Valorant is one of the best online multiplayer shooters. With a bunch of recent changes to Valorant’s matchmaking system, many of you might be confused about which ranks can play with whom. In particular, the change has been important for Silver players who wish to play with Platinum.
No, Silver Rank players cannot play with Platinum Rank players in Valorant. You must be at least Gold 1 to play with a Platinum 1 player. However, in a party stack of 5, your rank and the rank of your friends will not matter.
You can expect online multiplayer games to constantly be revamping their matchmaking systems. Valorant is no different, aiming for a more approachable and fair system. Keep reading this article, if you wish to learn more.
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Can Silver Rank Players Play With Platinum Rank?
Valorant is essentially a team game, and there is nothing more fun than running a few matches with your friends. However, it can be quite frustrating when you can’t seem to party up with your friend that’s in a higher rank than you.
The frustrations are warranted, but there is a certain truth to matchmaking in Valorant. If you’re a Silver Rank Player then you cannot team up with a friend that’s Platinum Rank. This is the new system that has been adopted by Valorant in their Expanded Competitive Party Range 2.04.
According to this new system, the MMR of any particular team needs to be relatively close to one another for the team to be constructed. This means that you can party up with someone one rank below or above you. But if the rank difference is too high then players cannot be teamed up together.
This is an unfortunate circumstance, but this is done to ensure the most reasonable and fair matches in the game. No one enjoys games where one team is essentially carried by a high-rank player or a match where a low-rank player holds the rest of the players back. So Valorant has issued this limit on the type of teams you can create.
Related: Valorant on Steam Deck (Is it playable?)
Rules For Playing In a Party of 5
The rules for a Party of 5 players are different from the 3-Stack party we mentioned above. Currently, in Valorant you are allowed to party up with five other people, who can be of any rank, and queue up together.
Previously, you had to be within three tiers of each other. This was changed in the 3.10 update. This made smurfing a lot less appealing. As people now did not have the incentive to create an alternative account to play with their friends from lower tiers or ranks.
There are, however, a couple of disadvantages to playing in this manner. If you stack in a Party of 5 with heavily varying ranks then you can experience:
- Longer queue times as you will only be matched up against another five-player party with a similar average MMR.
- The amount of Rank Rating you will gain or lose from the match will be reduced. And the amount of RR you receive depends tremendously on the rank disparity in your group.
A Silver Rank player in Valorant cannot party with a Platinum in a 3-Stack Party. But in a 5-Stack Party, there are no such restrictions. There are drawbacks, but ultimately Valorant is far more fun when played with friends. Till next time, folks!