Riot Games Shares More Valorant Penalties For AFK-ing And Other Offenses

Riot Games’ Valorant was initially launched last year, and since then, it has incredibly grown in playerbase and popularity. Since the tactical first-person hero shooter was first released, its developer has made an effort to regularly add new content for players to enjoy. The most recent major update was Valorant Episode 2 Act 1, which came with a brand-new agent named Yoru.

Sadly, it’s not always rainbow and butterflies in Valorant, especially since it has become such a widely popular game. As with any online game, there will always be those players with offensive or disruptive behavior, and Riot Games’ free-to-play multiplayer isn’t an exception.

As such, the game’s development team has been working hard to implement penalties. Now, Riot Games has announced more details regarding more Valorant penalties for chat-based offenses, disruptive players, and for those who are AFK. Given the fact that Valorant is a team-based online game, how a teammate behaves in the middle of a match—competitive or not—can greatly affect the players’ gaming experience.

Cheaters and hackers may have been a long-running issue for the game, but offensive and disruptive behaviors remain persistent as well. Naturally, this can completely ruin the experience for many who may have fallen victim to this kind of toxic player.

In the past, it would take numerous rounds before Valorant decides to kick out an AFK player, and by that time, the match may have already been ruined in terms of gameplay and fairness.

Now, Valorant’s Social and Player Dynamics team relayed some information concerning upcoming changes that should be implemented in Patch 2.04, along with a more enhanced AFK detection system. In this upcoming update, perhaps the biggest change is that AFK players will be given penalties that will supposedly progressively increase.

These penalties will range from warnings to being denied of XP. If the issue persists, players may even receive a full game ban. On the bright side, Riot Games also assured fans that those players who experience an unintentional mishap here and there, such as a power outage or a slow internet connection, won’t experience negative effects.

Among other things, Valorant will also have a more nuanced chat moderation. Specifically, those toxic players who keep doing chat-based offenses will receive penalties as well. This will depend on how often the player does the offense and the severity of it. With these implementations, Riot Games is making it clear that “there is no room for violence, threats, or targeted harassment in Valorant.” The team goes on to say that such behaviors “will not be tolerated.”

That being said, there’s a catch to this that the development team quickly noted: the game’s text evaluation systems aren’t perfect, so it won’t be able to pinpoint exactly who “started the rage war.” As such, players need to make an effort not to retaliate, as the system could mistakenly think that they started the rage war and penalize them instead.

As a whole, it’s clear to see that Riot Games is really making an effort to get rid of or at least minimize toxicity in Valorant. While these implemented penalties may still not be enough for some players, they’re major steps in the right direction—and the team is commendable for that.

Aletheia
Aletheia
Cat and literature-lover. I play RPG games when I have the time.

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