Want to climb the VALORANT ladder with your friends? Make sure your ranks are able to play together.
VALORANT is a team-based game that’s focused on strategy and communication if you want to get the upper hand on your opponents. That’s why a lot of VALORANT players will often jump into matches with friends. But if your friends are all at different ranks, you may be wondering if you can still play together.
VALORANT has a ranking system that has some restrictions when it comes to queuing with friends in various ranks. Basically, if you’re too far apart in ranks you won’t be able to play ranked games together.
While this keeps matches balanced and competitive, it can still be a bit frustrating for friend groups with various skill levels. Here’s which ranks can play together in VALORANT.
What are the Ranks in VALORANT?
There are nine ranks in VALORANT:
- Iron
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Diamond
- Ascendant
- Immortal
- Radiant
What Ranks Can Play Together in VALORANT?
The range in ranks that can play together is determined by how many players are in your party. Here’s how this varies.
Five Stack
If you have five friends below Ascendant in your squad — a full team — you can all play together regardless of your ranks. The ranks will impact your rank rating (RR) points and penalties, however.
If you are all Diamond 2 rank or lower, the amount of RR you get depends on the ranked disparity of the group. If at least one member is Diamond 3 or higher, however, a minimum reduction of 50% in RR will be applied per match. This reduction can increase up to 90% depending on the skill disparity.
If you have a Radiant player on your squad, a minimum reduction of 75% in RR will be applied. Playing with friends who are below Radiant will reduce the Radiant player’s potential RR by 90%.
Four Stack
You can no longer play with a four-stack in ranked matchmaking. This makes total sense since this means one person on your team will be a solo queue player. This often doesn’t go well for the four stack and the solo queue player due to a breakdown of communication in most instances.
Three or Two Stack
If you are jumping into ranked with one or two friends, you have to be within a certain ranked range to play together. Here’s how that’s broken down:
- Iron and Bronze can play with up to Silver
- Silver can play with up to Gold
- Gold can play with up to Platinum
- Players with ranks above Ascendant can only invite players with Platinum ranks or higher to a party
If you are Immortal or higher, you can only play solo, duo, or with a five stack. You cannot compete in a party of three. Similarly to the Ascendant party restrictions, this is intended to combat a wave of bot and smurf accounts that unfairly affect the outcome of competitive games.
