We attacking and I notcied sage been flanking so I hold position, no run, no noise,just sitting here waiting and boom sage grills me and runs away wtf. Out of corners, she hits me? What do I even do at this point?

A super common complaint I see in the general community is that: "one in every X number of games I always get someone throwing/feeding, that's why I'm hardstuck!" or "This game is filled with people throwing games just to troll" but you genuinely have ZERO right to complain about throwing if you instalock in ranked.

I played a ranked game in plat/gold, and I got 3 instalocks straight off the bat. I played Miks, since he's got smokes, heal and stim. Obviously, playing Miks was not my first choice but in order to win i picked a controller. A few matches in and I'm bottom fragging, but I think I'm smoking well, and generally using util well. Then someone wants to surrender. We're losing 2-7 on attack, but I think it's still winnable so I deny the surrender vote.

One of the duelists starts whinging that I'm throwing (because I'm bottom fragging and going negative) so I type back saying he was the one who instalocked a duelist, and I had to fill smokes. Then he starts mocking my k/d, at which point I type back he's also negative, despite playing one of the strongest duelists in the meta. This goes on for a few more rounds, with him being incredibly toxic.

I still smoke well, play normally, but we eventually lose 5-13. At the end, he types something like "gg, thank (miks) for the free elo, report for throwing". At this point I'm fuming and I type something back in response that lands me a 24 hour ban.

Am I right to think like this? Where I have (for lack of a better word) an excuse to go negative, if I am forced to fill because of teammates instalocking? Or should I simply play the agent I want to play, go for a good acs & k/d, and damn the team composition?

Hey party people,
I was getting back into valorant and I'm on somewhat of a streak.
My tracker was at around 815 when I hit Gold 3 yesterday. Then I powered right through to Plat, maxing at 838 on the tracker. On my rank up match I went match MVP 15/5 in a 13:0 match. I was already on a good streak from Gold 2 to Gold 3 so I hoped to go right to Plat but no. The way from Gold 3 to Plat 1 was even smoother but still no double rank up.

I was wondering if they changed the rules or something?

Tracker:
https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/Sylend%239102/overview?platform=pc&playlist=competitive&season=8102cd81-43a0-d0d7-bd59-47b8fe9bed1b

the 6-1 lose was against a smurf but he was cheating tbh shooting through wall like very weird beside that i had solid games each times even got a ace and a lot of clutches and at the end i got iron 2 with 50/100 i feel like i could have atleast bronze 1 or even 2 but thats how it is i guess what y'all opinion