue to get boosted by smurfs, so the hard rank reset is usually for nothing.
Episode Seven put me back to Platinum One from Diamond Three, which was fine for the first couple of weeks since most Diamond players were demoted to Platinum as well. As a working professional, however, I don’t play VALORANT all day, so I can’t climb back to where I should be as quickly as others. I like to queue three-five matches and play with all my focus instead of lining up nonstop with no goal.
Related: VALORANT’s ranked system explained
Unfortunately, in the few matches I play, my teammates refuse to coordinate and throw winnable rounds. If I win three games, thanks to a good team, I lose five right after because of a disconnected player, a 3-21 duelist, or toxicity within the team. Being a woman in one of the most toxic VALORANT servers—Mumbai—doesn’t help either.
Do you believe in a loser’s queue? I do. Unless they’re incredibly unlucky, why else would anyone keep getting simultaneously matched with “boosted” teammates who struggle to even plant the Spike and face Immortal opponents who blatantly smurf? To make matters worse, I usually queue solo, which makes ranking up even more difficult.
Not to forget, the smurf problem doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Riot just cannot seem to take any successful action against those who think it’s fun to demotivate players trying to improve their skills and climb out of their Elo. Despite announcing new smurf detection algorithms and updates occasionally, Riot has repeatedly failed to contain the problem.
The company’s failure towards controlling smurfs is also fueling an obnoxious account-selling business, heavily affecting low Elo lobbies, especially the Iron, Bronze, and Silver ones. Some may even say that the developers have no intention to stop smurfing since it helps creators dish out content that, sadly, sells.
Players have reported facing literal bot lobbies—these are initiated by sellers who seek to get accounts to level 20 to unlock Ranked so they can sell them to smurfs. Prices for these accounts can go quite high if cosmetics are included. Some of these bot-fueled accounts even go for free, boosting the smurfing problem even further.
Although, smurfing isn’t my biggest problem since I have managed to get past the Gold Elo hell, where the issue is most rampant. I would rather focus on things like the flawed remake system, AFK penalties, hidden MMR system, and throwers, all requiring immediate fixing.
Let’s start with the remake system. The other day, I queued with my duo, and unfortunately, they disconnected in the first round due to an internet hiccup. I was happy that they disconnected early; we could remake—right? Well, Riot’s system slapped me hard.
My duo disconnected in the middle of the first round, so they spawned in the next, preventing us from remaking the match. I just don’t understand this concept. It was right there, the remake button, but we were denied. We ended up playing the match four-vs-five.
The remake system in VALORANT has been criticized for a long time, with players urging Riot to introduce more options to cancel a match beyond just the second round. It’s sad that we are left with nothing to do if a teammate disconnects in the second or third round. In my case, they disconnected in the first round, but it wasn’t enough.
In some cases, I have had players refusing to remake, which begs the question: Why is there a requirement for all four players to vote for a remake?
I understand that remaking a match harms the fast-paced experience Riot is trying to provide, but it’s certainly better than having to play the match with one man down. Surrendering a game is fine with requiring five votes, but not this.
I am also overwhelmed with the number of throwers I get in my matches. All it takes is losing a round for one of my teammates to announce that they’re throwing the entire match. Riot has a system to report players who sabotage or purposefully remain AFK in the game, but is it any good?
Related: VALORANT players agree their most toxic teammates main these 2 agents
None of my reports against throwers ever got addressed, and I swear I had a throwing Phoenix send a 100-word message declaring that they’re a “professional thrower” and that he won’t allow his team to win the match at any cost. The proof was there in the chat, so what is Riot looking for in reports?
All of my reports regarding team sabotaging or verbal abuse have been ignored by Riot—so far. Yes, I can record and send such experiences. But I don’t want to. What’s the in-game report system for then? Honestly, no one should have to record instances of toxicity and throwing and spoon-feed the support team for it to take action.
We lost a very winnable match that day, thanks to Phoenix picking up our Spike, dealing us damage with his Hot Hands and Blaze, and announcing the team’s location on chat.
One thing that Riot is passionate about is AFK penalties. Players who disconnect in between matches are slapped with long-enough timers, even if the team chooses not to report them. But does it effectively discourage such behavior? I don’t think so.
Legit players who AFK are often forced to do so because of an internet or electricity hiccup. Slapping them with a seven-day ban doesn’t sound fair when there are players who play on alternate accounts and deliberately disconnect to throw a match. They don’t even care if they get banned because they can use a different account to commit these sins.
Some players purposefully disconnect to ‘derank’ because they are unable to queue with a friend due to rank disparity. Such accounts should be permanently banned or given a much more extensive time-out.
My biggest problem with VALORANT Competitive has to be the MMR system. In an era where players buy accounts, smurf, and get boosted to ranks they don’t deserve, I really want to know how the system works in its exact form; it being covert isn’t helping anyone.
Unfortunately, most competitive games use a hidden rating among a couple of systems to determine your rank. It lets the game offer the rank you deserve while taking into account how other players in your level are performing.
While the MMR system may seem harmless and even helpful in most cases, players have reported messy and unfair matchmaking, especially at the beginning of a competitive Act. And the presence of boosted players—those who play with smurfs to get to a higher rank—and purchased accounts doesn’t make it any easier.
Not to forget, the instalocking—exactly what it sounds like, players simply picking their agent immediately—Jett’s and Reyna’s on my team who just can’t be the duelist they want to be. In Platinum-Diamond lobbies, they are either lurkers or commit to overly aggressive plays, leaving the team a man down almost every time.
I remember my Gold games and the time when I was a Viper main; I acted as the team’s duelist more than half the time. Having experienced idiot duelist mains, I can sympathize with low Elo controller and initiator mains—the stress isn’t worth it.
Still, it infuriates me when an instalocking duelist forces me to pick a particular agent. If you can instalock a hit-or-miss, good-for-nothing duelist like Reyna on a map like Pearl, I am allowed to pick my choice of controller or initiator too.
All that being said, Riot isn’t the worst developer, which is clear from its attempts to offer a balanced experience with VALORANT. For example, in early 2022, the developers had teased an upcoming cascading agent pick system aimed at reducing instances of instalocking. While it was a potential solution, the idea was met with significant communal backlash, so its fate is currently unknown.
Recently, Riot slapped the developer of a popular third-party application, Recon Bolt, with a cease-and-desist notice. Recon Bolt allowed players to lock agents before the Agent Select screen could load up, giving users the edge to pick their choice of agents. It going away is a huge win considering how players have been abusing it to instalock Jett and Reyna since its release.
Riot also constantly updates the competitive meta to keep the experience fresh and prevent players from abusing a broken tactic over and over again. Agents receive reworks, buffs, and nerfs on a regular basis, while maps receive changes too, all based on player feedback.
It’s the VALORANT Competitive experience that just doesn’t appeal to me anymore, and although I will keep returning to it due to my compulsiveness, it has become more stressful and luck-based than the adrenaline-rushing competitive environment I look for in a shooter.
Riot has been overly focusing on cosmetics and the esports meta and in the process, ignoring the state of the ranked ladder, which is plagued with throwers, cheaters, and smurfs who devastate the experience for us, the casual player base.
Will it get better? I don’t think so, not at this time. The problems are too widespread, and it will take a lot of effort on Riot’s part to eliminate them completely in the near future. For now, I am off for a (short) break from VALORANT’s miserable ranked experience. Maybe Overwatch 2 will be more fun for a change.
