Zero Tolerance: How to Eliminate Toxicity From Your Valorant Matches

Valorant needs no introduction—since its release in 2020, Valorant's focus on solid team communication and coordination makes it one of the most exciting games today. This always opens up the community to threats of toxic opponents and teammates, an unfortunate truth of online gaming in general.

Most of the toxicity is seen during matches and in team lobbies, and it's mainly in the form of verbal harassment. Needless to say, creating an unpleasant environment can affect players' performance. This is especially visible in matches where the slightest miscommunication can cost a team the game, but does this make Valorant the most toxic game, and what can you do to fight it? Read on to find out.

What Causes Toxicity in Online Gaming?

1. The Source of the Community

Valorant is notable for its community not being created from scratch, unlike those of other multiplayer video games. When the game was released in 2020, a lot of the primary player base came from popular games like Overwatch, CS:GO, Call of Duty, Roblox, and more. Unfortunately, team-based FPS games rank pretty high on the toxicity scale in general.

2. The High Diversity of Players

Valorant also contains a high diversity of players in terms of religion, race, and ethnicity. This increased diversity implies the clash of cultures seen in every interactive field, gaming included, meaning that all of them contribute to Valorant's higher online harassment numbers.

2. Non-Beginner-Friendly Gamestyle

Lastly, another reason why Valorant might experience toxicity is that it's unfriendly to new players. Experienced players may lack the patience to teach their teammates when all they want to do is climb the competitive ladder, which can lead to frustration and outbursts.

» Read more about Valorant's Competitive Mode and how it works

How Toxic Is Valorant?

How Is Valorant Combatting In-Game Toxicity?

Fortunately, Riot has taken steps to combat in-game toxicity:

• In 2022, Riot published an article on its website on how it would address these problems
• It has also partnered with Ubisoft not to tolerate cheating and verbal harassment
• Moreover, Riot is testing a zero-tolerance banning program called Alarmbot

What Can Players Do?

In addition to those harassment prevention measures, Riot also counts on players to help them improve the game environment. Here are some ways in which players can do that:

1. Provide Feedback

Valorant players are encouraged to report bad behavior. This allows Riot to mute players that are harassing people, restrict them from playing ranked matches, and issue permanent ban penalties for zero-tolerance offenses.

For instance, in January 2022 alone, Riot blocked over 400,000 text and voice chats for bad behavior and issued over 40,000 game bans.

2. Create Their List of Muted Words

Valorant players can also manually filter out words and phrases they don't want to see in the game. By doing so, they can avoid seeing negative comments about their race, sex, gender, and more.

3. Request Voice Chat Evaluation

If reported by Valorant players, Riot can monitor game matches to record and analyze players prone to verbal attacks. This will allow them to eventually reduce or eliminate things that lead to such harassment.

4. Remove Yourself Completely

Many gamers are unfazed by online toxicity, merely putting it off as part of the game. In fact, some gamers actually enjoy toxicity and believe it's similar to trash-talking in competitive physical sports. However, if you aren't one of those people and would prefer to enjoy the game without the risk of toxicity, then there are a few things you can do to remove it from your experience:

• Disable voice chat You can either do this indefinitely or simply switch off voice chat when your teammates or opponents start turning toxic. While this may inhibit your team play a little, the difference will be significantly less than trying to navigate through the toxicity.
• Only queue with friends This may limit the number of time you can spend in-game, but it's totally worth it if you're intent on ranking up or simply can't deal with the toxicity.

» Are you interested in Valorant rewards? Learn more about 2 in-game methods for free skins and how to get Valorant Points for free

What Can We Expect in the Future?

Valorant, despite being one of the most popular multiplayer video games, remains one of the most toxic. That said, if Valorant players and Riot continue to act against toxic players, Valorant can have a more positive gaming environment where everyone is treated with respect.

So, will 2023 be the year Valorant becomes less toxic? We will have to wait and see, but at least Riot and its players are trying to change the game for the better. And while you're doing the same, consider running Buff in the background for some extra rewards.