ValorantGame Director Joe Ziegler and his boss, Executive Producer Anna Donlon, allowed Twitch Streamer Ben “Dr. Lupo” Lupo to interview them on one of his streams a few days ago about the ins and outs ofValorant. And while they did provide interesting insights on the thoughts behinds some of their design choices, they did miss one crucial question: DoesValoranthave skill-based matchmaking (SBMM)?
Riot Games' upcoming title will be an online FPS after all, so it only begs the question, and right after the interview was over Twitter user “Qweets,” made sure to ask it. Surprisingly, Ziegler didn’t hesitate to answer and did so in a straight-forward manner. Though what he said obviously won’t sit well with some people.
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Simply put,Valorantwill have skill-based matchmaking. And it won’t just be in theranked playlisteither, but in the unranked playlist as well, whichValorantdubs “Unrated.” For those unfamiliar, this means that everyValorantlobby will pit players of similar skill levels against each other. Someone who wins consistently will find themselves placed with players that do the same, and vice versa.
The feature exists to protect the casual players of a game — the ones that don’t hop on as frequently as say,content creators, but still make up the majority of the game’s player base. SBMM almost ensures that casuals never have to suffer the frustration of being consistently steamrolled when playing. What makes the feature controversial, however, is what it does to the other end of the player base. It forces those that frequently play to focus on performing at their best all the time rather than having fun. If they don’t, they get steamrolled.
The Unrated playlist, then, initially sounded like something consistent players could go to for a break. Since it also has skill-based matchmaking, however, that won’t be the case.Valorantdevsprobably believe that casuals have no reason to go into ranked, so they placed the feature in the Unrented playlist as well.
How SBMM affectsValorantin the long-run remains a mystery. The vocal community claims that it ruined previous games likeApex Legends. But developers must be finding some success with it since it keeps appearing. Maybe in the future,Valorantwill add a playlist without it to help affected frequent players, but for now, SSMM will exist throughoutValorantwhen it launches.
