Master Your Skills: How to Rank Up in Valorant?

Looking to climb the ranks in Valorant but not sure how to do it?

We explore key strategies to help you rank up in this popular tactical shooter game.

From understanding the ranking system to improving your skills and communication with your team, we cover essential tips to help you reach higher ranks like Platinum, Diamond, or even Radiant.

So, buckle up and get ready to level up your game in Valorant!

What Is Valorant?

Valorant is described as a highly-competitive, tactical, first-person shooter game for the PC developed by Riot Games, which specializes in the development of MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games. It was first teased under the codename of Project A in October 2019 and went into closed beta in April 2020. The Valorant game was released without the beta tag on June 2, 2020.

The purpose of the game is to be among the best teams of five players out of 14 in a round-based elimination competitive mode. One team named Attackers tries to plant a bomb known as the Spike at Bombsites called A or B and protect it to win the round. The opposing team called Defenders tries to stop them from planting and then defuse the spike or eliminate the entire enemy team.

Arounds are played in 24 rounds, with the first team to 13 won rounds declared the winner. Defenders and Attackers switch every twelve rounds. Players fill key roles and participate in spices and characters with special abilities. Strategic team play and game knowledge provide a significant competitive advantage. Valorant can be played on Windows PCs only and is offered as free-to-play software. Riot Games sells an in-game currency called Valorant Points for transactions.

How To Rank Up In Valorant?

Play better, more consistently, and play with the same group of people. Improving at Valorant can be difficult, as it requires time, patience, and skill. However, more opportunities in a team-based environment as opposed to a purely individual environment can often yield greater results. By playing as a team, you may be able to counter the downsides of Agent imbalances, as your teammates can tell you which Agents you’re playing against. You can also coordinate attacks and map positions which could further help your cause. In general, forming a team of four friends or three friends (yourself included) seems to correlate with ranking up, according to a statistics study by U.GG.

Understand The Ranking System

The Valorant ranking system enables the fair pairing of competitively equal players into matches, after which each player’s individual performance is evaluated through their team’s success. The ranking system in Valorant has the following components:

1. 8 Rank Tiers: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal, and Radiant are the names of the eight ranks on the Valorant leaderboard.
2. 3 Rank Levels: There are three separate rankings within each rank and title.
3. Moving Between Ranks and Levels: Competitive is the primary mode that affects your rank. You will advance to the next rank if you reach 100 match rank points in the top level of your rank, and fall into the previous one if you reach 0 match rank points in the lowest rank.
4. Personal Performance: Hiring system takes into account the individual contribution of each player and how it affects the team’s chances of winning. Therefore, even though a player is the top scoring player of both teams, they could lose MVP points if their team loses the match.
5. Winning Probability: To determine the ranking change, the estimated likelihood of winning and losing is used.
6. Starting Teams’ Average Rank: To measure the skill levels of all players before the match begins, the estimated likelihood of each game is used.

The following Valorant-specific definitions and flowchart summaries the basics of how the ranking system works.

Practice And Improve Your Skills

Practice and work on your skills. Your aim, mechanical mechanics, gamesense, and communication skills are key components of what makes a player good at this game. If you are not already doing it consistently, here are some of the ways you can focus on improving specific skills in Valorant according to the following:

• Improve Aiming
• Improve Mechanical Mechanics
• Improve Game Sense
• Improve Communication and Coordination Skills

Define similar skills I will find the link.

Communicate Effectively With Your Team

Communicating effectively with your team is important and is probably one of the most important tactical elements of Valorant. Voice and chat systems are built-in as with all Riot Games games so there is no excuse not to be at least a listener. You can play without using a microphone during the early stages of the match but it is very useful to give and receive information in the late game.

It is important that this communication stays positive and does not promote blaming others. It is always important to provide a quick after-action report on what went wrong during a lost round for refining strategies.

1. Encourage teammates by giving verbal support with phrases like ‘good job’
2. Be specific in your callouts with clear and brief descriptions of the enemy’s location
3. Provide a positive attitude even if you are losing

Take advice from the best Valorant players. David J. Chong^sic^ (Playoffs Analyst of Valorant Champions Tour for North America) describes the necessity of communication with your team by giving the following example in a YouTube video by GamerzClass. Chong stresses in the video that people listening are very valuable in the sense that you are getting extra information from your teammates. For example, during the tournament a player like Furlan is going to be looking at specific parts of a minimap correctly to feed information back to his team that they’re not even looking at. Saying ‘Okay everyone be quiet, I need to hear that information’ is a good leadership skill if you are at the top of the team in Valorant.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Mistakes are part of learning and they are especially relevant in ranked play because they result in MMR loss when repeated. Records show that the only major Valorant tournament that BBL‘s team has won was a local tournament right after the Turkish launch of the game.

