All anti-smurf updates coming to VALORANT

VALORANT Season V25 is shaping up to be a major blow to all kinds of disruptors, with Riot now turning its focus on the highly detested smurfs. If you’re wondering about what’s in store for the player base’s oldest enemies, we’ve got you covered with everything you need to know. 

Starting with patch 11.08, Riot will roll out a wave of VALORANT updates targeting players who indulge in “rank manipulation” for competitive benefit or just fun. These changes mark the first step in a larger initiative, with the developer aiming to flush out a significant number of these disruptors before digging deeper to eliminate the issue at its root.

A timeline of anti-smurf updates coming to VALORANT

Patch 11.08: New in-game report feature

With this VALORANT patch, players can start flagging their teammates or enemies for “Rank Manipulation” via the in-match reporting system. This feature will be made available globally across all servers, unlike the rest of the anti-smurf updates that will be locked to certain regions initially.

Patch 11.08’s official release date hasn’t been revealed, but it’s likely going to mark Act Six’s beginning, so you can expect it to go live on Oct. 15 (Oct. 16 in eastern regions).

Patch 11.09: Riot Mobile Verification Beta first phase

This update will make Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) mandatory for shared VALORANT accounts. Riot believes a significant portion of the smurfing problem stems from shared accounts, and plans to tackle this segment first.

Account sharing has always been against the Terms of Service, and a bannable offense if detected. That said, Riot didn’t have a strict system to reliably detect such activity earlier. With patch 11.09, however, a unique detection system will be added to VALORANT to consistently determine if two different humans are playing from the same account. Accounts that are flagged for sharing activities will be required to enable MFA with the Riot Mobile app to continue participating in the game.

Patch 11.09 will deploy the Riot Mobile Verification Beta system in select regions only, including North America, LATAM, Brazil, and Korea.

Patch 11.10: For Ascendants and above

Patch 11.10 marks the beginning of Riot Mobile Verification Beta too, but for VALORANT accounts ranked Ascendant, Immortal, or Radiant in North America, Latin America, Brazil, and Korea. 

So, if you hit Ascendant in any Act after this update, you’ll need to enable MFA with the Riot Mobile app to continue playing the tac shooter.

Patch “x” in 2026: Other regions

Starting this patch, players in the Europe and Asia-Pacific will be required to enable MFA with Riot Mobile if their accounts were detected as shared or if their rank is Ascendant or higher. You can expect this update to go live in one of the initial patches of Season V26, Act One.

This isn’t the first time Riot has taken steps against smurfs in VALORANT, but its V25 plan is definitely one of its strongest initiatives so far. Whether it’ll finally dismantle the long-standing problem, however, is a story for another day.

What is rank manipulation in VALORANT?

Much like what’s been flagged in League of Legends, rank manipulation in VALORANT happens when a player logs into another player’s account to play a ranked game with the goal to “boost” that account’s MMR.

While this doesn’t cover every kind of smurfs out there, it represents one of the biggest subsets of this issue, which is rank boosting. Smurfs often log into and play ranked games from other player accounts—whether through paid boosting services or as a friendly gesture—to raise their MMR, thus disrupting the experience of players who actually belong to that Elo.

Of course, not all smurfs take this route. Some simply make “alternate accounts” to stomp lower-ranked lobbies for fun or to queue with friends. Riot already has a strict MMR detection system to reduce instances of this kind, so the upcoming updates are largely focused on disruptive players who boost MMR for money or as a favor.