Valorant ranked matchmaking has launched in North America. This mode was announced in a recent patch, but Riot says they wanted to make sure everything was stable before making the switch.

Riot says it will turn off ranked matches "if things get weird," but unless that happens, those participating in the closed beta can try it out by selecting "Competitive" from the play menu.

Note that everything that happened in the beta will be erased before Valorant launches this summer. The competitive playlist is strictly a testing ground.

Some things don't need to be tested: the top rank of Valorant should not be called "Valorant." But how can we speak succinctly of Valorant players of Valorant rank? Valorant player of Valorant rank? Vallorant? Both sound silly!

Anyway, the competitive game mode always stimulates a lot of opinions, so Riot should get a lot of feedback. Does matchmaking feel fair? Do highly skilled players quickly move up from lower ranks, while less skilled players always feel completely toothless? Is solo queuing fun or frightening?

You can read more about how Riot approaches ranked competition in a recent blog post. One important thing to note is that winning is not the only thing that helps you rise in the ranks. It's about personal performance and winning decisions.

Another factor in the success of competitive Valorant will be how well Riot can control cheating: it is inevitable that people will try to cheat in Valorant, and no popular competitive game is free of cheats. They are already in the game, so what will happen now?

If you are participating in the Valorant closed beta (click here to learn how to join the Valorant beta if you are not participating), you will have to play 20 unranked games before you are allowed to get in line to compete. If you try to play and get stopped, they will tell you how many more unranked games you need to play.