Valorant Queue Penalty: How Riot is Secretly Dealing with AFKers and Throwers

Valorant queue penalty and account restrictions have not effectively dealt with AFKers and throwers in the game. There has been an increase in AFKers in Valorant who use scripts to keep jumping in-game, so they do not get kicked. Riot Games secretly improved its Valorant queue penalty system, and players are now losing more points than usual if they use scripts to automate gameplay. A data miner did some digging and discovered code in the game that penalizes players for being AFK on top of deducting MMR for a loss. It looks like Valorant’s queue penalty system has been updated to deal with script abusers, which should improve everyone’s experience in ranked play. 

What Is the Valorant Queue Penalty If You AFK?

If you go AFK during a match, the in-game Valorant queue penalty system kicks you. But under the new system, even if you are inactive and automate your gameplay using scripts or periodically move your mouse, Riot will identify it as gameplay sabotage. The first ban for AFKing for players who do not use scripts is one hour, and it gets worse over time. It is unknown if the penalty for script users is higher or not, but they lose more MMR than regular AFK players. The queue restrictions are the same for both unrated and ranked matches. Repeated incidents of such behavior in a limited amount of time can lead to account suspensions. 

Valorant Queue Penalty for Leaving Matches

The queue penalty in Valorant for leaving matches is the same as AFKing. Once you leave a match, you will be unable to queue for a new match until the current match ends, and an additional queue restriction will be added. Repeated incidents can lead to an account suspension. 

Riot May Add An Avoid Feature to Valorant 

Riot has considered adding an “avoid a player” feature similar to Overwatch. They have talked about adding such a feature last year to establish a preventing system that keeps disruptive players away from the game. Senior Producer Ian Fielding and Producer Sara Dadafshar stated that Riot wants “to distinguish between disruptive behaviors 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!"

RELATED:  Riot Games Talks About Banning AFKers and Throwers in Valorant