We would all like Riot to harshly punish VALORANT players who go AFK, but what if it’s a season-long ban in the game’s in-house esports mode, Premier? Well, for a mode that mandates a pre-built, registered team and is literally a “path to pro,” it definitely doesn’t sound fair.
In a Reddit post from Sept. 21, a player named u/aquasolid7 shared how they were banned from playing Premier for a whopping 625 hours, meaning they can’t participate in the rest of the season. According to the post, they only disconnected for 10 minutes, and their teammates had no problem with it. They even went on to win the match.
Apparently, aquasolid7 had initially only received a penalty of 30 minutes across all modes, which is understandable. But when they logged in on Sept. 21, five days after the match, they spotted the ban timer said hundreds of hours. They can still queue for Competitive and other modes, but not Premier.
“I am going to try to appeal it with Riot but seems pretty aggressive when we have a full 5 stack and the team was aware I would have to hop off for a short part of the game, we even won so no harm no foul, right?” the player asked, looking for the community’s opinion. And, of course, everyone, including us, thinks that’s too harsh of a punishment.
It’s worth noting that Riot had announced that it’ll disqualify players for the rest of the stage if they received a “Comms Restriction, Game Ban, or Vanguard Intervention during Premier” in an old FAQ post. Also, if you have received similar penalties in the last 30 days, you won’t be able to sign up for that Premier stage. But some players seemed to have missed this warning.
While Riot did announce Premier’s eligibility conditions beforehand, it doesn’t necessitate that the terms are fair.
“Wow. Punishing players for AFKing in Premier is wild. Should 100% be left up to the team to decide themselves. This suspension punishes your entire team as well. Incredibly unfair that they don’t get to play anymore if they don’t have a sub,” one player replied, and it makes sense. The ban has technically disbarred the entire team from playing in Premier’s first official season out of beta.
That said, if you’re thinking such AFKing in Premier shouldn’t be punished because of its “pre-made parties,” this player’s experience should give you a better idea.
Apparently, high Elo Premier players are abusing VALORANT’s economy system by teaming up with low Elo players and asking them to deliberately AFK to get extra credits.
So while AFKing in Premier mode should never go unpunished, banning the team for an entire season’s worth for a mere 10-minute offense doesn’t seem fair either.
We hope aquasolid7’s appeal to Riot gets heard, and their team is able to play for the rest of the Premier season.
Published: Sep 22, 2023 05:09 am