For me, Valorant is likely one of the most pleasurable aggressive video games on the market. Their recreation design, character design, artwork, and neighborhood are all top-notch. The sport evolves at a gentle tempo, with brokers and maps being continuously launched yr over yr, making it tougher and tougher to relearn the scene.
Nevertheless, I observed one obvious distinction between my time of taking part in a whole bunch of video games in every act again in 2023 and attempting it once more in 2026 – the ranks had been extra indistinguishable than ever and felt actually empty, at the very least for my expertise on SEA servers.
Ranks Felt Like Simply an Empty Title Other than the High 1%
I’ve queued a number of video games over the previous month simply to attempt it out once more. The sport positioned me at Gold 1, however my earlier rank was Ascendant. Did I carry out nicely throughout my placement matches? I imagine so, however that wasn’t the issue.
All through the video games, I observed that nearly each match had a smurf account or a weapon with a Diamond/Ascendant/Immortal buddy, however they had been taking part in within the Silver/Gold/Platinum as a result of that’s their present rank.
Whereas the sport remains to be pleasurable competitively, it actually feels just like the ranks don’t matter as a lot anymore. Gamers who don’t play the sport religiously might have their rank decay and get caught in limbo, which is the case for lots of the playerbase and contributes to the identical situation.
The outcome? There are video games I might queue in and drop round 30-40 kills, however on the similar time, have video games the place we might completely get shredded by one Waylay or Jett. It’s unbelievable how usually a majority of these matches occur, and I simply need to skip to the half the place everyone seems to be on an equal stage so I can know my actual rank and discover a extra aggressive match.
At this level, it looks as if a pipe dream till I spend an ungodly quantity of hours taking part in the sport and grinding out the ranks once more.
In a method, my matches felt prefer it was only a random unrated match with gamers being extra poisonous when issues don’t go their method. The ranks really feel so empty, however perhaps other than those that stored up and stayed on the Ascendant/Immortal/Radiant ranges.
In that present scenario, I nonetheless loved going again to Valorant and studying concerning the new brokers, maps, agent reworks, and even new weapons after the lengthy hiatus. The Outlaw and the Bandit was a large shock, since I believed that each single “sort” of weapon would’ve been coated already – who would’ve thought a center floor between a Ghost and a Sheriff could be so satisfying?
And one final level: it’s so satisfying that Clove’s existence would repair the lack-of-controller gamers situation the sport had again after I was taking part in. A really aggressive controller, nearly like a pseudo-duelist, might fill the thirst of gamers going for exchanges whereas additionally filling the necessity for a smoker on the workforce.
For individuals who additionally performed throughout Valorant’s peak and need to begin once more, it does get higher and is value wanting into once more!
