You finally have some time to yourself. You log-on and play some comp - maybe enough time for 3 games if you're lucky. Game 1 - you get smurfed on and destroyed. Game 2 - not a single person on your team has mics, several instalock duelists, it's over by halftime. Game 3 - a combination of 1 or 2.

I am not saying that this happens EVERY night, but it happens WAY TOO MANY nights. So now the next time I have time to game, I'm thinking - hmmmm, maybe something other than Valorant. And that eventually turns into no more Valorant ever again.

I've been from Iron 1 to D1 and currently in p2/p3 - these issues are the same in every single rank. Winning always feels more fun, but logging on and playing a few matches and never once feeling like you have a chance to win is just brutal. Losing close ones is a stinger...but knowing it's over immediately is much worse because people don't FF and you are just stuck there for 40 minutes.

Yes, I have been involved in plenty of comebacks - this is not about games where most rounds are close and you just need some timings to start falling your way. This is about games that are only winnable with a 40-bomb carry (and even then probably a loss) and that is just not realistic for any player to do. And saying "only play with friends" isn't realistic as people have different schedules.

Is it fixable? A karma system maybe (though this can be easily abused by trolls and usually just correlates to upvoting whoever you win with)? Will Riot ever require mics to play comp? Or actually crack-down on smurfs? What other ideas are out there that might work?

I don't know, but my personal breaking point with this game draws near. And yeah, Riot won't give a shit if I leave - but I can't be alone.

TLDR: The QUALITY of matchmaking is so inconsistent and terrible that it is going to hurt the player-base and the game's longevity. Is there any way to fix this?