What determines RR in VALORANT?

Competitive FPS games don’t get better than VALORANT – the agents, the ultimates, the triumphs paired with tears, and the sheer RUSH of it all… it’s pretty damn exhilarating, to say the least! But VALORANT’s ranking system can be a bit confusing for newbies looking to dive into the Competitive game mode.

To make matters more complex, Riot regularly updates the ranking system when new patches release, and a lot of the ranking metrics aren’t things you can see.

Even if you’re familiar with other multiplayer ranking systems, VALORANT’s RR system comes with some unique differences you’ll need to wrap your noodle around.

And that’s what this guide is here for. Read on, agent (we’ll make a champion of you yet)...

What does RR stand for?

In VALORANT, RR stands for Rank Rating. It’s how many points you earn after playing a Competitive game, and counts towards your overall Rank and Tier. How many RR points you earn depends on your match performance and competition wins.

Each Rank has three Tiers except the 9th and final Rank. To move up a tier, you need to build up 100 RR points.

You can view your RR in-game by checking out Career > Match History.

Understanding Ranks and Tiers

Before you can play Competitive VALORANT matches, you need a Rank. 5 Placement Matches will determine which Rank you join an Episode at, but you can’t play those matches until you’ve reached account level 20 through playing the other unranked game modes.

In order, these Ranks are:

1. Iron
2. Bronze
3. Silver
4. Gold
5. Platinum
6. Diamond
7. Ascendant
8. Immortal
9. Radiant

After receiving your starting Rank, you’ll have 50 RR to your name. Each Rank has 3 Tiers within that Rank, and you’ll need to earn 100 RR to climb to the next Rank/Tier.

Once you reach a new level, you’ll have a minimum of 10 RR in that Tier, to act as a buffer in case your next match goes badly (it happens!).

It’s possible to drop Ranks if you lose enough and your RR points drop below 0, though even if you have 15 RR and you lose 20 RR, you still get a chance at survival by reaching 0 and not deranking.

You’ll receive a new Rank for each new VALORANT Episode (roughly every 6 months) and each of the 3 Acts within those Episodes (every 2 months). We call this the “Rank reset phenomenon”.

How is RR calculated?

Your match performance and competition wins are only part of the puzzle. Your total RR earnings are also affected by a hidden matchmaking rating called your MMR, and how close your RR is to that MMR.

Think of the MMR as a ladder with a rung for every VALORANT player. You’ll always have your own rung on that ladder – win matches and you climb higher, lose matches and other players might push you lower down.

Additionally, your RR doesn’t only go up - it can go down, too.

In general, here’s how all this affects how your RR is calculated if you’re in the first 5 Ranks (Iron – Platinum):

• For every win, you’ll net 10 – 50 RR
• For every loss, you’ll lose 0 – 30 RR
• For every draw, you’ll generally earn between 0 to 5 RR
• If your MMR is higher than your Rank, you’ll earn more RR per win than you lose on losing games

Here’s how it all ties together in one simple sum: poor performance = lower MMR = lower RR-earning potential = lower Rank.

How much RR do you get per win?

VALORANT doesn’t award a set number of RR points per win.

Players ranked within the first 5 Ranks typically earn between 10 and 50 RR for each Competitive win. You can also get a "Performance Bonus" star for exceptional gameplay, which grants you extra RR (on average between 2 and 5 bonus points).

Meanwhile, players ranked above this (Diamond Rank and higher) earn closer to 5 RR per win.

Your actual total RR per match will be calculated within these general ranges based on your in-game performance and MMR in relation to your Rank (see above).

How much RR do you drop per loss?

Generally, expect to drop a similar amount when you lose to what you’d gain for a win.

Players in the first 5 Ranks (Iron – Platinum) shouldn’t lose more than 30 RR per loss.

Rumor has it that players ranked Diamond or above can drop up to 50 RR per loss, but from our experience, we've never seen this pip above 35 RR.

Do you lose more RR if you surrender?

VALORANT logs a surrender as if you lost every remaining round. Your performance rating will take a big hit, too. This will almost inevitably cause your RR and MMR to drop fairly dramatically.

Since MMR is a lifelong factor that directly affects your RR, surrender isn’t something you should consider.

It's much better to lose 6-13 than 1-13.

Do you lose RR for dodging?

Yes, you’ll lose 8 – 12 RR for going AFK or queue dodging in a Competitive match, in general. But it’s possible to lose over 30 RR in some scenarios.

For the newbies reading this: In VALORANT, queue dodging is when a player abandons their team before the match begins, and it’s a big no-no.

How to get more RR per game

Winning isn’t the only factor in how much RR you earn. Getting a higher ACS rating (average combat score) is a major RR contributing factor.

Here are some known performance bonuses that help you increase your ACS and get more RR per game:

• Win plenty of rounds.
• Rack up an impressive kill count.
• Deal lots of damage to enemy agents.
• Provide timely assists to your teammates.
• Finish with an impressive kill-to-death ratio.
• Score an underdog victory against higher-ranked players.

Basically, showcase exceptional gameplay and absolutely dominate your opponents.

These performance bonuses are there to reward you for being a kickass agent, but sadly there’s no way to know exactly how many frags (kills), or how much higher your enemies’ ranks need to be, before you earn the bonus.

Aside from that, the only way to get more RR per game is to improve your MMR – VALORANT’s unseen overall ranking of every Competitive player.

The MMR aims to place you in matches against other players of your skill level. If you win these matches consistently, you rise higher in this unseen player ranking system and will generally get more RR per win.

By consistently outperforming other players of a similar MMR to you, it’s even possible to skip certain Tiers. While this isn’t technically “earning more RR per game”, it has the same effect – you climb the rankings faster.

What is the max RR you can get per game?

The highest RR you can get in a game of VALORANT is 50. If you’re going to get 50 RR in your Competitive matches though, you’ll probably need a high MMR, some next-level in-game performance, and some kind of benevolent deity to step in on your behalf.

Seriously, don’t expect to get 50 RR – it’s a real rarity.

The only way to rake in even close to the max RR per game is getting those sweet sweet performance bonuses (see above).

Why do I get less RR?

VALORANT isn’t a game to just grind your way to victory with. Winning is important, but so is how you win, the skills you display per game. You’ll get less RR per win if you’re not playing tactically or embodying good teamwork.

In short, it’s the quality of your wins that matters, not the quantity - that’s how you climb the VALORANT leaderboards.

Keep in mind that if your MMR is lower than your Rank, the RR points you earn per win will be less (and you’ll drop more points per loss, too). You’ll also get less RR if you’re playing against players of a lower rank than you.