Riot Games shared an update on Valorant’s upcoming Competitive mode to give players a succinct answer on when it’ll be released: Not today. It’s not the answer those looking forward to the ranked mode were hoping for, but it’s also not a wholly unexpected one since Riot said in its recent patch notes for the game that the mode would be added this week and turned on at a later date. Players were just hoping that the date would be Wednesday regardless of what the notes said, but Riot said it’s going to be holding onto the Competitive mode until it’s sure Valorant’s closed beta supports a stable environment for it.
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The latest news on Valorant’s ranked mode was shared on Wednesday through the game’s Twitter account not long after the update was released to apply some changes for Omen and make way for the Competitive mode. Riot said in its patch notes that the ranked matchmaking system would “go live in the near future” and that “ranked will be on when everything is stable.” Judging from what’s been said in the latest update, Valorant isn’t quite at that point yet now that the update’s out.
For those asking for ranked to be turned on – not today, sorry. We’re evaluating on a day-by-day basis based on server stability and competitive integrity of the queues (e.g. no uncounterable exploits). Today is not that day. Will let you know tomorrow.
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) April 29, 2020
So we now have the specifications regarding when Valorant’s ranked mode can even be turned on. There can’t be any big uncounterable exploits for players to go up against, and servers have to be stable enough to support the ranked environment. We still don’t know when those requirements will be met – and neither does Riot, most likely, since it’s being evaluated on a case-by-case basis – but the “soon” part of the patch notes hasn’t changed, so it should still be available sooner rather than later.
Riot previously outlined its plans for this ranked mode to give players an idea of how it’d work and what sorts of ranks players would have to climb through. Your basic ranks create the first few levels of competitive play to progress through with two unique ranks at the top called Immortal and Valorant for the players who can progress that far. Players also have to play 20 unranked games before hopping into the Competitive mode, so you won’t have to worry about players with absolutely no experience coming into your first few ranked matches.
