Valorant ranks in order: RR, placements, Act Rank — and what a rank on an account actually tells you

Valorant's Competitive ladder has nine ranks and twenty-five steps. The names are easy; what trips people up is everything around them — how many points a win is worth, why two players with the same rank gain different amounts, and why a rank printed on an account says less than it seems to. This guide goes through the ladder the way Riot's own support articles describe it, and ends with what all of that means when the account is one you are about to buy.

The ranks, bottom to top

A higher number is a better tier: Gold 3 sits just under Platinum 1. Radiant is the only rank without tiers.

Getting into Competitive at all

Ranked play unlocks at Account Level 20. That rule dates from Episode 4 Act 1; before it, the gate was ten unrated wins, and players who had already played a ranked match before Episode 4 kept access below level 20.

Account level is a measure of time, not skill. You earn Account Points for every minute in any matchmade game, plus a bonus for each win, and every 5,000 points is a level. The level never resets between Acts — but Riot's leveling FAQ says it does reset if the account is transferred to a different shard, which matters later.

Placements and RR

At the start of a season you play five placement matches. Riot splits each year into six Acts; Acts 1 and 4 open with the full five, while in the Acts between, a player who has already placed needs only one match to update the rank. No placement puts you straight into Immortal.

From there, Rank Rating (RR) is the progress bar:

• After placement you start a rank at 50 RR; reaching 100 RR promotes you.
• A promotion leaves you at least 10 RR in the new tier, as a cushion.
• To drop, you have to sit at 0 RR and lose again; after a demotion you start the lower tier at no less than 70 RR.
• Entering tier 1 of any rank gives you two Rank Shields. A loss at 0 RR spends a shield instead of dropping you a whole rank. Shields do not stop a fall between tiers of the same rank, and a dodged or remade match does not use one up.

What decides how much RR a match is worth

Riot names four factors:

1. The result. A win earns a base amount, a loss costs one, and you cannot gain RR from a loss.
2. Round difference. A 13–2 win pays more than 13–9, and a 3–13 loss costs more than 11–13.
3. Your own performance — damage and assists as well as kills. It nudges the number; it never outweighs the result, and at Immortal and Radiant it matters even less.
4. Convergence with your MMR. MMR is a hidden rating of your actual skill. When it is above your visible rank, wins pay more and losses cost less; when it is below, the opposite happens until the two meet again.

Two more effects: a promotion can skip a tier when MMR is far ahead of the visible rank, and a five-player premade pays an RR penalty of up to 90% when the ranks inside it are too far apart. Leaving matches or dodging queues for a long time costs RR as well.

Immortal and Radiant run on different rules

From Immortal 1 you start at 10 RR and keep collecting it with no cap. Moving up inside Immortal depends on regional RR thresholds:

Radiant needs both the threshold and a place among the top 500 players of the region. Riot's Immortal article goes further on performance: at these ranks RR depends on the result and the round difference alone. Staying on the leaderboard takes at least one Competitive game every seven days. And in the Acts that need only one placement match, that match keeps your leaderboard position but cuts your RR by 90% — so every Radiant starts those Acts back in Immortal.

Rank, Act Rank and decay

Your rank is where you stand now. Your Act Rank is the badge for the whole Act, and Riot sets it by your highest ranked win — what it calls proven skill. There is no rank decay: an inactive Immortal does not drop a tier, though the leaderboard position can slide as others play.

Who you can queue with

Parties of two or three must fit a rank window: Iron and Bronze can play with up to Silver, Silver with up to Gold, Gold with up to Platinum, and from Platinum up the gap is one tier at most. Four-player groups are not allowed. Five-player groups ignore the window but take the RR penalty above. From Immortal 1, you can only queue solo, as a duo or as a full five.

What a rank on an account tells you before you buy

• Which number is it? A listing can show the current rank or the Act Rank — the best win of an Act that may already be over. Ask which, and from which Act; a fresh Act begins with placements, and the rank on screen can change after them.
• The MMR comes with the account. Because of convergence, an account whose rank was pushed above its hidden MMR keeps losing more RR than it wins until the two align. A rank built by the person who played it holds; one that was inflated tends to slide.
• Level 20 is the floor for ranked. An account below it cannot queue Competitive, whatever its rank history.
• A region change resets the level. Moving an account to another shard resets its account level, by Riot's own FAQ.
• Shared accounts now meet a second lock. From patch 11.09 (28 October 2025), accounts that Riot flags as shared must turn on Riot Mobile multi-factor authentication to play Competitive in NA, LATAM, BR and KR, and Riot announced the same requirement for all Ascendant-and-above players in those regions. The same notes say purchased accounts detected for boosting are banned.
• The terms do not allow it. Riot's Terms of Service say you cannot share your account or login credentials, and cannot sell, transfer or let anyone else access your account. Any account sold second-hand carries that risk, whatever its rank.

A five-minute check

1. Ask the seller for a screenshot of the current rank and the Act Rank, with the Act visible.
2. Check the account level — at least 20 for ranked play.
3. Ask whether the account has changed region; a level reset would show it.
4. Ask whether Riot Mobile MFA is on and whose phone it uses — in NA, LATAM, BR and KR a flagged account cannot open Competitive without it.
5. Pay through escrow, and confirm only after you have logged in and seen the rank yourself — the buying help page explains how that works here.