Valorant Act 2 will bring some changes for the ranked system, including the addition of Act Ranks – a badge locked to your profile each Act that reflects your performance for that stretch of the game. The launch of Act 2 will also add the option to view friends’ match history, and Riot has confirmed that your rank will be gently reset at the start of each new Act.
Your Act Rank will take the form of a triangular badge with nine slots showcasing your top ranked wins. That means your badge reflects the top of your performance, and lets you slyly ignore dips below your top rank. If you win nine games in, say, Gold 3 before dipping down to Silver, your Act Rank will reflect the Gold 3 wins. Your badge also gets new borders for reaching win thresholds at nine, 25, 50, 75, and 100 victories.
Your rank will likely gently drop between each Act – Riot says you’ll get a “conservative placement” – but you’ll only need to run three placement matches instead of the usual five. The placements will also get you back to your previous rank faster, as the system will “will reference your MMR from the prior Act, so we can quickly assess your skill for the current Act”.
As Riot explains on the official site, “Typically, your Match Rank will land a couple of tiers below where you ended the prior Act, but we’ll be increasing how heavily we weigh performance in your early games so you can quickly improve your matchmaking rank if you play well and win”.
You can also get a bigger rundown of Valorant ranked from our friends at The Loadout.