Should Valorant matches automatically restart if a player goes AFK from the very first round?

Valorant’s lower ranks have been having issues with players disconnecting from the game as soon as a match starts.

These players either go AFK from round one or just completely disconnect from the server, leaving the other four teammates behind to decide whether they should continue with the game as it is or restart.

However, in Valorant’s Bronze, Iron, and Silver divisions, remaking a game is not exactly a cup of tea. A previous discussion went over how a remake vote requires all players to say “yes,” and there have been many situations when just one player saying “no” has forced the entire team to be stuck in a 4v5 situation for the remainder of the map.

This ultimately ruins the gameplay experience for the players involved, and if it’s a competitive match, they are bound to lose a lot of LP for a loss that they had no hand in.

In a recent Reddit post, a Valorant player who goes by the handle of brMerak talks about the possibility of matches having an automatic remake feature when a player disconnects or goes AFK as soon as the round starts.

This might not solve the AFK issue altogether, as a griefer can choose to disconnect from the server mid-game, but this will guarantee a remake even if a player says “no.”

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Valorant games automatically remaking if a player is AFK from round one can be a good thing

Image via Riot Games

brMerak elaborated further on his post by talking about some of the experiences that he had with Valorant teammates going AFK:

“Well, as the title already says, it would be better if the match would automatically end/remake as soon a player goes AFK on round 1 or 2. The moment he is “not spawning next round” (in the very beginning of the match - round 1 or 2), Valorant would remake the game - without votes or anything (just like Overwatch - for example).”

“When that happens, the leaver should be HEAVY penalized - de-rank or more - and the others have no change on their Ranking - even for the guy who “aced” the on the first two rounds before the remake.”

This is not an isolated experience, and judging by the number of upvotes that this post got, we can assume that there are lots of Valorant players who are suffering from this exact issue.

In one of the comment threads, one player went as far as to write:

“I was in a game yesterday where one dude immediately was disconnected, not even AFK. I said ‘damn just my luck’ and got flamed because the other people were in a party together, and was told he would be right back. They automatically decline the remake, and the guy finally comes back at round 5 to be bottom fragger. Bronze for life.”

The lower divisions in Valorant are a nightmare for players who take the game seriously and want to invest a significant portion of their time ranking up. Fixing the remaking issue could go a long way in making the experience more palatable.