Today we'll discuss Iron, which is the lowest rank tier in the Valorant Rank System. But honestly, it's much more than that.
Iron is the lowest rank tier you can achieve in Valorant Competitive Mode. In short, it is the place for players whose skills are the weakest (but not only, as you will soon find out later in this article). This tier contains 6.3% of the entire player base with the following distribution:
| Rank | Top % of all players | % of players in this rank |
| Iron 1 | 100% | 0.4% |
| Iron 2 | 99% | 1.6% |
Iron 3 | 97.4% | 4.3% |
Getting out of this rank can be either super hard or super easy; it all depends on your base MMR. You can read more about it in our in-depth guide on Valorant Rank: Valorant Rank System Explained: RR, MMR & More
How Good is Iron Rank in Valorant?
Well, as you probably know by now, not so good. It's the lowest rank in the Valorant ranking system, and it mostly contains people who never played any FPS games before and lost all of their placement matches. It's all new to them, and so they won't be performing so well, and that's understandable. These players are new to this thing and don't really understand the rules yet and just started queuing into a Ranked Mode a little too fast.
However, all things are difficult before they are easy, right? So, even if you got Iron as your first rank, don't worry; you can get out of it and even climb to Radiant one day! It will be a long road, as your MMR is probably not so good, but well, it's totally doable if you really practice.
13 years old : Iron 1 14 years old : Hit Radiant for 1st time15 years old : signed as a pro playernever would have thought that I would be playing VALORANT professionally. But here I am today <3 pic.twitter.com/rCHoTsxKVH
— florescent lmt (@florscnt) April 21, 2022
How Many Hours Do You Need To Get Out of Iron?
Iron is a pretty tough rank to get out from, even if you finally get the hang of the game and everything starts to become clear to you. Why? Because there are lots of smurfs playing at this rank. In short, smurfs are people who are generally good at the game and deliberately play at the lower ranks to show off how good they are... Yeah, nasty stuff. If you want to learn more about smurfs in Valorant, check out this article: Smurfing in Valorant Explained
That said, it might even take you up to 200 hours, as smurfing is a big problem at this rank. Some players even decide to make a new account and start their climbing adventure from scratch as they don't even want to try beating this whole horde of smurfs. Sadly, your MMR is pretty low so climbing out of this rank can feel like ages, so this is actually not that bad of a solution.
However, if smurfs and boosters decide to chill out one day, here are some tips for all you Iron players:
Ways To Improve from Iron in Valorant
- Take it easy and learn the game. Listen, you are not playing to qualify for one of the VCT tournaments. At least not yet. For now, you have to learn the basics, unlock some Agents and most importantly – have fun! At the end of the day, it's what it's all about. You might also want to watch some live streams or (even better) read some of our guides.
- Play lots of Unrated. If you are skills are not really on point yet, try playing some more Unrated. You will learn the callouts and good habits like keeping your crosshair at the head level and all that kind of stuff.
- Always buy armor for your full rounds. While your movement is not there yet, you will get hit – that's for sure. However, buying an armor will give you some more time to react. Plus, you kind of learn the basics of managing your economy.
- Visit "Practice Mode" more often. Because why not? It's an easy option to learn new weapons, recoil patterns and get some good practice for the starters. While playing against the bots, you can also build up a counter-strafe habit, which might really help you in your future games.
- Play consistently. The best way of learning any skill is doing it consistently, and it's no different with video games. Seriously, even if you don't have time to play a full game, just think about spending a couple of minutes on The Range. It's unlikely that it will hurt your daily schedule so much, and it can significantly improve your muscle memory.
- Try out different Valorant settings. Before you begin your journey of climbing ranks, you'll first need to find and set up your settings preferences. The most important preference is the aim. So firstly try out lower and higher mouse sensitivities on the Practice Range we mentioned above. Then it's time you set up the rest of the Valorant settings to your liking, such as the minimap!