It’s going to get a lot harder to get to Immortal in Valorant patch 5.0.

Riot Games is introducing a new rank called Ascendant, which sits between Diamond and Immortal.

Represented by a stylized emerald green badge, Ascendant will also feature three levels, just like all the ranks before it.

You can expect changes to the rank distribution in Episode 5 Act I, as Riot works to redistribute players to take into account the new competitive rank.



Ascendant slots in between Diamond and Immortal

Valorant Reyna Fade
Credit: Riot Games

According to Riot, there are too many players in the lower ranks like Bronze and Silver, and it is looking to push more players up and out of these ranks.

However, this would overpopulate the Platinum and Diamond ranks, which currently account for around 15 percent of players.

The new rank creates more space for Diamond players to move up to, while still maintaining the prestige of the higher ranks. This could also help better define the skill level of each rank and avoid large skill disparities between the very top and bottom of each rank.

This means that the hidden rank MMR targets that determine your actual rank will move downward for all ranks below Ascendant. On the other hand, the targets for Immortal and Radiant will move up.

In the new Act, players ranked below Ascendant will be pushed up, while Immortal players will find it more difficult to climb back to their previous rank. This means that Immortal will also have a smaller leaderboard population in all regions.

In Episode 5, the rank reset that comes with every new Episode will be less punishing as well. Riot is actively pushing the player base upward to fill Ascendant, so you will have fewer ranks to climb to reach your previous rank.

Elsewhere, the highest possible placement has increased from Diamond 1 to Ascendant 1. The 25 percent RR penalty for five-stack queues also now starts at Immortal 1 instead of Diamond 3.

Episode 5 Act I will go live on June 22.

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