Hey everyone I apologize in advance for this tangent but there is something extremely wrong with how riot games handles Valorant accounts created in different time periods and I wish they would address it.
The rabbit hole I have gone down some would say is very cope and placebo but I have come to the conclusion and can safely confirm that it is not. To preface some things first because I know there might be some people saying have you tried this or that let me just clarify this quickly that this is NOT an fps issue or a personal pc issue. I have tried every optimization combination under the sun from ingame/fps capping/windows settings/reformatting pc all the way to tweaking riot file config settings and MSI utility settings and RAM timings in my bios and multiple more.
At first I was convinced it was an issue with the frame pacing of the game on my personal pc or skin related but it is not the case either. I even tried this with my same rig on my friends newer account who is in the same rank as me. On my account the hit reg and time I had to kill enemies was a complete joke. I play a few rounds on his account with identical settings and I was dumbfounded on the difference across the board, the enemies reaction time, the hit reg, how fast my character was moving etc.
The issue simply boils down to this, for some odd reason the game is not the same on my older accounts that i've had for years compared to newer ones I have created. If anyone is having problems you can test this out yourself with identical settings across accounts and you will notice that the account that is not your main has not only a tighter aim feel, better hit registration and more control but you are also not instantly dying to enemies. Have you ever noticed you have 0 time to react to enemies but after you die you spectate your teammates and it's as if the enemy forgot how to shoot at them? Well...lol.
Anyone who has played this game long enough or was/is a high enough rank can somewhat decipher the difference between when you are losing gunfights due to you getting timing'd/outgunned/outplayed and you knowing the enemy is playing a completely different game than you. To the point where it feels like they are ahead of ingame time compared to you, its unreactable.
Below are some linked threads/videos to people having similar issues as to what I have stated if you want to check them out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/1oxnbx2/riotusersettingsini_changing_how_the_game_feels/
https://www.vlr.gg/240018/my-aim-feels-less-delayed-and-tighter-on-my-main
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN-H2xSSEJA
From my personal experience some of those may help you but it might just be a short term fix like it was for me.
I am not sure if this problem arised due to there being a a problem with the switching from UE4 to UE5 or when it even started but it is making the game extremely insufferable to play under these conditions and I truly wish it was addressed.
The only alternative I see right now is playing on my newer accounts and ranking them up. It sucks because of all the time and skin investments I have had on my mains but I will gladly give that up to play the game on a normal playing field at this point.
If anyone wants to share anything feel free or have similar experiences feel free, I would love to hear from any of you with the same problem or even if you think I am a nutcase lol.
TLDR; Riot needs to address why accounts play and feel different. It's absurd.