How Many Placement Games Does it Take to Unlock Ranked in Valorant

How many placement games to unlock ranked in Valorant? The answer could be different depending on how many games you have put in already, and where you eventually end up as a starting rank. With the Valorant closed beta community getting an unexpected update on April 29, patch 0.49 brought Agent changes and gameplay adjustments - with the added treat of a Ranked Playlist for the sweatiest of FPS’ers to battle it out in a competitive environment. 

With the addition of Ranked, players will have the chance to up the stakes for each individual match, although be warned that any progress made will not carry over to the launch version of the game.

How Many Placement Games to Unlock Ranked in Valorant

Those looking to jump directly into competitive Valorant via Ranked have some grinding to do if you are starting from scratch. Players will need 20 Unrated games played to unlock competitive mode. Once unlocked, you will need to play in five placement games to get your initial rank - depending on how you and your team do will determine greatly your starting point.

Other important factors include that there are officially eight ranks, with three tiers per rank (excluding unranked and the top rank, Valorant) for a total of 22 ranks to level through during the closed beta period. In competitive Valorant, you will also need to queue up with a five-person party, and all players must be within two ranks of you, to prevent boosting.

How Does Ranked Mode Work?

At its core, competitive Valorant works much like other FPS games out there. Winning matches is ultimately the most important factor in determining skill and ranking up, but in the beginning during the initial placement matches, exactly how you win and lose is even more important. In this vein, Valorant will also take into account how decisively you win or lose a match.

Note that the ranking system for holders of the top honor - Valorant - differs from the other eight ranks. At this level, Valorant will only take into account how you win and lose your matches. Riot Games has mentioned that ranking will work this way because they “trust you and your teammates have earned your way there.”

If you step away from Valorant for more than 14 days, your rank will become hidden until you have returned and played your first match since the hiatus. Despite this, Riot Games will not decay or auto-rank down your rank or tier if you are away longer than two weeks.

Competitive mode in Valorant is live now.