every single match I've had since the reset can be summed up in this way: is the premade(s) I got matched with better than the one(s) on the other side? or, best case scenario, can I carry the premade(s) I got matched with against the premade(s) on the other side?

that's it. nothing more, no depth to it. where are the 2/3 people better able to click heads in a deathmatch? that's the only thing that matters.

• better players queuing up with people who would already be lost 3 ranks lower skewing the balance, and then not actually compensating by carrying
• me being used as the "carry balance-compensating player" and being put against high ascendant or immortals when I'm where I am on mostly tactical plays and not raw aim
• duos/trios of discord-only players
• premades instalocking ONE role together, then not actually doing that job
• premades who were not fast enough to instalock throwing because "they don't know how to play anything else"
• suicidal pushes, suicidal holds, full retake attempts without any communication outside of their premade
• etc

every single of the 12 matches I played since the reset can literally be explained like this. I don't mind the loss, but the experience is just rotten.

add to this:

• Europe having issues communicating in English
• Europe having issues with cultural norms and racism (just yesterday I had a French kid go full on "woh you don't disrespect my bitch like this bro" after simply asking her to fall back and use recon instead of dying early, and a german Guy throwing because of "arabs")

it's very disheartening. even if we aren't immortals / radiant, asking us to grind 150 matches in the actual MMR we belong to just to get back where we were (at +2 on average when you can't hard carry, 350 points are going to take that long, yes.) is just horrible. I don't mind losing, or the 50/50 goal, I'd just like to have a good time playing Valorant like it's a tactical FPS and not the weird offspring of Fortnite and Call of Duty with toxic communications on top.

"lower ranks" are human beings too. I don't even think asking D3/ascendant MMR players to treat ranked a bit more seriously than deathmatch is too much. in this situation, I'm thinking I'll just stop caring and go swiftplay where at least I don't expect anyone to not do idiotic things ("lol swiftplay chill bro", "lol just a game bro") and worst case scenario it'll only last for 15 minutes.