Playing with Respect

TL;DR:

Toxic and abusive comms don’t belong in VALORANT, and we’re continuing to invest in better ways to detect them and take action. In Patch 13.06, we’ve updated our Riot Voice Evaluation technology to better identify and penalize toxic comms in Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean, with more languages coming in the months ahead. We're already seeing results from other improvements to RVE, which have helped us detect and penalize 2x as many instances of voice comms abuse. Your reports are an important part of making these systems work. If you encounter abusive voice comms, report them in-game so we can evaluate what happened and take action where appropriate. 

Playing with Respect

VALORANT was built to be a deeply competitive tactical shooter. We want the outcome of your game to be determined by what happens in your gameplay, not by disruptive behavior from other players. 

At the end of the day, we believe that everyone should be able to queue up and get into a fun and fair game. To us, a fun and fair game means every individual player has the best chance to compete, improve, and win based on what happens in that match. Our goal is that each player can focus on improving themselves, without having to deal with harassment, threats, hate speech, or other abusive behavior. 

Earlier this year, we spelled out this expectation for all Riot players through the [Riot Games Community Pact]: Play to Win. Play Fair. Play with Respect. Or go play something else.

Recently, we discussed Playing Fair and the ongoing innovation we have to improve the gameplay experience, like the updated anti-boosting tech courtesy of the Anticheat team.  Today, we’re talking about Playing with Respect, what we’re doing to support it, and what you can do when another player crosses the line.

Why does Playing with Respect matter?

Comms are a fundamental part of VALORANT. Good communication, like calling enemy locations, coordinating utility, or planning a retake, can be the difference between winning and losing. Disruptive comms get in the way of that. Spammy noises, harassment, threats, and other abusive behavior make it harder for players to focus on the game and compete with good and clear comms.

We’re not asking for everyone to be positive all the time, but no one needs to be an asshole. We strive to make our games a place where everyone can enjoy VALORANT at its best, which is why there’s no room for things like excessive personal attacks, threats, hate speech, and similar abuse in VALORANT. Players who engage in these behaviors will be penalized.

How we’re improving detection

As part of our efforts to detect and penalize these behaviors, we are constantly working on improvements in the game. Our in-game detection system for voice comms, the Riot Voice Evaluation system, has been consistently evolving and improving.

These improvements to RVE have helped us identify and penalize 2x more instances of voice comms abuse over the last year.

With Patch 13.06, we have updated our systems to better identify Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean. We also have improvements for even more languages in the upcoming months. 

What about trash talk?

VALORANT is a competitive game, and trash talk is a natural part of competition. And to be clear, RVE is not detecting to remove any and all trash talk. A useful rule of thumb is to keep it about the game, not the person. Questioning a play or banter with your opponent can be part of the experience, but repeatedly attacking another player, threatening them, targeting their identity, or using hate speech or slurs crosses the line. So make sure to read the room. If players are raising objections or going quiet because of your behavior, or if you are receiving multiple reports because of how you communicate, it’s probably time to dial it back and keep your focus on the game. 

What if I’m defending myself?

If someone is targeting you with toxic behavior, you are allowed to stand up for yourself, but self defense doesn't give you a free pass to respond with abuse of your own.

Our policies apply to everyone. Even if someone else starts the conversation by being toxic, continuing the argument can still lead to penalties for anyone involved if those responses also cross the line. Context is important and we’re not stopping you from defending yourself, but keep your responses clean of hate speech or any other inappropriate behavior.

It’s especially important to report the player yourself. Our detection technology is only one part of the system. Player reports allow us to identify incidents that need to be evaluated and take action when our policies are violated. If someone is abusing voice comms, use the Voice Comms Abuse report category in-game so we can evaluate that interaction. Reporting helps us evaluate that interaction and allows us to continue improving on our detection systems.

Building a better place together

We can’t eliminate disruptive behavior overnight, but we will continue to invest in the technology and systems that let us identify abuse and take action against it. The latest expansions in our RVE system is another step and we’ll continue to improve and expand its capabilities.

You can help us too, keep your comms focused on the competition and report players who cross the line. Play to win, play fair, and play with respect. We’ll see you out there!