Riot Tackles Valorant AFK Behavior Detection and Penalties

If you’ve ever experienced an AFK teammate in Valorant, you know how frustrating it can be. Fortunately, it looks like Riot is finally addressing this.

There is still clearly more work to be done on this front as acknowledged by Riot, but they note that these changes, “set the stage,” for continuing improvements.

AFK is targeting patch 2.04, with the update expected to reduce AFK for both in-game and pre-game. Additionally, they’re working on improving detection of AFK-type behavior. This will be done by closing certain loopholes and broaden detection to include disruptive behavior and non-participatory play. They note they can’t go into detail here, but that they have “vastly” improved their current system.

Additionally, the penalty structure for AFK offenses has been completely retooled. These penalties will include the following:

• Warnings
• XP denial for the games in which you were AFK’d (see ya later, AFK farmers!)
• Small deductions from your ranked rating for pre-game dodges
• Deductions from your ranked rating for in-game AFKing (Patch 2.03)
• Increased queue restrictions
• Barred entry from ranked games
• VALORANT game bans (but only if you’re really, really persistent)

Chat-based offenses penalties are coming in 2.04 as well and include:

• Warnings
• Comms bans
• Extended comms bans
• Ranked queue bans
• Game bans
• Extended game bans

You can check out the full post here.