Valorant's Act III: Tighter Competitive Skill Rank Disparity, New "Icebox" Map

For a game like Valorant, nailing competitive play is key. Riot Games knows this and so continues to tweak its competitive play system, with a number of changes coming to Act III next week.

The initial goal to let players across wide rankings queue together with players up to six ranks apart was a "social" goal of the dev team. Based on player feedback, that's going to be scaled back, as you'll only be able to queue with players across three ranks. On the bright side, you'll be able to choose your server, and while you won't always get what you want, this options should "notably increase the chance to get your preferred game server and either stabilize or help improve your ping." For higher-ranked players -- Immortal and higher -- movement will be impacted solely by wins and losses and the margin of victory.

For the future, the team has plans for region-based leaderboards and a possible restriction on queue size for Immortal-plus ranked games. These changes, as well as a possible way to still queue in competitive matches across more skill tiers with a bigger team, will come early next year when Act 2 drops. Learn more about the changes in the video below or on the Valorant site.

Oh, and it looks like there's a new map coming too, the Icebox, as the Valorant Twitter account teased today:

Take on the tundra when Icebox drops with Act III. pic.twitter.com/Mu7OzbLHXF

— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) October 6, 2020