Valorant leaderboards are reserved for the upper crust that manages to acquire a certain number of MMR (Matchmaking Rating) in the FPS game. Breaking into the leaderboard was never a cakewalk, but Riot is now making it more exclusive. Patch 5.08 will cap the number of Immortals on the premium board meaning, unlike before, only a limited number of players will appear.
After trying out the MMR boost on Immortal, Riot is now taking a more direct approach to combat saturation. A crowd cap in each region will immediately come into effect, kicking low ELO Immortals off of the board.
“We agree with feedback that in some regions there are too many players on the leaderboard, and after a certain number leaderboard rank loses a lot of its lusttr. We are rolling out a cap to the amount of players that can appear on the leaderboard on a region-by-region basis,” says Valorant’s community manager Jo-Ellen Aragon.
So, moving forward, until you are in the top X amount of players, you will not appear on the leaderboard. Here’s how the cap looks for each region:
- Korea (KR)- 5k
- LATAM – 5k
- Brazil (BR) – 5k
- North America (NA)- 10k
- Asia Pacific (AP) – 15k
- Europe (EU) – 15k
The new limitation will not take away the achievement of reaching Immortal but will ensure that players have another reason to continue grinding. Without a proper ranking, the leaderboard loses its true purpose of rewarding players with a sense of achievement. Still, not everyone is pleased with Riot’s decision to lock the board.
According to the community, the actual issue lies in the oversaturation of Immortals, which Riot has tried rectifying over the past few months. Valorant’s growing player base has led to numerous changes in how ranks work. Previously, the increased population in lower ranks led the developer to squeeze in a green Ascendant badge between Diamond and Immortal.
That wasn’t Riot’s first effort to monitor rank progression. Before that, Valorant MMR saw a readjustment to keep the prestige of high ranks by making it trickier for Immortal+ to climb. All of this was aimed at making leaderboards and low ranks less crowded. Whether tweaking MMR distribution or introducing Ascendant, deserving players always breeze through the ‘Elo hell’ of Gold and Silver.
If you’re rolling up your sleeves to break into the leaderboard, it’s worth taking a look at our Valorant tier list to make sure you have the right agent. You may also want to get the best Valorant crosshair code before you hit play and start the Immortal grind!