Riot Games Talks About Banning AFKers and Throwers in Valorant
- Riot Games talked about how they intend to punish throwers and AFKers in Valorant.
- The team is working on a new system to reduce disruptive behaviour in matches.
- A new detection system will go live in 2021 to automatically detect throwers in matches.
In a recent AMA posted on the Valorant website, Senior Producer Ian Fielding and Producer Sara Dadafshar talked about how the team wants to tackle AFKers and throwers. They are currently looking into ways to lessen such behaviour in update 1.14. One of the biggest changes headed to new accounts is that you need to win ten matches instead of playing ten matches to unlock ranked. The team hopes that this will help alleviate the issue of players farming matches to get into lower skill brackets.
Rank Penalties and Experience Mitigation in The Works
Image by Riot GamesRiot Games is currently working on a better detection system for throwers in Valorant matches. Harsher punishment like rank penalties, XP lockouts, and queue time restrictions or even bans may be imposed on players who engage in disruptive gameplay. Dadafshar talked about how the team wants "to distinguish between disruptive behaviours that stem from comms and gameplay and then penalize accordingly. I can't give away our secrets in terms of what our plans for detection are, but know that we are actively working on the way to make the game more enjoyable in this regard!"
While changes to how new Valorant players unlock ranked mode is coming out with Patch 1.14, the planned changes to the game's detection systems will not go live until next year. A solution that the Valorant team has discussed to alleviate smurfs is to boost overperforming players, so they play at their appropriate rank. But if players intentionally throw to place at lower ranks, they need to be reported for Riot to hand out bans for such behaviour.
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"Avoid A Player" Feature Being Considered by The Valorant Team
Image by Riot Games
An avoid feature is present in popular games, including Overwatch, that allows players to avoid anyone from a match from being put into the same lobby. There are clear restrictions on how long the avoid feature works once it has been enabled and the total number of players you can avoid at a time. Valorant fans have requested a similar feature, and the team is working on a solution.
The team also wants to work on a preventive system that stops disruptive players from being in your lobbies in the first place. Harsher penalties will also be imposed in the future once the detection systems are live to ensure players have a better gameplay experience.
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