Seen a lot of posts over last few days complaining about the MMR and Ranking system, and especially wishing displayed rank and MMR could be the same. The devs have an official Ask Valorant post on this linked here from March 2021. TLDR MMR is fluid and can have substantial swings game to game after a W or L. Decoupling Rank from MMR keeps your displayed rank more stable. De-coupling also allows for QoL features to be employed, such as de-rank protection (as you may or may not have noticed, you can only de-rank from 0 RR and you always start with some RR after ranking up. So at any time you have to lose 2 matches in a row to de-rank). MMR is used to create fair matches, Rank is used to estimate your skill.

My thoughts:

The de-coupling is designed to make your climb more stable and less frustrating. No wild swings in rank and no de-rank immediately after ranking up. They also place you in a rank lower than your MMR. Val Devs claim this is to be conservative so that as you climb MMR and RR converge, and so that you are never over-ranked. Many in the community think that it's designed this way so that you play more, because you are more likely to play when you are consistently climbing. I think both are probably true. The current system means you will consistently play against higher ranked players, but similar MMR, until you reach your convergence rank. Because it is unsatisfying to try and rank up against players 2-3 ranks ahead of you, many have recently started to call for displayed rank to match MMR exactly.

However, using MMR for both matchmaking and displayed rank has significant downsides. 1) You need to either give up QoL features mentioned above or 2) significant changes to MMR calculation that potentially have a negative impact on match fairness.

I agree that there are some frustrating components and some things that can be done to combat them.

1. Get gud - I joke, but if you are actually better than others in your rank, you will climb no matter what the system is. We should all probably stop blaming external forces and just focus on our own play

2. Tighter coupling between MMR and Rank. Keeping a tighter coupling will mean higher RR gains when MMR is only a little above your Rank, but also greater losses when rank rises above MMR.

3. Rank Resets -> Rank Calibrations: Currently the resets tend to shove everyone down the rank ladder without changing MMR. Using placements instead to re-calibrate peoples ranks, with 5-10 placements to re-calibrate the everyone's Rank, and bring people to a point 1-2 ranks below MMR, instead of 3-4 ranks below your current or peak rank.

IMO these changes will continue to encourage play, but reduce player frustration and fatigue due to static climbs after rank resets while playing against players many ranks ahead. This will also help players with limited time converge faster, leading to a more rewarding experience.