ILoveGames, talented choker, criticizes the fact that Vodafone Giants is the only team that earns default rounds and major tournaments are not played at ISO’s home arena so ISO can freely bring a cat. Both criticize Riot‘s rule of players having to play at their registered residence with “roommates” counting, whereas Ball C, Derke, Lowell benefit at home compared to their previous situation of playing in a separate office.

Mistakes in ranked play happen because players misjudge situations, lack experience, or they simply mess up. Especially at lower skill levels, a significant fraction of mistakes like whiffing shots or failing to full-clear a crucial corner can be avoided simply by calming down and playing Valorant more slowly.

According to Mythic’s leader, Valorant is a slow game and playing those 3v3 clutch rounds, the pop flash that executes onto a site and part that moment all add up. You need to have that muscle memory from playing those different spots as well. So, when you’re just always running around and expecting the opponent to be dumb, you’re never going to improve. You need to play more games and put the time in with the aim trainers. It’s not a fix overnight so don’t feel too bad if you’re not improving there.

Study The Maps And Strategies

This point is straightforward, even if that doesn’t mean easy. Each map has a fixed set of strategies, and every rank has a common meta. The majority of serious or professional Valorant players learn these established strategies by watching how others achieve them then practice by playing that strategy. A vocal leader calling out the strategy and leading their teammates will help coordinate the whole team.

This can be synchronized by watching professional highlight matches, limit-testing in ranked, or trying out on Spike Rush. Eventually, the best strategy is reduced until it can be committed to memory. Everyone else in a similar rank learns it too, meaning that knowledge works both for and against someone trying to improve competitive ranking. Strategies can be pushed too hard and other strategies developed as quick counters. To get amongst them yourself, splits in half or more teams can be a viable option.

On defense, adopt the strategy of two defenders pushing together down an isolated corridor and two holding the main push. On offense, practice a coordinated 2-3 split where three from your team push one avenue and distract several of the defenders and a single pressure hitter paired with a difficult to eliminate support player take a second avenue and strike from a different direction to prevent wall banging. Teams faced with strange strategies seem less coordinated and tend not to counter as effectively.

The Valorant match titled “D2E vs Veloce Esports” is a professional match showcasing the advantages of halfway splits.

Find A Good Team To Play With

Find and play with friends and other players who are also looking to get a higher rank. It will be far easier to succeed in your mission if all your teammates are on the same page regarding roles, gameplay, strategies, and even the agents used. When playing with random opponents, it is up to your teammates and how they position themselves, as well as their skills that are needed to win the game. Therefore, it is best to play as much as possible with other players who are after the same objective.

Stay Focused And Positive

Unpredictable environments and tonalities of teammates can invoke negativity and frustration if not managed properly. Do not forget that teammates cannot hear your voice or see your body language. Therefore, always be sure to use pings to communicate with your team, to congratulate them on good plays, and to never go too hard on them for their mistakes even if they are having poor games.

If someone is antagonizing you or consistently underperforming and it is hindering your experience, simply mute them. Consistency and staying positive is such an important aspect of ranking up because over time all of those unpredictable matches will favor you if you are performing at a high level.

Stay fresh when it comes to your mental space. Overexerting yourself is not going to solve that problem. So make sure you take care of yourself mentally outside of the game as well. Your personal mental health is important! Being in a good mood and feeling good is half the battle when trying to rank up.

Take Breaks And Rest

Completing all of my promotion matches feels very important to me, and when these do not go well, I take a short break… If you are unhappy with how you are playing that day and have the time to play another day, it can be advantageous to simply stop playing.

In his research for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Brian Gregory Danaher talked of how it is well established that mental fatigue, particularly when related to attention tasks, has a negative influence on symptom ratings and decrements in functional performance in neurological diseases. For those of us still healthy, shifts in the end goal of everyday tasks may suggest that when we are feeling mentally fatigued, it may be a good idea to take a break.

It is generally a good idea to take a short break every few games even if one feels mentally fresh. Valorant is a game that requires focus, as is maintaining a thread of the context for the best way to respond to someone. These need rest. Researchers writing for the Harvard Business Review council speak of how it is rare for a person to have continuous high energy all day.

So in the case of feeling generally tired, or to help prevent arising tiredness during the course of a gaming day, one should take a lot of short and few long breaks – for a total of two or three hours rest spread over the course of the day. This is equally important if not more than a good night’s sleep.

What Are The Different Ranks In Valorant?

The different ranks in Valorant are Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal, and Radiant. Each rank has three tiers except Radiant which has one tier. A new ranking system called Episode 3 will remove the Agent rank and adjust the placement of ranks within the overall user base. This business decision was announced by Riot in September of 2021, and the update should drop before Episode 4 starts. The ranks from lowest to highest (based on yen emoji used by Riot in the announcement) are I I I (Iron), II II II (Bronze), III III III (Silver), III II II (Gold), Flat (Platinum), Diamond, Immortal, and Radiant.

