Riot’s New VALORANT Mobile Verification Targets High-Rank Smurfs

The VALORANT smurfing problem has always been an annoying thing within competitive shooters, and VALORANT is no exception. For new or lower-ranked players, highly ranked smurf accounts created, bought, or shared among friends can destroy matchmaking or cause an unbalanced and unfair competitive experience.

Riot Games is working on a way to help combat this issue with a new system called: VALORANT Mobile Verification Targets High-Rank Smurfs. With fewer smurfs in games, strategies like how to remake in Valorant become more meaningful, since remakes will reflect legitimate gameplay issues rather than imbalanced player ranks.

VALORANT Mobile Verification Targets High-Rank Smurfs

Starting with Patch 11.09, Riot will implement required Riot Mobile Verification with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for players at the top ranks. At first, this will only be for players in North America, Latin America, Brazil, and Korea at the Ascendant, Immortal, and Radiant ranks before it launches in Europe and Asia-Pacific in 2026.
In particular, the following is changing:

• Patch 11.08: A new in-game reporting option, “Rank Manipulation,” lets players report smurfing or boosting.
• Patch 11.09: Shared or purchased accounts in select regions must enable Riot Mobile MFA, with penalties for violations.
• Patch 11.10: Ascendant+ accounts in those regions are required to link to Riot Mobile MFA.

The system enforces a one-account-per-phone-number rule, making it harder to share, buy, or maintain multiple high-ranked accounts.

Why High Ranks Are Targeted First

Riot is focusing on Ascendant+ players because smurfing at these levels has the biggest impact on match quality. High-rank smurfs often drop into lower tiers, skewing games and frustrating opponents. Boosting and account sales also happen more frequently in the top ranks.
Additionally, Riot reports that 80–90% of stolen accounts lacked MFA, meaning verification also doubles as a security measure. The phased rollout lets Riot test, gather feedback, and refine the system before global expansion.

Benefits of VALORANT account security MFA

If effective, VALORANT Mobile Verification Targets High-Rank Smurfs could bring major benefits to the competitive scene:

• Fairer Matchmaking: Reduced smurfing means more balanced games for lower and mid-tier players.
• Improved Integrity: Rank progression feels more meaningful without manipulation.
• Stronger Security: MFA safeguards accounts from theft and misuse.
• Better reporting helps Riot fine-tune detection systems.

Community Concerns

While some people are excited about this, others are sceptical. Some people are worried that smurfs will simply get cheap SIM cards to get around it. Others talk about worries of false positives if the account is being logged into from another device, or the user shares the account with another family member. Timing is also an issue, as the system is targeting Ascendant and above. Bronze or Silver players who are the ones being smurfed on most likely are not going to notice a difference right away. Regardless of that, Riot's push towards mobile verification may represent one of the strongest anti-smurfing efforts the company has undertaken.
While this isn't going to completely alleviate the issue of smurfing, it should allow the potential of making it more difficult for people to have that culture at the top level of competition. We'll see if that eventually inhibits lower ranks from not having the same measures, but for now, VALORANT Mobile Verification is specifically targeting high-rank smurfs and attempting to restore balance to competitive play. Interestingly, Riot has also introduced the New Valorant Agent Veto, which, alongside mobile verification, adds another layer of control over competitive play. While mobile verification targets account misuse, the Agent Veto allows players to have more strategic input in matches, helping maintain fair gameplay even as high-rank smurfs are addressed.