Mixer star Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has revealed why aspiring competitors should not put too much stock in their performances on ranked playlists in games like Valorant and CS:GO.
Before his transition to full-time streaming, shroud was considered one of the top Counter-Strike players in North America and was part of Cloud 9’s iconic 2015 summer roster.
Following the recent release of Riot’s FPS title Valorant, shroud reflected on his time competing, during his latest YouTube video, and explained why up-and-coming players, on most titles, should not be spending too much time on a ranked mode.
Shroud compared ranked playlists in different FPS titles and explained that there were too many variables to make it truly competitive compared to MOBAs such as League of Legends.
“They think competitive and ranked should be this 100% balanced thing impossible to do. There’s so many variables compared to a game like a MOBA, so you can’t create the same ranked system.” the former CSGO pro explained.
“People have to accept the fact that ranked doesn’t matter,” he continued, “If you truly want to get to the next level and compete, you do custom games with really good people, it’s really that simple.”
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While he admits that ranked playlists in titles like Valorant do have some benefits, he claimed that it is not worth investing much time into when trying to reach an elite level.
“If anyone is good or is trying to go anywhere in this game, they stay far away from ranked,” he shared, “It’s not that you don’t learn anything from ranked, it’s the rate at which you learn.”
Shroud followed up by pointing out many of the issues with different ranked modes, adding that, even at high elo, you will get matched with some bad players who will ruin your experience.
“All the information you take in is very minimal because they don’t know what they’re doing,” he admitted, before pointing out that much of that time could be used to improve other aspects of their gameplay.
Shroud has recently considered going pro again, after recognizing his early prowess on Valorant, however, as he has explained before, it would not be practical for him to do so with his streaming career.
