Are your in-game taunts and insults about to earn you a permanent exit? That might be the case with the implementation of new Valorant toxic player ban guidelines.
On May 31, 2024, Valorant Studio Head Anna Donlon addressed the community’s concerns about disruptive players.
Riot Games outlined their plan for stricter penalties, including the potential for Valorant toxic player bans.
We compiled everything we know about this new system and explain how Riot aims to foster a more positive and competitive environment for all players.
How the proposed Valorant toxic player bans are going to work moving forward
Riot Games is taking a multi-pronged approach to address toxic behavior in Valorant.
Over the next month, players can expect updates to the penalty system, which will focus on swifter and more impactful punishments for severe behavior.
Currently, Valorant employs hardware bans to combat cheaters. Under the new plan, these bans could be extended to the most egregious toxic offenders, barring them from playing Valorant on the same PC.
Riot Games also acknowledged the limitations of automated systems in detecting all forms of toxicity. To address this, they’ll bolster their manual review team to evaluate reported incidents properly.
Donlon also shared details on the Riot Voice Evaluation, a new system designed to combat toxic behavior. RVE analyzes voice chat for signs of toxicity. Expanding its reach will allow for a broader net to be cast in identifying abusive players.
Riot Games will also review players’ accounts flagged for severe toxicity in the previous act and issue appropriate penalties, potentially including bans.
“If you need to make truly evil statements in the guise of regular shit talk, to enjoy gaming, then please, play something else,” said Donlon. “We won’t miss you.”
“Valorant community, we can’t stop them from opening their mouth and saying something awful,” she continued. “But what we can do is escort them out of our game spaces.”
Summary of Riot Games’ plan to combat toxic Valorant players.
- Over the next 30 days, Riot Games will finalize updates to existing policies to focus on stronger, faster penalties for severe behavior.
- Introduce new penalties for severe, harmful player behavior, including hardware bans.
- Increase support for manual reviews to support the new policies.
- Expanding the rollout of a Riot Voice Evaluation (RVE) system to additional regions later this year.
- One-time review of the top suspected offenders from the previous act and issue penalties accordingly.
You can watch the dev diary below.
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