Valorant players face harsher penalties for AFKs and dodging

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Valorant is seeing a positive impact from its stricter rules against players who go AFK (away from keyboard) or avoid queues. Riot Games reports a 20% decrease in disruptive behavior in competitive matches since they increased the penalties in recent updates.

Players going AFK (away from keyboard) have been a long-standing problem in Valorant. When a teammate disconnects, it creates an unfair disadvantage – turning a balanced 5-on-5 match into a 4-on-5, and negatively impacting the game for everyone involved.

Riot used to try and be lenient by protecting players with poor internet connections and avoiding harsh penalties for occasional errors. However, this approach wasn’t perfect – some players consistently went AFK or abandoned games without facing consequences.

Riot cuts AFKs by 20 percent after harsher penalties

That’s why, with updates released in June and September 2025 (versions 11.00 and 11.05), Riot increased the severity of punishments. The new system now penalizes players more quickly for repeated offenses, rather than waiting for them to commit major violations.

As a player, I’ve been following the recent changes, and it’s awesome to see Riot share the results! They’re saying that competitive matches have seen a really good drop in AFKs and other disruptive behavior – around 20%, which is huge. And even in Swiftplay, they’ve seen about a 6% decrease, which is still a positive step. It’s great to see these changes actually making a difference!

Previously, Riot’s systems for handling player behavior weren’t effectively catching players who repeatedly committed minor offenses. The Valorant team discovered that even though these players made up less than 1% of the total player base, they were responsible for a surprisingly large number of instances of players going AFK (inactive).

The recent changes have sparked mixed reactions from players. Some are happy with them, while others are very unhappy. One player expressed concern that they can no longer avoid problematic players, and pointed out the new rating system gives +10 RR for a win but takes away 30 RR for a loss. Another worried that players with unstable internet connections will struggle to climb out of the Silver rank.

One player expressed strong frustration with the AFK penalty system, stating they lose the same rank points for losing a match with an AFK teammate as the AFK player themselves, and demanded a fix.

Riot will continue to watch how the penalty system is working to ensure it remains fair and useful. They’re also planning improvements to player behavior ratings and are looking into ways to better moderate voice and text chats.

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2025-09-15 22:19