The silence from Riot Games on updates for VALORANT didn’t record much noise so it was a surprise when the news arrived. However, with Riot, there never is a good surprise. It is with a sigh that we now have to deal with amplified punishments for the misuse of the dodge and remake systems. More punishments are on the way for those who leave matches before they start and to those who spam remake votes.
This was shared on the official Riot VALORANT Intel Twitter account. And if you have opened the comments, you definitely get the vibes of a discord server. Parts of the community are excited about the new penalties while the others are ready to riot – hilariously – against Riot. It is just an unfolding situation.
To summarise, if you use the queue dodge or try to exploit to force a remake, buckle up because the penalties you receive are about to skyrocket. You will face steeper queue bans, greater RR losses in ranked, and any other punishment Riot comes up with to deter players from just clicking “leave.”
The concerns with the policy start from here. Much like the rest of the platform, there are other players chiming in that the dodge and remake systems with Riot’s proposed punishments is not the major issue. For example, a user named CGN Chef said, “you should punish ppl who troll or leave the game more, not ppl who dodge the que bc of 4 instalock duellist.” Honestly, there is no defending this. There are times where a lobby you get into has your whole team locking duelists which is reason enough to bounce.
Along with this, we have Pascal Brouwer commenting that this will make ranking up even harder due to a larger influx of trolls stuck in games because of stricter punishments for dodging. And I mean, that concern is somewhat valid. If players are unable to dodge obviously terrible teams, they are forced to play through them, which is losing, and is unfortunate.
However, not all of the feedback is negative. A few players are like, “just learn the map dude” which was from GOEKIJAN who in essence said stop dodging simply because you don’t like the map. And they have a point. The map pool isn’t that extensive, come on.
What stands out for me is the many players that think Riot should investigate other issues. Like, Levi_resi wonders if the higher punishments will apply to the players that leave, or DC after the 2nd round which is basically just throwing the match. Trent wonders if they can fix RR loss when teammates leave, which… yes, please! That is something that has been asked about forever.
And then we have the console side of things. Acez mentioned that on console, remakes are common because of win trading and other dubious activities. So if remakes are getting cracked down on, then the reasons people need to remake in the first place should be fixed.
While we are at it, lets not forget the unrated versus ranked. chuu_hardt brought up a valid point—why are there penalties in unrated anyway? It is supposed to be casual. Who even cares if someone dodges in unrated? Save the serious punishments for ranked where there is a reason.
The underlying problem is players acknowledge that dodging and remakes are the symptoms—matching issues with trolls, throwers, and unbalanced teams as described by a player named Math¹: “Sooo this they think is the problem, when its the ranked match making and generel people who get throwers but them we do nothing about. lovely.”
It was a little rough, but it was true.
Adding a little international flavor, we have some German players in the replies becoming quite heated. One of them said, “Die Wichser können Eier snacken gehen,” which essentially translates to … well, let’s say their opinion on the changes isn’t subtle.
Regardless, Riot is trying to improve match quality and reduce queue times by cutting dodges but the community is telling Riot to address the real problems. If there were fewer trolls and matches were balanced, players would not dodge in the first place.
Everything we bring up is far from new; it is a classic example of trying to fix the symptoms and not the problem. Maybe this is the very first step. Maybe Riot is putting that bigger matchmaking fix and this penalty increase is just one portion of the roadmap. Either way, hope is there.
If you are a habitual dodger, the fines are only going to be harsher so consider that. But judging from the feedback, it seems unlikely Riot will fix the overriding issues people really have with why keep dodging.
Just saying.