Iron

Iron is the lowest tier ranking in Valorant. Players are awarded an RR (Rank Rating) of 0 and generally have little mechanical skills or situational awareness. They are often characterized by game controls not worked out well due to technical issues or poor internet, as well as a lack of familiarity with in-game roles and the ability of their agents.

Games in Iron rank feel chaotic as a player’s team may constantly run around the map without strategy or cooperation.

Bronze

This tier of play gives fewer promotions and features slightly more frequent demotions. Bronze tier (formerly tiers 4, 3, and 2) represents the average player. Bronze players generally have a good understanding of the game but struggle at aiming and are less consistent than higher-tiered players.

Rise from Bronze 1 to Iron 1 through two full promotions or prevent falling back to Iron by consistently performing well in key statistics (see Bronze 2 in the Burningship Solution’s Ranking Up middle tiers diagram) in the following ways.

1. Continue to focus on crosshair placement, mastering headshots, and refining snap accuracy while moving your crosshair onto opponents.
2. Expand on coordinating with your team to capitalize on their strategies and pushes, and practice simple strategies they provide.
3. Watch or read beginner guides.

Silver

The average Silver Valorant player displays medium skill levels marked by good knowledge of shooting mechanics and little map and agent knowledge. Silver has three tiers whose ranking progresses analogously to higher tiers. It requires between 1,500 and 5,700 Valorant Points to rise to high Silver as players’ skills improve, based on the assumption that only 7,000 VP activities are played.

Gamer Sensei locates these players in the 40th to 69th percentile of all players. To effectively get out of Silver, players should participate in practice competitions, learn to constantly manage their economy, and develop communication skills to convey their strategies and coordinate with their team.

Gold

Reaching Gold level ranges from only 10% of all players in the world on Europe and Brazil servers to 39% from the Turkey server. As you advance from lower to higher ranks, the amount of match input required to advance becomes greater and greater.

In Iron 2, a player can advance with just 244 match inputs. However, in Gold 1 a European player may need up to 1,120 match inputs. This often results in such periods of boredom and low-match concentration. If you have played your role effectively across the previous 5 ranks and steadily learned more agents and roles, you will only need to focus on the finer details here. Entry Fraggers, Duelists and Support players in Iron, Silver, or Bronze should emerge as mature Entry Fraggers and Duelists in Gold.

So here, the biggest goal is finding coordination with your Initiator & Controller players. Other goals include mapping every level of every map, ensuring you can maximize your effectiveness. Closely watch this video and imitate their game sense to learn how it changes with the map in which they are playing. Also, keep in mind this is the first rank that many players find onerously competitive. Many scouts wonder if people in gold have ever kicked a ball, or spent their formative years in North Korea (Seda FK VTK video).

Platinum

At Platinum rank, players can reach the Gold rank thanks to team play and they can maintain a Platinum rank even after a loss due to skill improvement and to consistently playing to achieve the best possible score.

At this level of competition outlined in these tips, players should have a large number of agents unlocked and be able to select the best agent for their situation. Another play change made at this rank is the switch from difficult agents to the Viper or Skye agents, eliminating the risk of not making mistakes with more difficult agents and ensuring the player can focus entirely on improving skills. Finally, players should start mastering lesser-used maps to increase their utility around the board.

Diamond

Diamond is the second-highest Valorant ranking after Radiant. Players may be promoted or relegated based on their performance. Players ranked Diamond and below must have their Act Rank equal to or higher than the designated ranking for the duration of the Episode to retain their rank. Diamond players still get a 10-RR safety buffer where they cannot drop back from Diamond 1 to Diamond 2, even if their MMR significantly drops. Any loss that brings a player to the zero-RR mark will result in a compulsory time penalty, taking them back to their previous tier if it reaches one win, and an additional time penalty of one week if they play an additional game. Diamond is the pinnacle for many players, and becoming 100% a professional player is not a necessity. Despite this, many skilled players often queue for competitive matches in the hope of being picked up by talent scouts or organizations. To progress in Valorant to a higher rank, players must gain a complete understanding of Clash. Besides that, Players should have a good handle on positioning, tactics, and gun recoil. Players should be reviewed by colleagues as well. Switching to a higher poll rate mouse is also done by many players who have successfully reached the higher Diamond ranks, although this need not occur.

Immortal

Immortal is the fifth highest rank in Valorant. Just as with Diamond, Immortal has a number of tiers. Immortal contains Immortal I, Immortal II, and Immortal III. These sub-ranks are there to better help players improve their games and achieve the glory of Radiant. You can be an average Immortal player (Immortal I), a good one (Immortal II), or a brilliant one (Immortal III), according to Riot Games.

