VALORANT’s New AFK and Queue Dodging Penalties: What Players Need to Know

If you've been playing VALORANT lately, it is probably evident that Riot Games has been taking a stronger stance on AFK players and queue dodging. While these aspects may seem minor initially, they also completely ruin a competitive match. This is the reason for the new updates from the dev team that make sure players who constantly cause disruption take the brunt of a heavier penalty.

In this article, we'll explain exactly how the new VALORANT AFK queue dodging penalties work, what changes Riot has made to the consequences, and what it means for your ranked grind.

Why Riot Is Cracking Down on AFKs and Dodging

AFK (Away From Keyboard) and queue dodging not only create nuisances but also degrade the quality of matches. A game can change dramatically with just one player missing one or a few rounds. Continuous dodging also stalls lobbies and wastes a considerable amount of time for all players involved.

The VALORANT competitive Systems team at Riot recently made a statement admitting that their behavior systems are not punishing repeat offenders as effectively as they should be. Various players identified loopholes in the behavior system and would go AFK for a round or two every other match, or invoked a pattern of dodging repeatedly in high ranks to avoid playing in tough matches.

Though this represented a very small group and accounted for less than 1% of players, this community accounted for the majority of reported and disruptive behavior during ranked matches.

The New Behavior System Adjustments in VALORANT

To address these issues, Riot made several updates during patches 11.00 and 11.05 to accommodate this. Here’s what changed:

• Stricter Consequences for Going AFK
  The system now penalizes behavior ratings for players who go AFK at least once or multiple times per game, which is an advancement forward, because the player may just be AFK for a round or two, and now this aspect of players going AFK will be penalized more than it would be before.
• Faster Scaling Consequences for Queue Dodging
  For players who are spamming remakes or dodge games, especially in Competitive, there will be penalties that will increase faster than before. This is ultimately to discourage dodging to avoid specific teammates or matchups and will still fall in line with the penalty system.
• Customized Responses for Different Modes
  Currently, the updates focus on Competitive and Swiftplay, and Riot is still studying Unrated to assess whether it requires a specific penalty process different from both modes.

The Impact of These Updates

Riot is already tracking substantial improvements:

• Competitive: AFK and dodging rates were reduced by 20%
• Swiftplay: AFK and dodging rates were reduced by 6%

While those numbers may seem small, it is truly an enormous uplift for player experience. Riot also mentioned that higher ranks (Immortal and Radiant) were the ranks most affected by remake abuse. With these new penalties, it would help restore fairness at the top the ladder. Players who regularly check an updated Agent tier list for VALORANT can also plan which agents to pick in Competitive while avoiding AFK penalties.

What This Means for Players

You will not be directly impacted by these updates if you are a casual player who hardly ever dodges or AFKs. Actually, you ought to start noticing matches that are cleaner, more reliable, and interrupted less frequently.

But going forward, players who frequently dodge or AFK even for a few rounds will face harsher penalties. The purpose of these sanctions is to either discourage disruptive behavior or completely eliminate it from the competitive setting.

The Unfair Impact on Sincere Players

Many sincere players still feel trapped when they are surrounded by teammates who are always throwing, avoiding, or going AFK, even though Riot's tougher AFK and queue dodging penalties are a positive step. Even though they aren't the ones interfering with the game, these players cannot leave without running the risk of receiving their own penalties.

Devoted gamers are made to endure ruined games and wasted MMR, which is an unfair situation. Better remake options, more intelligent detection systems, or protections for teammates who remain active and play in good faith are just a few examples of the solutions Riot needs to investigate in order to prevent honest players from being penalized for the actions of others.

This marks only the beginning for Riot Games and Valorant. The developers have communicated that they are looking toward toxic voice and text comms as their next target. Riot wants to do the same kind of data-driven effort to reduce toxic play and harassment, and we can mainly expect updates on this and more at this time.

As the player experience continues to be improved, many players can still be impacted negatively by either leaving the match or disruption of games, while honest people are still penalized for being just that.

However, Riot's next step should be on that effort to give out punishments to people who disrupt games without removing players who are honest. If they can again, VALORANT will be one step closer to keeping matches fair, consistent, and enjoyable for every player who is playing. Still, this new approach by Riot Games is going to be the next step for VALORANT.