Former CS:GO Pro Hiko Points Out Problems With VALORANT's Ranked Mode
- 100 Thieves' Hiko shared his thoughts on Valorant's ranking system which has been controversial lately.
- His teammate Steel is ranked Platinum on his main account because he is unable to find games due to how the matchmaking works.
- Riot Games is yet to address the issues with ranked play and the recent 2.0.1 didn't bring any matchmaking changes to the game.
Hiko is one of the best Valorant players globally and one of the team members of 100 Thieves, the reigning First Strike NA champions. In a recent stream, he revealed that the current ranked system in Valorant is “trash” because of how it isolates high-ranking players away from the game.
What Is Wrong With Valorant’s New Ranking System?
Hiko, during a recent live stream, revealed that his teammate 100T Steel, one of the highest-ranking players in the game, is currently stuck in Platinum on his main account. In contrast, a smurf account that Steel made was able to hit Rank 1. This highlights the point even further, with Steel claiming that his main account's hidden MMR in Platinum is possibly much higher than his Rank 1 account.
Riot decided to make all of the Valorant matchmaking use hidden MMR only instead of taking your visible in-game MMR into account. If the game thinks that you are of Radiant skill level, you will find players of that skill level regardless of their current rank. While it sounds fair for most players and ensures proper matchmaking when it works correctly, pro players who are among the top 0.01% cannot find matches and are resorting to creating smurf accounts.
Another recent example of the ranked matchmaking system being completely broken is TenZ’s frustrations with the queue times. Cloud9 TenZ is a former professional player who turned to streaming and content creation recently. He has held the #1 spot in Valorant multiple times and has been among the world's top-performing players. He could not find matches for 24 hours when patch 2.0 went live and was forced to play on an alternate account. These queue issues have led to less skilled players having an easier time climbing and go up the leaderboards.
Valorant fans are not happy with smurf accounts running amok, but with players being forced to create accounts to play the game, there is no option for high-Radiant players but to abandon their own accounts to get into matches. Riot Games released patch 2.0.1 yesterday, but there are no fixes in sight to improve the current system that everyone has been complaining about. With several pro players complaining about the current system, including C9’s Keeoh, 100T Steel, 100T Hiko, and TenZ, we can expect the devs to address the issue sooner or later.
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