Riot to Address Toxicity in VALORANT
Riot Games is taking steps to tackle toxicity in their popular game, VALORANT. In a recent dev blog, the social and player dynamics team discussed the issues of AFKing and chat-based offenses, promising improvements to the detection and penalty system starting from Patch 2.03.
Riot acknowledges the impact of one AFK’d player on the game, making it harder for the team to win. To combat this, Riot has made improvements to the AFK detection system to close loopholes that allowed players to slip through undetected. Additionally, they are tracking individual player behavior to differentiate between internet outages and intentional leavers.
For those who consistently engage in AFKing, there will be penalties such as warnings, denial of XP, and small reductions in Ranked Rating (RR) for pre-game dodges. Starting from Patch 2.03, there will be larger RR deductions for in-game AFK, as well as increased queue restrictions, barred entry from ranked games, and eventually game bans.
In terms of chat-based offenses, Riot plans to introduce an escalating penalty system by Patch 2.04. The frequency and severity of the offense will determine the penalties, which may include warnings, communication bans, ranked queue bans, and game bans.
Riot is firm in their stance against violence, threats, and targeted harassment in VALORANT, stating that such behaviors will not be tolerated. While the current text evaluation systems may not determine who initiated a conflict, Riot advises players not to engage in harassment and to report the offenders instead.
In the near future, Riot also plans to provide feedback on player reports starting from Patch 2.05. This feature will notify players if someone they have reported has been penalized.
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