- VALORANT developers have posted a blog post discussing upcoming penalties for queue skippers
- The penalties outlined by VALORANT's devs include possible rank reduction and XP denial
- The measure should mostly target repeat offenders, but some impact on occasional dodgers it not ruled out
Queue dodgers will come in the cross-hair of VALORANT's developers, who are considering several penalties to punish repeat and possibly occasional offenders.
VALORANT Developers Are Targeting Queue Dodgers
VALORANT developers tighten the screws on queue skipping, shedding more light on an issue that the team is now addressing heads-on. After a much-needed update for AFK offenses earlier in February, developers are now planning to take on queue dodgers.
Part of the penalties would include rank deduction and XP denial, but more elaborate penalties may be in the pipeline. Dodging a game or AFK used to be a mild disruption, but as the game grew and players started disrupting others' experience, Riot Games decided to step in and fix the problem.
VALORANT's dev. squad recognizes the issue and the quality-of-life impact it has had on the gameplay. In a new blog post, the developers discussed how the nature of these penalties would work.
Rather than enforcing a blanket ban for minor offenses, the company's algorithm will have to do with singling out players who have a pattern of bad behavior, as determined by AFK and queue jumps.
Dodgers Beware, Valorant's Team Is out For Blood
Even then, the team explained that there might be some impact going the way of occasional dodgers. The terms are loosely worded, which means that VALORANT's developers will know more once the solution is put into action.
For the most part, though, the penalties Riot now threatens would make account holders think twice before dodging a queue or even queuing up in the first place if they don't have enough time to play.
Developers were not oblivious to the reasons why queue dodges happen in some cases. Toxic teammates are another tough issue, and sometimes, people just opt out of these games to avoid confronting individuals who downgrade everyone's experience.
Right now, Riot doesn't play on impacting players' MMR, which determines the current rank you are at. Developers also discussed the newly-introduced knives in the game that have been forced on the Escalation game mode, another VALORANT novelty.
In the blog, devs wrote that the knife was “a meme” and admitted that the knife is still far from perfectly balanced or working in the game environment. However, the devs said that they have bigger fish to fry in terms of weapon upgrades and, more importantly – fixes.
Moving forward, players who think they can join in and just have a quick bit of fun knifing someone may need to think twice before going AFK or, worse, dodging a queue.
In the meantime, Riot Games is also preparing the launch of its Game Changers initiative that is looking to give marginalized genders more clout in competitive gaming.
