Playing Valorant for hours can be fun, but seeing the message reading ‘Account Temporarily Banned’ can be frustrating. So, if you want to learn the cause of the ban, read on to know these Valorant Penalties & Bans Terms!
What are Valorant Penalties?
Valorant team requests and insists players maintain a healthy game environment, for which they suggest several basic terms. Naturally, the team holds every player in high regard, for which maintaining player accountability also becomes a necessity.
Hence, Valorant Penalties, in general, are established to:
- Prevent misuse of the in-game resources and accessibility options.
- Provide global Valorant players with a fair game to keep the competition healthy.
- Help players retain Sportsmanlike conduct for having a globally inclusive community.
- Limit offensive players from disrupting the game experience for other players.
Various Valorant Game ban likewise exists to support the abovementioned reasons & additional ones that help to make Valorant game balanced.
The Riot team has designed several parameters with carefulness to monitor and measure activities that are disruptive or harmful to the game and its players.
Based on those terms, the following Valorant Penalties or Valorant Game Ban is applicable per player who is violating the Valroant terms.
1. Indecent Player Conduct
In between the rounds, being abusive in the game may be a common practice in FPS shooters but not Valorant. While it depends on the lobby or the Valorant players opposite you, including allies, on how they feel about misbehavior, Valorant condemns it.
So, being disruptive, discriminatory, and abusive can earn you a temporary or permanent Valorant Game Ban beyond the initial Valorant Game Warnings.
You can maintain a credible Valorant profile for averting Valorant Game Warnings, bans, and a Valorant queue penalty by not indulging in these activities:
- Being insulting, Harassing players, threatening, or using offensive language(s).
- Speaking abusively or using profanity targeted at players based on their in-game performance.
- A Valorant Game ban may be levied for players that ruin the game for other players by actively throwing or quitting the game.
- Engaging in discrimination acts or using hate speech, including targeting the player’s ethnicity, race, abilities, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
- Performing actions that provoke conflict, hostile behavior, and arguments attempted to derail or distract players from Valorant gameplay.
- Using inappropriate in-game names, including but not limited to content that may be demeaning, lewd, or derogatory.
2. Queue Dodging, AFK Behavior, and Friendly Fire.
Blowing up your allies using Valorant agent abilities is a surefire way to collect Valorant Game Warnings or acquire Valorant Penalties. Nobody likes to have an ally who won’t have your front or back when you plant the spike.
Hence, the Valorant team has created parameters and dedicated systems to detect unfriendly and AFK behavior. The players who purposely indulge in Valorant Queue Dodging, MIA, and traitorous behavior will assuredly receive a Valorant queue penalty. Subsequent occurrences of the same type may easily grant them a permanent Valorant Game ban too!
Here’s the detailed information regarding which Valorant Penalty is applicable when and for how long:
| Valorant Penalty | Behavior/Details | Duration Period |
| Valorant Game Warning | When the AFK/Queue Dodging system is triggered. Successive similar violations equal harsher penalties. | N/A |
| Valorant XP Denial | Any behavior triggering this penalty prevents a player from acquiring Valorant XP earned from their recent match. | 1 Valorant Match |
| Rank Rating (RR) Penalty | Being AFK in a MatchQueue Dodge a Match The player can lose between 8-12 RR points, in addition to the potential -30 RR loss barrier. | 1 Valorant Match |
| Valorant Queue Penalty | Dodging the Valorant Match queue repeatedly will initiate a timer preventing the player from joining non-custom Valorant Games. | 3 – 240 Minutes (up to 4 Hours) |
| Competitive Restrictions | A player cannot participate in Ranked Mode Valorant Games until the timer completes. | 7 – 14 Days (up to 2 Weeks) |
| Valorant Game Ban | Playing Valorant is banned for the player until the mentioned date and time. | 7 – 8+ days or Permanent |
Since enforcing such penalties are subject to several reasons, the penalties mentioned above concern the existence of singular or repeated violations. Therefore, your Valorant Play History checks for your player activity when determining penalties, which may get progressively severe as they continue to add up.
Similarly, the following conditions may also be applicable, depending on the player’s history and their Valorant violations records.
- The application of Penalties is based on the severity of the violation(s). A player may not receive every penalty or not in the specific chronology mentioned above.
