Boost Your Ranking: Valorant Competitive Play Tips for 2023
One of the biggest badges of honor is climbing the ranks in Valorant, considering it has firmly established its spot as one of the largest FPS games in the genre today. Doing so is not the easiest thing in the world, though, but it does help to have a solid approach on your side.
What can you do? It just so happens that we've put together some concise and useful information that should take you to the next level!
How Does the Ranking System Work?
Let's start by talking about the ranking system for a moment. You're only going to find this on the Competitive Mode side of things, which you can only jump into after you've competed in 20 rounds of Unrated. There are eight ranks in valiant, consisting of three tiers each. From bottom to top, these are:
- Iron
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Immortal
- Valorant
Matchmaking will typically put you against players that are two ranks above or below you. Ranking up or down isn't all about winning matches since your display of skills and level of activity, among other factors, are also essential.
This Is How You Climb That Ladder
Now that you have a better idea of how the whole ranking system works, let's talk about some of the things you can do to start moving up.
Watch Your Performance
Understanding what you can tweak and change to get better is essential, as is wrapping your head around what you're doing well and should keep doing. Many people try to pay attention to what they do during matches, which you should definitely do.
However, you also want to watch your gameplay footage after matches are done since you can pay better attention from an outside lens without the pressure of trying to win in the present. You'd be surprised how many bad habits you can pick up and address this way.
You Can’t Play Every Agent
It can seem like an exciting prospect to become that person who is great with every agent, but the likelihood of that happening is slim to none. While you don't want to get sucked into playing a single agent, having a small group of self-sufficient ones is the best way to go.
Honestly, much of Valorant’s meta is about a nuanced understanding of your spells and when to use them. You should certainly have a main, which should be in the role you're most comfortable playing. Having your next best agent be in the same role is also great, with at least one more agent in a secondary role.
Work at this small subset and get as skilled as you can using them.
Communication Is Your Friend
You don't need us to tell you that Valorant is a team game. The most successful players are the ones that understand this and use it to their advantage. Practice your callouts, aiming to make them as concise and clear as possible. Where should your teammates watch, and when should they be rotating? Watch the pros do it for inspiration!
Also, don't be that player who is a pain to talk to based on game results. Keep in mind that a sore winner is just as bad and arguably even worse than a sore loser.
Don’t Warm Up in Ranked
We know you are excited to jump in but take a moment. Going into ranked cold can see your typical standard of gameplay suffer. Assuming you're physically warmed up, jump into the firing range and get your movement and aim where they should be, then take on your first match of the day. Losing immediately because you're not in the zone can mentally defeat you and have a terrible snowball effect.
Can You Aim?
This is an FPS, after all, which means shooting well is a big part of the process. Aim training is essential and can be divided into four main elements. There is accuracy in which you want to practice landing headshots, target switching when you need to move from one target to the next rapidly, gun recoil pattern understanding, and shooting as you strafe.
Final Remarks
Boosting is a great way to move up the ranks in Valorant. If you're going to maintain it, though, you need to be able to function well at a high level. Remember the tips you got above, and keep in mind that persistence is as important as any one of them.
