Fariha Bhatti • Apr 15, 17:42

Streamer and Valorant pro player Tyson “TenZ“ Ngo has revealed a reason why he’s not a huge fan of ranked games in Valorant. 

Earlier, tons of Valorant professional players have discussed how ranked games can be frustrating due to queue time, rank disparity, lobby restrictions, and random teammates in solo queues. TenZ cosigned this notion and has called out the developer to introduce a 10-man hub like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s FACEIT. 

FACEIT Pro League is a third-party matchmaking service that has attracted almost all of Counter-Strike’s top names, allowing them to climb the proverbial ladder in a healthy competitive environment. Ranked Valorant is still in its embryonic stage, with new updates polishing the competitive experience from time to time. However, TenZ claims that pro players don’t want to touch Valorant’s ranked games due to these shortcomings. 

TenZ explains why ranked Valorant games are bad for streams

During his competitive hiatus, TenZ switched entirely to streaming Valorant, and he’s not satisfied with the way ranked games work. According to him, competitive games can be frustrating to play on-stream and are less enjoyable for the viewers. Since random teammates don’t communicate, the quiet streams can be a pain to watch. Entertainment value aside, teammates throwing games and taking unnecessary duels also ruin the competitive spirit of the game according to TenZ. 

He also touched on the common issue of stream sniping that streamers like Michael “shroud” Grzesiek have previously stressed. Valorant’s streamer mode often feels futile since players can track live broadcasts after noticing the invisible name. A private game would tackle this issue, allowing streamers to play their matches comfortably without going the extra mile to add lengthy delays. 

The Valorant pro player elaborated that a 10-man hub won’t even bolster the stream numbers, but viewers can learn tons of stuff by watching pro players in action. Team communications, stats, and callouts are just a few things that viewers can learn from such streams. The streamer went as far as to say that he wouldn’t bother playing ranked at all if not for his content creation. 

Premium leagues still haven’t been discussed by Riot Games developers. Valorant has five game modes that allow players to experience the game in different settings, but ranked still has several restrictions that can often be frustrating. It remains to be seen if the developer would consider TenZ’s request or whether a third-party service like FACEIT would be possible in Valorant. While it seems unlikely, nothing should be ruled out yet as developers are still keenly observing the competitive mode in Valorant.