Valorant Devs Explain How Ranked Rating and MMR Works

Ranked Rating and MMR in Valorant are used interchangeably but Riot Games has not officially laid out how the ranked system works. Developers have shared their inputs on how the system works on Reddit in the past but now we finally have a complete overview of the ranked rating and MMR systems in Valorant. Valorant’s ranked system has been criticized a lot in the recent past with some players experiencing a loss in MMR despite maintaining a positive win rate. In response to these criticisms, Riot Games shared details on the MMR system and explained how it really works in a blog post. 

Valorant MMR is Not the Same as Ranked Rating

Even though Valorant’s MMR and Ranked Rating are used interchangeably by players, they are not the same according to Competitive Designer Jon Walker and Producer Ian Fielding. They revealed that VALORANT uses a Match Making Rating (MMR) system to target your performance skill level. MMR is a giant ladder, consisting of all players. If you win, you climb up and push others down. Alternatively, if you lose, you get pushed down by others. No two players can tie, or take up the same spot on the ladder.

MMR is a fairly fluid system that can potentially change substantially game to game. We’ve kept this slightly decoupled from your visible rank and RR so we can make sure that you don’t experience wild swings in your rank or instantly demote after a promotion.

Ranked Rating is separate from your MMR. You will never see your MMR—it’s what Riot Games uses to create fair matches. The blog post revealed, “when you queue into ranked for the first time, or after an Episode reset, we have an idea of where your “Rank” belongs because we rely on your MMR as a guideline. Unfortunately we only have an “idea,” so we place you on the low end of where we think you belong.”

• If your MMR is higher than your rank, you’ll gain more RR on wins than you lose on losses
• If your MMR is even with your rank, you’ll gain and lose closer amounts of RR for wins and losses
• If your MMR is lower than your rank, you’ll gain less RR on wins and lose more on losses

Changes Are In the Works to Valorant MMR and Ranked Rating Systems

Riot Games is investigating solutions to prevent your Rank from pulling well ahead of your MMR, as well as trying to figure out if the developers can make it feel better when it occurs. The team has promised tweaks to RR gains in future Acts. They said “We are also always listening and will continue to communicate our changes in patch notes and social media.”

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