The Immortal rank does not have any level tiers and progresses directly into Radiant which is reserved for the top 500 players of the region. Once you reach Radiant, you get your place in your region’s Radiant leader board beyond this rank which makes it the only rank in Valorant that works without any level tier.

Immortal rank in Valorant does the following:

• Improves team-oriented strategies for ultimate round wins.
• Improves Individual Agents gameplay for getting kills on other agents.
• Improves economic strategies, like purchasing guns and shields wisely on win or lose streaks.
• Teaches better use of skills and map knowledge.
• Focuses on playing clutch rounds more often.
• Targets a better KDA and other gameplay metrics for a better understanding of performance.

Radiant

Radiant is the highest rank in Valorant and designated for less than 0.1% of players. Reaching Radiant means you are in the top 0.1% of the competitive ladder for Valorant players in your region. Reaching Radiant is a rare and difficult achievement that comparatively few players ever will. To put this in perspective, if 100,000 people are playing Valorant in your region right now, only 15 of the most highly-skilled among them will possess the Radiant rank.

For the foreseeable future, reaching Radiant means you are a top-tier player in your region, and with ranked players still in the millions, you will undoubtedly be one of the few elite few among all of those players. Not only that, but you are likely a regular competitor in professionally competitive player leagues, maybe even participating in official Riot Games run or affiliated Valorant global and regional matches. As of October 2021, Radiant is split into five levels, with Radiant V being the lowest rank, but the only integer rank before dropping entirely to the next tier below.

What Are The Rewards For Ranking Up In Valorant?

The rewards for ranking up in Valorant include receiving a higher rank, playing with more skilled teammates and opponents, queuing with players with more game sense and experience, and receiving more competitive points at the end of the season. The rewards keep getting better as you rank up, assuming you are playing at your level. With higher ranks come better in-game rewards and progression. Players who are working on increasing their rank in Valorant should practice with similar-ranked friends to increase their cahnces.

What Are Some Common Mistakes That Can Prevent Ranking Up In Valorant?

• Ego peeking: Overconfidence and getting too aggressive in peaking and gunfights before the team is prepared, leading to an unfair disadvantage against the other team and an increase in death count.
• Not listening to team communication: Not communicating with the team as well as not paying attention to what others are telling you (e.g. an enemy’s location, or asking for a rescue).
• Improper crosshair placement: Aiming at the ground not in the direction an enemy may be coming from. This will likely result in a death as your weapon will not automatically be in attack position and ready to respond.
• Neglecting basic navigation: Not understanding the fundamental positions in a particular map, or failing to properly assist entry fraggers, can result in an unfavorable outcome.

Other mistakes that incur less significant consequences but can also prevent ranking up in valorant include the following. Improper weapon recoil control. Bad communication habits. Neglecting basic aim and shooting drills. Not paying attention to the map. Not doing post-game analysis of personal plays. Opting for comfort picks over agent compositions that are more appropriate for the current game. Overextending as a duelist. Over-reliance on YouTube and Reddit content to learn the game effectively.

(via VISOR.gg and GGRecon)

How Long Does It Take To Rank Up In Valorant?

Players wonder how long it takes to rank up in Valorant. The answer is that it takes between 1 and 3 months to rank up depending on one’s current and desired rank, one’s skill rate of improvement, and how much progress is made in playing on related performance topics.

If a player is already skilled, it will take less time to move from one rank to a higher one. As an example, players take between 1 and 3 months to rank up to immortal. This is to get anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 radiants (as inflation goes on making this value increase). The amount of time it takes to rank up in Valorant has a wide range, which can be as short as 30 minutes to 5 hours over a day to as long as over a year.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Rank Up in Valorant?

What is the best way to rank up in Valorant?
The best way to rank up in Valorant is by consistently playing and performing well in competitive matches.

How to Rank Up in Valorant?

Can playing with a team help me rank up in Valorant?
Yes, playing with a coordinated and skilled team can greatly increase your chances of ranking up in Valorant.

How to Rank Up in Valorant?

Are there any specific strategies or tactics I should use to rank up in Valorant?
It’s important to develop your own playstyle and find what works best for you, but communication with your team and map knowledge can greatly help in ranking up.

How to Rank Up in Valorant?

Is practicing in custom games or deathmatches beneficial for ranking up in Valorant?
Yes, practicing in custom games and deathmatches can improve your aim, reflexes, and overall gameplay, which can help in ranking up.

How to Rank Up in Valorant?

What should I do if I encounter a losing streak while trying to rank up in Valorant?
Take a break and come back to the game with a fresh mindset, analyze your previous matches, and try to identify any areas of improvement. It’s also important to not let a losing streak affect your performance in future matches.

How to Rank Up in Valorant?

Are there any rewards for ranking up in Valorant?
Yes, reaching higher ranks in Valorant can reward players with exclusive cosmetic items and in-game currency.