I recently started playing Valorant with my friends, and I'm currently level 17. It's been very fun, and I've been playing frequently. However, the first game I played was startling, as hearing is a big factor in Valorant. I ended up getting overwhelmed and disconnecting.

I still have problems after playing multiple games. I get that it could be a skill issue, but I've been caught off guard many times, and my friends have also pointed it out. I think it's just that I can't really hear or register when people are coming, and I'm used to working visually. And if I turn my volume up further, I could get sensory overload.

And no, I'm not playing with high-level players. Most of my friends started around the same time as me, and usually my matches are against lower lever players. (Is that game design or am I just really lucky kek)

To elaborate on my hearing loss, I'm completely deaf in my left ear. My right ear functions normally, but I tend to get sensory overload easily, so I usually play games that don't require me to hear things.

I can still play unranked and other gamemodes pretty easily(though I'm not very good at the game, pretty sure that's because of skill lol) but I'm not sure if it'll be a problem once I get into ranked matches. Is there any way I can accommodate for my hearing problem in the settings, or should I just not play ranked Valorant?