[2021] VALORANT Behavior Detection and Penalty Updates

Hey there friends -
There are a LOT of comments about the RR deduction for queue dodging, and I wanted to jump in to provide some clarity.

First thing's first: I want to assure you all that we're tracking this and its impact on players. This isn't something we're going to toss into the live game and leave to its own devices. If we notice a downward pull on most players RRs, or if we don't see a decrease in queue dodges, we'll know we missed the mark. And we'll fix it. I promise. It's literally my job to determine whether or not we were successful.

Now, for some clarity on why we chose to do this. We completely understand the concern here. There are very valid reasons that players choose to dodge, most notably in an attempt to avoid toxic teammates. And we don't want to take that option away from players.

That said, avoiding toxic teammates doesn't make up the majority of pre-game dodges we see (and will hopefully become even less of a problem with these new comms changes). Based on both (1) our stats, and (2) the feedback from players, we know that pre-game dodges are a painful problem. They're happening too frequently, and we need to do something about it.

A few of you brought up things like "avoid teammate"...which we would consider an "upstream" solution to queue dodges (something that addresses the problems that cause queue dodging, rather than just addressing queue dodging itself). Upstream problems and solutions are things we're actively exploring. That process of exploration and prioritization takes time. Time with our heads down, not delivering more immediate changes to players.

In the meantime, we wanted to put something in place that would discourage queue dodging for those who abuse it (key word in the article: "small deductions"). If you're the type of player to occasionally drop out of queue because of toxic teammate, this penalty isn't going to wreck you or your rank. However, if you consistently drop out of agent select, you'll likely feel the pain of the RR reductions. And hopefully you'll think twice before sending your teammates back to the queue.

I'm sure y'all have questions, so I'm here to answer whatever I'm able to. Thanks for reading :)
- Lea "Riot aeneia"

Hey there friend! Yes, there are a LOT of players who are in your same position. The internet dips, and they get back in as soon as they can...but they're penalized as if they just said "screw it" to the game. We don't believe those two are the same, and we want to treat those situations differently. I can't provide the exact details, but we're confident that players who occasionally miss a couple rounds shouldn't be penalized quite so heavily. Hope this helps :)