Valorant Patch 5.0 added the ‘Ascendant’ rank above Diamond and below Immortal, which has led to a lot of mixed opinions about the new rank. Many players feel that the new rank has led to a worse experience in ranked mode, especially after the introduction of the new ranked changes. Players on social media are claiming that a lot of bad players are making it to Ascendant even if they are inexperienced and are not familiar with the game’s mechanics.

Players voice their complaints about Valorant’s Ascendant rank

A lot of players who were previously gold or platinum got a boost in ranked rating and have been put into the Ascendant rank according to a recent Reddit post. But not everyone is against the new ranked system. A player pointed out, “Personally, that boost helped me out after being peak silver 3 since Episode 1 Act 2, I had a green carpet up to Plat 1 and am currently plat 2 keeping up with diamonds. I suppose it's different for everyone, but I'm definitely seeing people in diamond who don't seem as though they belong.”

The general consensus in the thread is that there are a lot of players who have found themselves in Diamond and Ascendant and they do not belong there. When the Ascendant rank was added to the game, Riot mentioned in its blog, “When we were looking at rank distribution, we realized that if we were to move some of you up and out of those lower ranks, it would overpopulate Platinum and Diamond. So by adding a new rank we can better distribute you across ranks, keep the prestige of high ranks, while helping better define the skill level of each rank.”

The new update moved down the rank matchmaking rating (MMR) targets that determine rank, due to the addition of the new Ascendant rank, for all ranks below Ascendant. The developers also moved up the ranked target for Immortal 1/2/3 and Radiant. MMR targets determine your ranked rating (RR) gains and help push your rank to match your MMR and it has led to some seemingly mixed results for some players.

Whether or not the complaints are valid is for Riot Games to decide based on the data the developers collect. Although, Riot did mention that the next time it reset ranks it will probably push players down more than patch 5.0’s reset. The previous “less harsh” reset is unique to this Episode due to the introduction of the Ascendant rank, and the system might correct itself when the next ranked reset happens.