Why Did They Add the Ascendant Rank in Valorant?

As a Valorant player since beta with over 2,000 hours logged, I was thrilled to see Riot Games add the Ascendant tier in between Diamond and Immortal. Based on my analysis, this change aimed primarily to alleviate the overpopulated lower ranks.

Bronze and Silver Housing Over Half the Playerbase

Prior to Ascendant‘s introduction this June, a reported 58% of Valorant‘s players were packed into just Bronze and Silver. Having grinded through those lower tiers myself, I can confirm firsthand how inaccurate the matchmaking became trying to balance such a wide spectrum of skill levels.

As you can see, the distribution was completely lopsided, making progress feel hopeless for average players stuck treading water.

Ascendant Offers Another Achievable Milestone

But by adding Ascendant between Diamond and Immortal, players now have another legitimate rank to strive for above the slog that is Gold. Hitting Diamond 1 was already unattainable for many. Yet, based on Ranked Rating thresholds, I estimate above-average players can realistically grind to Ascendant 2 or 3 solo queueing.

This offers meaningful progression for those truly investing time into bettering their gameplay. Approximately 15% more of the playerbase can now expect to eventually reach Ascendant based on these changes redistributing lower rated players.

Too Steep a Skill Gap to Immortal Before

Additionally, there was clearly too large a skill leap required between Diamond and Immortal previously. Immortal players were almost like playing a separate game entirely compared to Diamond.

But by inserting one more bridge between the tiers, hitting Immortal should hopefully feel slightly more obtainable someday for my fellow Ascendants grinding through the trenches currently! We can dream…

The rankings are certainly still top-heavy, but this should theoretically lead to higher quality balanced matches across the highest tiers if it truly spreads out players properly.

Early Signs Point to Improved Integrity

In my own games so far, I have noticed teammates and opponents do seem roughly the same skill level more consistently. Games feel slightly more competitive even among us Ascendant plebs.

Thetransparency site LEET displays some early encouraging data suggesting players are distributing out of lower ranks as intended so far. Riot also claims internal MMR changes point toward improved matchmaking integrity, but I wish they would share more concrete statistics publicly.

So in summary, obviously adding Ascendant first and foremost looked to alleviate the severe overcrowding of lower ranked tiers. But this change also provides new goals for progression and works to smooth out the ranking distribution overall.

Only time will tell if it truly improves competitive balance. But as someone passionate about advancing through Valorant’s Ranked mode and one day earning Radiant, I wholeheartedly support giving more players a fair shot!

Let me know what you think of the changes so far in the comments. And make sure to subscribe for more meta and gameplay analysis!