Competitive mode in Valorant is getting some significant updates in the upcoming Act III. These changes include competitive queue rank range, server selection and Immortal+ rank movement.

The first change makes it so the lowest rank players can queue with in competitive, is three ranks below them. This is a pretty major change from the previous rank range of six. That means the lowest rank a Diamond 3 will be able to queue up with is a Platinum 3 ranked player.

The second change strictly affects Immortal ranks and above. Once a player reaches Immortal, further rank changes will be purely determined by wins/losses, and how decisive the match outcome was. If this works out well, it might also come to the other rank tiers in Act II.

Lastly, players will be able to choose their preferred servers for competitive queues. In the video, we see there are servers in California, North Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Georgia and Oregon. That makes three US West servers, three US Central servers and two US East servers. Riot said that server preference does not guarantee a queue in that server but it is certainly better than nothing.

So are these Changes Good or Bad?

These are all welcome changes to the competitive system. The queue range will help players not get queued with others who might be way above or below their rank. Sure, it will prevent some higher ranked players from playing with their low rank friends, but it saves other players from being stuck with low rank players because they queued with their higher rank friends.

There is the worry that since there are no barriers to creating another Valorant account, this change will make smurfs more prevalent. Hopefully Riot fixes this soon by adding a phone number requirement to accounts like CS:GO and the Prime system.

What do you think of these upcoming changes to Valorant competitive mode? Is there something you would do differently? As usual, remember to follow us at Run it Back and join our Discord for all your latest news, extensive guides, and exclusive interviews in the world of Valorant.