Here’s how voice and chat bans work in Valorant (2024)

Since 2020, Riot Games has rolled out multiple features to reduce toxicity in Valorant. Here’s how voice and chat bans work in Valorant in 2024.

Valorant is equipped with a range of features specifically designed to address and combat harassment and disruptive behavior in competitive gaming. From muting words to manual bans, Valorant has a solid system in place that encourages players to report malicious actors.

However, in a recent video, Valorant studio head Anna Donlon addressed a spike in harassment reports and conceded that “existing penalties are not doing enough.” In response to the increase in such cases, Riot Games has now announced faster penalties for repeat offenders.

“There’s no room in our community for egregious behavior, and we’re not going to compromise. If you need to make truly evil statements under the guise of regular s–t talk to enjoy gaming, then please go play something else” said Anna.

Can you get banned in Valorant for being toxic?

Yes, with the new Valorant system in place, players can get banned for bad-mouthing enemies and being toxic toward teammates.

Here’s how voice and chat bans for being toxic work in Valorant.

• Valorant has a voice evaluation. This means if a player gets reported multiple times, Riot may roll out an evidence-based ban by evaluating voice chat.
• Valorant has a reporting line with Player Support agents, who oversee incoming reports strictly dedicated to player behavior. This is basically a manual report, which may lead to an instant ban by Valorant support in severe cases.
• Insulting, threatening, harassing, or offensive language may also result in a temporary ban.
• A player with multiple toxicity reports by different players will get a stronger punishment or even get permanently banned.

It’s worth noting that repeat offenders may get lengthier bans. Even small infractions can add up over time to a harsher penalty. This system has been in place since 2021, but Riot has announced stricter punishment for repeat offenders. This likely means that bans will come into effect faster, and manual reports will be addressed more frequently. Besides all that, Riot Games is also working on new and faster penalties to deal with toxic players in 2024.

Does Valorant have a hardware ban?

Valorant currently has a hardware ban system for cheating, but not in-game harassment. However, that will change in 2024. Riot Games has confirmed that the worst offenders may get temporary bans, permanent bans, and even hardware bans.

In the next 30 days, the hardware ban policy for cheaters will also apply to cases of online harassment in Valorant. However, since it’s a serious punishment, it will only be applied in extreme cases with clear evidence and manual review, similar to how it works for anti-cheat. Anna Donlon mentioned hate speech, severe sexual content, and threats of violence as some actions that can earn you a hardware ban in Valorant. These categories may change based on the reports, Donlon said.

Here are all the types of Valorant punishments and bans you can get for being toxic in 2024.

• Warnings
• Queue restriction timer
• Ranked restriction timer
• Valorant game ban
• Hardware ban

Riot Games is expecting a spike in reports. As a result, the developer has strengthened player support for the manual banning system, and players are urged to report instances of toxicity as frequently as needed.

Find out why Valorant console players can’t surrender and when the feature will return.