"I'm not spending any money on this shit game."
That's what one brand-new Valorant player said after four days of trying to learn the game. Four days. Then it became "yea this isn't fun." Then they uninstalled.
This isn't some random Reddit whining. This is Valorant actively sabotaging its own growth. And the worst part? Riot absolutely knows it's happening.
The Matchmaking Death Spiral
Here's the situation that's blowing up on Reddit right now: A Silver player brings two IRL friends to try Valorant. These aren't complete gaming newbies—they've played shooters before. Fresh accounts. Zero experience with tactical shooters.
Their reward? Getting absolutely dumpstered by Plat and Diamond players in "normal" queue.
Let that sink in. Brand new accounts. First week of playing. Getting matched against players with hundreds of hours and mechanical skills these newbies won't develop for months.
"The lobby shouldn't be a bunch of soulless, sweaty players," the original poster wrote. And honestly? They're right.
Why This Happens (And Why Riot Doesn't Fix It)
Valorant's unrated matchmaking uses a hidden MMR system. The theory? It's supposed to quickly calibrate where you belong. The reality? It overcorrects harder than a Silver player trying to spray control with the Vandal.
The system sees you winning a few games against actual beginners. Then it panics. "These players might be smurfs!" it screams internally. Solution? Throw them into lobbies way above their skill level.
For actual smurfs? Minor inconvenience. They'll still frag out.
For genuine new players? Game-ruining experience that makes them question why they even downloaded.
The hidden MMR also factors in your party. Got a Silver friend showing you the ropes? Congrats, you're now facing Gold lobbies minimum. Got a Plat friend? Hope you enjoy getting one-tapped before you even understand the map callouts.
The Real Cost Nobody Talks About
Every time a new player rage-quits after a week, that's not just one lost customer. That's potentially their entire friend group gone. Gaming is social. People don't start Valorant alone—they get recruited by friends.
Kill the new player experience? You kill organic growth. Period.
And this isn't some edge case. Search "new player" or "friend quit" on the Valorant subreddit. You'll find this exact story repeated weekly. Monthly. For years at this point.
The responses are always the same copium: "Just play more games, it'll balance out." "Unrated doesn't matter anyway." "Git gud."
Cool advice. Super helpful for someone who just wanted to try a game their friend liked.
What Other Games Do Better
CS2? Has its own matchmaking issues (trust me, we've covered them), but at least Premier gives you transparent elo. You know exactly where you stand. New players aren't getting thrown into lobbies with players 10 ranks above them in their first week.
League of Legends—Riot's own game—has a more gradual curve for new accounts. You start against bots. Then actual beginners. The skill creep happens slower.
Valorant apparently missed that memo from down the hall.
The Smurf Problem Makes Everything Worse
Here's the thing: Riot's aggressive matchmaking exists because smurfing is rampant. They're trying to catch smurfs quickly and boost them out of low-elo lobbies.
Noble goal. Terrible execution.
Because now the system treats every new player like a potential smurf. Win your first three games because you understood basic shooter mechanics from playing Apex? You're clearly Immortal in disguise. Here's your Diamond lobby.
Actual smurfs adapt. They intentionally lose games to tank MMR. They know how to game the system.
New players? They just get farmed. Then they leave.
Look, if you've been trying to get friends into Valorant and watching them bounce off, you're not alone. The new player experience is genuinely rough, and solo queue doesn't get much better until you've ground through the worst of it. If you're tired of the slot machine teammates while you're still learning, sometimes getting a boost past the chaos lets you actually practice against players at a consistent level instead of random Diamond players in your unrated games.
What Riot Should Do (But Won't)
First: Separate new account matchmaking for the first 20-30 games. Not hidden MMR adjustments—actual protection. Keep fresh accounts in beginner pools longer.
Second: Transparent unrated MMR. Let players see approximately where they stand. The mystery helps nobody except Riot's metrics team.
Third: Party balancing that doesn't punish new players. If a Diamond queues with a brand-new account, weight the lobby toward the new player, not the experienced one. Make smurfing with friends less appealing.
Fourth: An actual new player mode. Not just "unrated." A protected queue that you can't access after hitting level 20 or something. Let beginners be beginners.
Will any of this happen? Probably not. Riot's been aware of these complaints for years. The system clearly works "well enough" by their internal metrics—player retention numbers that don't account for all the people who quit before becoming paying customers.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Valorant has a skill floor problem. The game requires knowledge of:
- Agent abilities (24 agents, each with 4 abilities)
- Map layouts and callouts (7+ maps)
- Weapon spray patterns
- Economy management
- Team composition
- Utility timing
- Crosshair placement
That's a LOT to learn before you're even remotely competitive. And the current matchmaking says "figure it out while getting destroyed by players who've already mastered all of it."
Other games ease you in. Valorant throws you into the deep end and wonders why you're drowning.
What You Can Actually Do
If you're the experienced player trying to bring friends in:
Play on an alt. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, it's technically smurfing. But it's the only way your friends won't face Plat players immediately.
Stick to Spike Rush and the new game modes. The All Random 1 Site mode? Actually fun for new players. Lower stakes. Faster games. Less punishment for not knowing lineups.
Set expectations. Tell your friends upfront: "The matchmaking will be rough for your first few weeks. It's not you, it's the system."
If you're the new player:
Don't judge the game by your first 20 games. It genuinely gets better once MMR stabilizes. The question is whether you have the patience to get there.
Play the new game modes. Seriously. All Random 1 Site is getting praised for a reason. It's chaotic, it's fun, and nobody expects perfection.
Find a stack. Solo queue as a new player is brutal. The game is designed around communication and teamwork. Playing with friends—even if they're also new—is infinitely better than random teammates who will flame you for not knowing Cypher's camera spots.
The Verdict
Valorant's new player experience is genuinely broken. Not "could use improvement" broken—actively driving away potential long-term players broken.
The matchmaking prioritizes catching smurfs over protecting beginners. The hidden MMR creates anxiety instead of clarity. The skill floor is massive and the game does nothing to help you reach it.
Four days. That's how long those players lasted before deciding they'd rather play literally anything else.
Riot can keep pretending this isn't a problem. But every friend who uninstalls after a week is a failure of game design, not player skill. And until that changes, Valorant's growth will keep being limited by a system that treats new players as collateral damage in the war against smurfing.
Hot take: Valorant would rather have a toxic but engaged playerbase than risk smurfs having fun for a few extra games. And new players are paying the price.