- A player can receive multiple penalties at once or similar penalties several times based on their in-game actions.
- Some in-game offenses hold a greater weightage than others. Hence the player may acquire a lengthier ban in some cases.
3. Cheating & Bugs Misuse
The existence of Riot Vanguard and similar systems within the Valorant game carry the purpose of preventing cheating activities. Naturally, it also includes abusing a Valorant bug which allows a player, their team, or allies to benefit from it against the opposite team.
Therefore, the Valorant Team may directly impose a Valorant Game ban when such players show such conduct. Furthermore, they may also possibly gain other Valorant Penalties, depending on whether they are pro eSports Valorant players or not.
4. Boosting & Valorant Smurf-ing.
The act of boosting involves queuing with a higher rank player who carries the Valorant team to victory. When the Valorant game system notices such activities, the respective players involved in those acts may initially receive a Valorant queue penalty as one of the Valorant Game Warnings.
Similarly, abusing the Valorant System to compete again rookies when you are a better-skilled player no longer goes unnoticed. Undoubtedly, the player in question will be subject to receiving multiple Valorant Penalties at once, if not a permanent Valorant Game ban.
Other similar acts like engaging in trading your Valorant game account or Riot ID are also illegal offenses and may follow legal actions besides in-game penalties and bans.
The Takeaway
Valorant players have the ability and the right to report any player who may perform the activities above, whose outcome could see the reported player receive anything from Valorant Game Warnings to Valorant Penalties.
So, report a player in such causes using the Esc button and click on the Report button next to the player’s name. But beware, submitting baseless reports could also earn you a Valorant Game ban!
FAQs
When Valorant Players repeatedly fail to select a Valorant Agent at the Agent Select Screen or quit the game, it is registered as an act of Queue Dodging.
The same is also possible when an ally disconnects from the game server right before a match begins, stranding the team one member down. In such cases, a player is liable to receive a Valorant queue penalty.
Initially, the player found to be violating game rules will receive one or multiple Valorant Game Warnings to curb their bad behavior. Subsequent offenses will lead to the player being banned from playing the game temporarily or permanently. You can read all about the Bad Behavior offenses here.
The Valorant team is tight-lipped regarding presenting the full extent of how their systems work to prevent players from skirting them. Players are only made aware in most cases that their in-game activities are monitored and actively checked against the violation of Valorant fair game rules, policies and guidelines.
AFK means Away From Keyboard. It is a term usually used to describe a player being inactive or behaving like it. Valorant systems have various measure qualifiers that can detect such activities to punish them accordingly.
Since it’s impossible to deal player damage to allies with Valorant Weapons, no matter their Valorant Gun Skin. The only way it is possible to deal damage to an ally is via Valorant Agent Abilities, which are actively monitored by the Valorant system.
Any player found to be engaging in Friendly Fire repeatedly will initially receive a warning, followed by receiving an RR ban, leading to a temporary or permanent ban.
The Valorant game systems are designed to protect players from bad behavior and not specifically punish anyone. In most cases, the Valorant Bans are for players who repeatedly abuse the game system. Similarly, anyone to showcase poor conduct, and have ignored previous warnings and penalties will also get a ban.
It is not possible to immediately receive a Valorant Ban unless the account history or violation history adds up.
Imposing penalties is proportional to the severity of the Valorant offense or violation. It is possible to receive the same penalty at different times for the same duration. But, progressively receiving such penalties inevitably leads to receiving a temporary Valorant Ban, if not a permanent one.
The Valorant player violations and infractions are subjected to their severity and frequencies. Therefore, receiving multiple penalties simultaneously can be true, like losing rank and losing XP points.
Accidentally causing minor damage to an ally may only result in a mild Valorant penalty or mostly a Valorant warning. But, when a player has a history of causing damages, minor or otherwise, harsh Valorant punishments may be applicable.
Any infrequent data connection and hardware issues are not a matter of severity by the Valorant systems. The systems are capable of detecting AFK issues caused by data connection problems. Hence any AFK or queue dodge penalties from such events require further consideration.
However, similar occurrences in Valorant player history will subject them to receive higher penalties. Players can write to the Valorant Support team by creating a ticket using their /submit a ticket page. Their team can help you identify or remove some possible issues.