Riot confirms plans for Valorant 5-player queues amid player frustrations

Riot Games confirmed plans to help five-stack players compete with other full teams in Valorant. The solution would be in response to mounting complaints from top players on the current state of Ranked matchmaking.

Since January, Riot changed Valorant’s matchmaking so that Immortal and Radiant ranked players have a premade cap of two players – a change they’d later introduce to Diamond 3. Professional Valorant players like Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo and more have been struggling for meaningful game time in part due to trolls, inexperienced players, hackers, long queue times, and more. Riot values the input from their pro community across their esport titles. As such, the developers offered their direction of how they plan to address this hurdle, with what could be a new playlist or system for Valorant. https://twitter.com/RiotEvrMoar/status/1382421475160948738 In response to growing frustrations among these players, Valorant Senior Competitive Designer Jon ‘EvrMoar’ Walker said the team is trying to solve the main issue hurting ranked. While Riot usually play their hands close to the vest, EvrMoar gave us an idea of what the studio wants to add next in Valorant. “This isn’t exactly what you’re asking for but we are investigating how to empower 5 stacks to have a competitive space,” EvrMoar said in response to TenZ’s initial complaints. “What that means, and what it looks like TBD. Unfortunately big systems like these take time.”

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Since EvrMoar and Riot are “are currently looking into ways 5 stacks can play together competitively” that means players can enter an environment where skill-sets and competitive integrity is theoretically predetermined.

This would negate some of the biggest question marks in matchmaking that’s making it a contentious part of the game. Whether it’s stream-sniping, hackers, or problematic player-tendencies, there’s a ton of room for a game of Valorant to get derailed.

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“People barely ever talk which makes it just extremely emo at times,” TenZ said, referring to Valorant’s Ranked queue. “Ranked is extremely frustrating at times especially when you open the round with two huge frags just to witness your team spoon feed the enemy team.” It isn’t clear on what exactly Riot has planned for these 5-stack scenarios. Whether it’s an in-game solution or outside client where top players can pick from a pool of talent remains to be seen, but the studio is “cooking” something up to address the issue.