The Structure Changed and Most Sites Haven't Updated
If you read a boosting page that says your rank resets every act, you're reading something written for a version of Valorant that ended in January 2025.
Episodes are gone. Valorant now runs a year-long Season split into six Acts of roughly two months each. As of now you're in Season 2026 Act 5, which started 19 August and runs to mid-October.
More importantly, the resets changed with it. There are two hard resets a year — one at season start in January, one at midseason around July. Those are the big ones: you drop somewhere in the region of one to three full ranks and play five placement matches to re-establish where you sit.
Every other act transition is a soft recalibration. Smaller drop, usually a tier or two, and a single placement match rather than five.
That distinction matters commercially. Five placement games at a hard reset genuinely decide your next several months. One placement game at a soft act rollover does not, and anybody selling you a full placement package for a soft reset is selling you something you don't need. We'll say so in live chat.
Radiant is the exception at every reset. Radiant players drop to Immortal 1 and take a heavy RR penalty regardless of which kind of reset it is.
The Ladder Itself
Nine ranks — Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Ascendant, Immortal, Radiant. The first eight have three tiers each, Radiant stands alone, giving 25 steps from bottom to top.
Iron through Ascendant 3 runs on a 0-100 RR scale. Hit 100 and you promote into the next tier at 0 RR. A win is worth roughly 10 to 30 RR and a loss costs a similar amount, with the exact figure driven by your hidden MMR.
From Iron to Gold you can also earn a performance bonus of about 3-6 RR for an individually strong game. That tapers off at Platinum and above, where the system stops caring how you played and starts caring only whether you won. It's one of the reasons the climb feels so different above Plat.
Immortal abandons the 0-100 model. Immortal 1 begins at 10 RR and you accumulate indefinitely, with regional thresholds deciding Immortal 2 and 3 — thresholds Riot adjusts per region based on the player pool.
Radiant is the top ~500 players in your region. It isn't a threshold you cross, it's a seat you take from someone. That's why it's priced differently to everything else.
MMR Is the Thing That Actually Decides Your Climb
Your visible rank is the scoreboard. Your hidden MMR is the referee.
If the system thinks you're underranked — MMR well above your displayed rank — you gain more per win and lose less per loss, and the climb accelerates. If you're overranked, the opposite, and it grinds.
This is why placements can't rescue you from a bad MMR and why a rank that doesn't match your skill corrects itself over time. It's also why a good booster cares about your MMR before quoting: an account with healthy hidden MMR climbs faster and costs less than one that's been throwing games for two acts.
Party Restrictions, Which Trip a Lot of People Up
Iron and Bronze can queue up to Silver. Silver can queue with Gold. Gold can queue with Platinum. From Platinum upward you're restricted to roughly one rank tier in either direction.
Immortal and Radiant can only queue solo, as a duo, or as a full five-stack. Three-player parties aren't allowed at that level, and four-stacks were removed from ranked entirely.
Five-stacks can ignore rank restrictions, but they pay for it: around a 25% RR reduction when the party sits outside normal ranges, and up to a 75% reduction if a Radiant is in the group.
Decay and Inactivity
Below Immortal there's no RR decay. Stop playing for a month and your rank is exactly where you left it — your badge just gets hidden after about 14 days of inactivity until you play again.
Immortal and Radiant are different. Leaderboard positions require roughly one competitive game every seven days to hold. If you're paying to reach Radiant, ask about maintenance before you order, because a seat you can't defend is a seat you lose.
The Current Map Pool
Seven maps in competitive: Ascent, Breeze, Haven, Lotus, Split, Summit and Sunset. Summit and Sunset came in with Patch 13.00 in June; Fracture and Pearl rotated out to Unrated and Spike Rush.
Riot keeps the pool at exactly seven and swaps on the act calendar rather than on balance patches, so expect a change at the Act 6 rollover.