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A Riot Games official has confirmed that chat and voice penalized Valorant players would be restricted from ranked matches.
Valorant has been plagued by in-game toxicity for a while. Players attacking teammates and opponents through the in-game voice and chat has been rising since launch.
Chat and voice restriction could lead to Ranked match restrictions in Valorant
Like many other online competitive esports games, toxicity has an issue for Valorant. Such players attack others both verbally and through chat. Riot has cracked down on toxic players before by implementing voice and chat restrictions.
However, this has only slowed down the in-game toxicity, not eradicated it. Such players have found ways to express their negativity by navigating around the restrictions.
It all led to a Redditor, u/SujyP, requesting that chat-banned players be restricted from queuing in for ranked matches to limit toxicity in ranked matchmaking. The community agreed in unison that Riot should take decisive steps against in-game toxicity.
In response to the thread, Ian "Brighteyz" Fielding, Riot Games Senior Producer, confirmed that actions are being taken. He confirmed that the team is committed to adding the feature in Valorant. He said:
"We hear you! We will be preventing players who have been penalized with chat and voice restrictions from playing rank in the next two to three patches. We are actively working on the tech, it's taking a little bit longer than anticipated, but we are committed to building it."
Regarding voice chat and in-game communication in Valorant, Brighteyz added that the team understands that some players might not be comfortable using in-game voice. However, having disruptive players with active restriction in the ranked match does feel unfair.
The devs don't want to make it a requirement for players to use voice comms in rank (some players may not feel comfortable using voice for various reasons). But they understand that having players who have already proven they can be highly disruptive with active restrictions in rank games feels unfair, and Riot wants to prevent that from happening in the near future.
Brighteyz also confirmed that the devs would add additional communication options to reduce disruptive behavior and make the penalty system more robust.
Players are undoubtedly happy that Riot is taking strong action against in-game toxicity. However, how well the system is implemented and how much it can demotivate such players will be apparent in the upcoming months.
