Riot Games is strengthening a feature designed to combat smurfs and cheaters in Valorant, despite some criticism. They’re taking a firmer stance to improve the game experience for all players.
Valorant, like many online multiplayer games, has struggled with players who create new accounts – often by buying or borrowing them – to play against less experienced players. These players, known as ‘smurfs,’ intentionally try to dominate matches because of their skill advantage.
In May, Riot Games said they were adding multi-factor authentication (MFA) to help get rid of smurfing and improve fairness in the game. At first, some players were unsure and wanted to see how Valorant’s developers would implement it.
They’ve recently announced that multi-factor authentication will initially only be required for accounts flagged as potentially suspicious, and the initial testing phase is now beginning.
Riot will start banning smurfs and boosters in Patch 11.09
Riot Games announced on September 18th that they’re taking steps to fight ‘smurfing’ – when experienced players create new accounts to play against less skilled players – in VALORANT. To do this, they’re now requiring some accounts to enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) using the Riot Mobile app. They say this change is meant to reduce a frustrating experience for players.
Starting with patch 11.09, we’ll be banning accounts that we’ve confirmed were bought or are being used for win boosting.
The Valorant developers said they can’t completely eliminate smurf accounts, but they believe the recent changes will significantly reduce the number of them.
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) September 18, 2025
Multi-factor authentication will be required for players identified as sharing accounts, suspected of account sharing, or those who have reached the Ascendant rank or higher since Patch 11.10.
If you don’t share your account with anyone else, you won’t notice any changes, and you won’t need to go through extra security steps. However, enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) is still a good idea to keep your account safe.
Starting with Patch 11.08, players can report others for trying to unfairly change their ranked position, even before two-factor authentication is available in all areas.
Riot admitted that they may tweak the feature as they go, so they want all the feedback possible.
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2025-09-18 16:48