After an odyssey of ups and downs in this game, I just wanted to share my experience with you guys.This is not an all out rant about the game - just my views, thoughts and first and foremost my experience.

So for the start I have to say that I think that Valorant has a huge potential and is very exciting and enjoyable in the right environment - BUT:

The %"$%& ranking system.
The toxic community.
The favoritism of duellist agents.
The political correctness of Riot.

1. My first learning - The %"$%& ranking system.- "You should never buy skins with your first account - try the game on accounts you can dump until you are sure you can play in Gold or above."

I never played a "try hard fps" before. Some Quake3 or Unreal, some Phantasy Star Online in my youth - that's all. So I could never imagine what a "ranked ladder" was about, when I started Valorant. After a while in Iron, I really thought, that playing with randoms was holding me back. Especially because I had friends that were Gold/Platinum at the time and as often as we did a costum game with some fellows from our server communitys I was able to come out second and third or even on top, bringing real value to my team as a Breach main.

It was then clear to me - the difference between a ranked game with toxic randoms, without logic, without calls, without proper hardware, etc. and the experience I could make with mates in unranked or costum games was huge!

So - after a while I refused to believe that I was a "Bronce" player and started to play with dump accounts on my own in October and "no surprise" - all my "smurfs" ranked in Silver/Gold and my highest rank ever achieved so far was Gold3. How could it be possible then to still stuck in Iron/Bronce with my main account, never beeing able to get out of this %"$%&hole?

Revelation 1: It's the ranked system!
Revelation 2: It must be related to the hidden mmr?

When I am able to reach Gold with a fresh account in about two weeks (I am a casual player and I am working full time) how can it be that I cant overcome the elo system with the same Agents and the same behaviour and strats?

Revelation 3: A long time I refused to rank up my account with smurfing high elo friends. I love fairness and I hate smurfs which are just destroying the whole integrity of the game. But after so many months of playing and literally the evidence of my dump accounts, I gave my main account to a friend that is a professional player and even he (dropping 30k and 40k bombs) had to play some time despite a winning streak, just to overcome the (what I call it) "negative elo points" to reach silver for me.

Conclusion: We have a ranked system that purely favours aim, Duellists and KDA. If you happen to refuse to play a duellist or just happen to be not half of a pro with superb aim, SoloQ is really a hell and will never reflect your real skills unless you play in a premade team.

Now I am at a point where I know that I am player which has bad mechanics, but good strats and game sense and that Platinum is my actual skill cap. I am very ok with that since I dont care about my rank but I do care about fair and fun games with guys that know their agent, know basic strats and are able to make use of a microphone.

2. My second learning - The %"$%& up community.
   "Better get some friends into this game or be prepared to face the bottom hell of our society."

When I started in May/June I just "played around", tried things, tried to be helpfull to my team and never bothered about my rank or something. But after my placements I stuck in Iron for more than 4 months and could be happy to stay in bronce for a while when I was lucky enough. In all my time below Silver/Gold it was really a rare moment to ever meet a normal, decent and friendly person that was able to communicate in a normal way. As I said above: In all my years of gaming, playing games like Quake3, Unreal, Phantasy Star Online (which had a huge community on Dreamcast) and so on, I never experienced anything like this community. What do I mean by that?

I started to play Valorant initially to have a good time with a friend as we were seaching for a game that we could play together. I found Valorant and was addicted right from the start. I knew CS and the likes but Valorant was a game that really amazed me, with its style, agents, abilitys and all the strats you can pull of by them. But after a short time the ranked system and the match making made me mad. PLS! Dont tell me that this kind of behaviour in a game is "normal". How sad to say that at all?

I am a player that loves to play video games for the good time with friends, on top with some tactical flavour. I mean sure - this is not "Risk" or "Settlers of Catan" where we sit around in "meaning- and mannerfull ways" but that Riot would allow their platform to make such behaviour possible and for the vast amount of it even unpunished was driving me mad - and all of my mates too.

Conclusion: When we started in May/June, we were 20 excited people, starting a Discord Nitro Community with a peak of 50 players. After August I was the only player left to play the game. Nearly 70 players dropped the game because of the community and the miserable match making (besides all the technical issues....). You can tell me what you want and sure - this is just a small amount of players but - this is my undeniable experience - when more than 50 people refuse to play the game after all the toxicity they witnessed, while all the facebook groups I am in are repeating and repeating this issue to come up with every new player - something must be changed........

3. My third learning - The favoritism of duellist agents.
   "When its all about KDA - what are with people who like to play assist or support?"

I play this game to have fun. And as "fun" is relative I have to be clear. "Fun" means, that I play this game with a team to pull of intelligent strats, line ups and create some creative and crazy moments. I dont care about my KDA. But I do care about mastering my agents, to learn from content creators, to watch the tournaments to memorize the pro strats and line ups. BUT: When the system is telling everyone that loves to play assist/support that their game play might help winning but will not be rewarded, it is no wonder that we experience "duellist-insta-only-picks" on every map. Even when it makes no sense at all. In my elos we then have SoloQ situations where:-
4 duellists are stacked together because no one cares
- people dont play for the round win but for their stats
- your team mates abuse you for baits to get better stats
- people are wondering like "I am allways the match mvp, why dont I rank up...."

Come on Riot! Its obvious that this kind of "reward system" is feeding the toxicity that is allready existing. And also: "All aim no brain" - what good for is a KDA when it does not lead to a win? So many times I experience ridiculous moments of "no game sense at all", just because the game "boosted" aim oriented players into elos where they dont belong. I dont want to play with a Sage in Gold/Platinum that does not know the walls for A site on Bind, or a Phoenix that still does not know how to not flash their team mates.

4. My fourth learning - The political correctness of Riot.
"Why dont they just admit that they failed?"

All of us are sometimes wrong. Nothing bad about that. Either you learn and make it better next time, or you learn and create an opportunity for others to try. That's all. So pls lets be mature about this.

When Riot made clear that the Product Owner of the ranked system "left the company", it was all clear that something needs to be done. At least to admit that the ranked system is %"$%&.

It favours aim oriented players and all of those CS Go veterans. I get it. Let all the "Pros" have their fair share. But cant you create a system where normal and decent people can have good game? We work full time. We have family or other dutys. And we surely arent able to play 40 hours a week or more just to be "good" at this game. So many things in this game are working against us and surely smurfs and toxic players are on the top spots of our list.

The are so many ways to measure "quality" in such a game.
I dont care about my %"$%& que time.
But I do care about the quality of my game.
To be clear abot "quality" - I dont want to be qued with people:
- that dont have a microphone/refuse to use it
- that are reported more than 5 times
- that are under the age of 14
- that are playing on an account that is just 2 weeks old

- I really cant understand why Riot does not asap implements some of such factors for other reasons than time/employment/money. Are there no employes to do that? What is the problem at Riot? Has someone some insight?

In the end I come to the conclusion that if you are not a "professional" with endless time or a CS veteran, you have to play in a real team or will never really enjoy this game.
SoloQ in the state as it is right now is really a mess.

There is so much more to say but I leave it to this and I hope for others to come out, to have a good conversation. Thanks for your time and reading.