Competitive

 (also known as Ranked) is a game mode in VALORANT. It uses the same in-game rules and format as Unrated, but with a focus on higher-stakes competition.

Gameplay
Competitive has the same rules as Unrated. Two teams of five players select their agents. One team starts on Attack and the other on Defense. To win a round, the attacking team must kill all enemy Defenders or detonate the spike. The defending team must kill all enemy attackers, prevent the spike from being planted, or (if the spike has been planted) defuse the spike (killing all enemy attackers will no longer be enough to win the round should defusing be required). Before each round start, players have 30 seconds to buy weapons and utility, get into position, and set up any utility. Each round lasts 100 seconds, which is reset to 40 seconds if the spike is planted. The game is split into two halves; after 12 rounds, teams will swap sides. The first team to reach 13 rounds wins the game.

Competitive does however have a different system for resolving 12-12 games, going into Overtime instead of Sudden Death. In Overtime, the teams play two rounds, one on attack and one on defense. For all players in every round, they get 5,000 credits and have their ultimate points set to being 3 short of what they need to use it. If a team wins both these rounds, they win the game. If both teams win one round each, Overtime repeats again and again until either one team wins both rounds and wins the game or the players vote to end the game with the result being a draw for both teams. Each vote will happen with every new Overtime set. To end the match in the draw, the first vote needs 6 votes in favor, the second vote needs 3 votes in favor, and every other afterwards needs only 1 vote in favor.

An additional feature for Competitive is remaking. If one or more players are disconnected at the beginning of the first buy phase through the entire first round, their team has the option to call for a remake by typing  in chat. The remake vote will last for the duration of the buy phase it was called in and must be unanimous to pass. A successful remake will end the game, with all players not receiving any XP or MMR adjustments from the match. The match will also not show up in match history. All disconnected players will take full MMR loss and receive a leaver penalty equivalent to disconnecting from a full match.

There are also slight differences with surrendering. Competitive requires a unanimous vote instead of the usual 80% from Unrated to be able to surrender.

Accessing and playing Competitive
To be able to play Competitive, new players must have reached Account Level 20. Forfeited games will not count towards this requirement for the team that forfeited.

Parties
Players can queue into Competitive with up to 5 people in a stack/party, excluding parties with 4 players. Matchmaking takes party size into account, and will attempt to match them with opposing teams who have a similar party size. In general, the ranks within a party must fit one of the following groups for that party to be eligible to play Competitive:

These groupings however will not prevent a 5-stack from entering the queue, though if the ranks within the party do not fit into one of these groups or at least one of the players holds a high rank, the stack will be affected by reduced RR gains/losses:


 * A minimum of 25% RR reduction will be applied if the 5-stack doesn't fit into one of the groupings shown above. This value can increase to up to 90% based on skill disparity within the party.
 * If any player in the stack is Diamond 3 or Immortal, this RR reduction will be instantly applied, regardless of whether the stack fits within Groups 6-10
 * If any player in the stack is Radiant, a 90% RR reduction will be instantly applied. This can be reduced down to 75% if all 5 players in the stack are Radiant

Players in Diamond 3, Immortal and Radiant cannot play in a 3-stack.

Players in their placement games can join a party with ranked players, though not with those at the highest ranks.

Ranks
There are 8 ranks in VALORANT; Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Immortal, and Radiant. Ranks Iron-Immortal are divided into three tiers from Tier 1 to Tier 3, with Tier 3s being the highest tier within a rank. Players in Immortal and Radiant ranks are featured on a leaderboard.



The rank distribution is designed to have the average player holding a rank in Silver. Despite having target designs per act, the true distribution will never exactly fit this as the playerbase's skill is constantly shifting, though the true distribution should still be quite similar to it.

To earn a rank, new players must first play 5 placement games. The highest rank a player can place after completing their placements is Diamond 1.

Rank Rating (RR)
A player's position on the Competitive ladder will go up and down based on when they win or lose games, respectively. Players who perform exceptionally well in game will rank up faster than average. This will be shown to a player at the end of each game where their current rank is displayed. A Rank Rating will show how their rank has changed after the results of that game. Wins earn a player around 5-50 RR depending on rank (higher ranks usually earn less RR), and loses cost a player around 0-30 depending on rank (higher ranks lose more RR). Draws grant a maximum of 20 RR (based on performance, though only for Iron-Diamond games).

Players who reach 100 RR in a tier are promoted to the next highest tier and start at a minimum of 10 RR in that tier. Players will reach 0 RR in a tier are at risk of demoting, but only once they have lost a game whilst at 0 RR. Their given RR in the lower tier will not go below 70. Immortal and Radiant players can earn beyond 100 RR to climb up the leaderboard, and the top 500 players in each region make up the Radiant rank, so long as they pass an RR threshold (depending on region):


 * LATAM, KR: 100 RR
 * BR: 200 RR
 * NA, APC: 300 RR
 * EU: 400 RR

At first, personal performance will have a greater impact on the early evaluation of a player's skill, but will decrease in importance compared to wins as they play more games in Competitive. For games that end in a draw, a player's rank may go up but it will never decrease.

Dodging in a Competitive lobby will punish the player with a small RR loss.

Players who AFK for 3+ rounds will incur a penalty of 8-12 RR, increasing the more rounds they are AFK for, in addition to any RR lost from losing the game (the total can exceed the maximum RR loss cap). Any players who AFK for 6+ rounds will incur the maximum penalty of 12 RR, even if their team wins.

Act resets
For every new act, all players must play 1 placement game to earn them back their rank from the previous act, though this rank could potentially change based on the player's performance in that game. Placements don’t give progress towards earning an Act Rank. Immortal and Radiant players keep their position on the leaderboard but have their RR reduced by 90%, with all Radiant players also being demoted to Immortal.

When a new act is also part of a new episode, the number of placement games required is increased to 5 and the player's rank placement will be around a couple of tiers below where the player ended the prior Act.

Act Rank
A player's act rank tracks their proven skill, highest ranked win, and number of wins during an act. As players win games, they fill up a triangular graphic with smaller triangles that represents their ranked match wins based on the rank they ended that game with. Once the graphic is filled, wins at higher ranks will displace triangles from lower ranks.

The border surrounding this graphic also upgrades as players win more games. These upgrades occur at 9, 25, 50, 75, and 100 wins.

When an act ends, the player's Act Rank is preserved as a badge seen on the player's card in Competitive games and in their career history. This badge is equal to the the top Act Rank they reached in that act. For Immortal and Radiant players, this badge will also preserve their leaderboard position for that act.

Rewards
At the end of each episode, players receive a gunbuddy for a rank equal to the top Act Rank they reached in that episode. 1: IGNITION =

Trivia

 * A concept for Competitive ranks had different rank names; Mercenary, Soldier, Veteran, Hero, Legend, Mythic, Immortal, and VALORANT, from lowest to highest. However, this system has never been used whilst the game has been available since its Beta. Of these names, only the Immortal rank name made it into the current version. The other ranks were renamed to match a metal/gemstone system commonly used in other games, including Riot's other games. The highest rank remained VALORANT during the Beta, but was renamed to Radiant once the game was launched to avoid confusion with the game title itself.


 * On April Fools 2021, all ranks were replaced with a Love Rank and Rank Rating was replaced with Love Rating. These were purely cosmetic changes that were displayed over a player's actual rank and RR changes for the day.
 * In July 2020, some players were affected by a bug that caused their visual rank icon to be replaced by an "Unused" rank icon instead.