The streaming star Michael “shroud” Grzesiek was once a professional in CS:GO. Now many complain to him about the ranked in Valorant. He says: Matchmaking is always trash in these games. Anyone who really wants to become a pro should avoid ranked and play custom games.
These are the complaints about ranked: As shroud explains during live streams on Mixer, some players complain about the ranked system in Valorant. The system has been disabled since release, but was active during the beta.
Shroud told: People demanded that competitive game modes in Valorant or CS:GO must be “100% fair and balanced.” The whole game should be built around these ranked modes, they insist.
Shroud finds this attitude to be wrong and unrealistic.
This is how shroud sees the ranked mode in shooters: Shroud compares the ranked system in Valorant with his experiences in CS:GO. He says:
- It is not like in a MOBA, the games simply do not have perfect balance. Tactical shooters have way too many variables in the equation.
- You have to accept that ranked doesn’t count and unrated doesn’t either – you should play these matchmaking games just for fun and to mess around.
This is how to become a pro, according to shroud:
If you really want to take it to the next level and face competition, then you play custom games with really good people. It’s really that simple. I hear a lot of people complaining about the ranked system, but the truth is that ranked will never really be good and that’s okay. If you really want to compete, then you play custom.
Shroud
Shroud says that when he played CS:GO, he never did matchmaking, but was only in 10vs10 games or 16vs16 games. There is a community for such custom games in every game. You just have to find them.
Matchmaking is just trash.
The interesting part of the video starts at 1:17.
Definitely stay away from ranked
That’s why you should play custom instead of ranked: According to shroud, one should “definitely stay away from ranked.”
It’s not that you learn nothing there, but you learn way too slowly, picking up only minor things.
In ranked you play with “bad players” against “bad players” and therefore learn only minimally, because the others don’t know what they’re doing. Some don’t have a microphone, some would throw the game – that’s totally normal.
In custom games, you would learn much faster as a player and progress.
If you want to get better, you should therefore play custom games and really learn the details, tricks, and setups that actually improve your game.
In many games, it is common for pros to meet in such custom games for training, as shroud describes. These games are called scrimmages. They are often games under competitive conditions that take place without an audience. The scrims are not streamed to keep the tactics and maneuvers secret.
In contrast, ranked modes are often streamed by players for their viewers. The audience finds these ranked games interesting because there seems to be something at stake.
The Twitch streamer Tenz could early on dominate the rank list in Valorant, setting himself apart from many other streamers with strong play and gaining new viewers.
