Hiko blasts Riot for “trash” Valorant ranked system after Episode 2 overhaul
Riot Games / ESLWhile Valorant’s Episode 2 ranked overhaul has satisfied some players, for those at the top like Spencer ‘Hiko’ Martin, it’s been painful. The 100 Thieves pro has blasted Riot for their FPS title’s “trash” system, saying it needs massive fixes urgently to save ranked.
A clear points system and leaderboards. That’s all Valorant players really wanted in their ranked system. However, it appears that they’ve gotten a bit more than they’ve bargained for, and it’s drastically impacting the experience.
The Hidden MMR system implemented alongside Rank Rating and Leaderboards in Episode 2 has come under fire from players. While it’s been okay for regular players, those near the top have had to deal with unbalanced lobbies, long queues, and few rank gains.
It’s reached boiling point now, with Hiko blasting Riot for the “trash” overhaul. He used teammate Asuna — who is currently rank one in NA on his smurf — as an example on his January 20 stream, showing huge flaws in the system.
“It takes longer to get games on his main account than his alt account, and his alt account is literally rank one. He thinks his [MMR] on his Platinum 3 account is higher than his #1 Radiant account, and that right there is why the ranking system right now is trash,” Hiko claimed.
ESL“I think they fixed it maybe, but I tried it on the first day, and I couldn’t get a game at all. I said ‘f**k this’ and played on this account, which was Radiant last Act, but I just got into Radiant,” Asuna added.
Hiko himself isn’t faring much better in Diamond 3. His account, which he claims was around “Top 30” in Episode 1: Act 3 is placed against other top players despite not even being in Radiant. He has questioned how the system is balanced, and it needs major work.
“I feel like lately I’ve just been trashing Riot…but I’ll definitely defend myself in saying that the rank system right now is complete trash. It was bad before because so many people were Radiant and Immortal that didn’t deserve to be.”
“The problem before was the skill disparity in each rank was so wide. Now it’s like, the skill disparity between Platinum and Radiant — it’s hard to explain, it’s just bad.”
“It’s impossible sometimes to win because you always play against people in the same boat, or people who are actual Radiants. You end up playing with people on your team who are complete bots, and against you, it feels like teams are super unfair or uneven.”
It comes as Riot promised more fixes to Valorant’s ranked system after patch 2.01. With the new system only being a week old, as time goes on, things will equalize. Riot is asking for players’ patience in the meanwhile.
“It’s been one week, we just completely overhauled the entire ranked system, and the game is still less than a year old. We have a lot to improve, learn, and new features and things to implement. I think the one thing, I hope, that I can assure people of is that we are going to make changes and improve Valorant Ranked,” developer Jon ‘EvrMoar’ Walker said on Reddit.
