How to dodge a match in VALORANT

VALORANT has a system in place to punish users who consistently leave and dodge matches in Competitive. While dodging, AFKing and leaving matches is annoying for players in your lobby, sometimes it’s necessary. 

VALORANT scales its bans and punishments depending on the severity of the case, with cheating taking the cake for the longest and quickest ban.  

Players can also be punished for friendly fire, so make sure your abilities aren’t hurting your teammates too much. 

Related: How to remake in VALORANT from Gamepur

How do I dodge a queue in VALORANT?

There are two simple ways to dodge a queue in VALORANT:

• Don’t pick a character: Just don’t hover over any agents, and don’t choose one. 
• Press Alt and F4 at the same time: This will close your game entirely.

Penalties for dodging in VALORANT

There are several different types of punishments for dodging in VALORANT. Here’s a list of all the punishments Riot could hit players with.

• Warnings: This means you’ve triggered their Queue Dodging/AFK system, this is the first warning.
• XP Denial: The next step will stop your ability to collect XP for one match.
• Rank Rating Reduction: Players can lose up to 12 RR points, potentially pushing over the -30 RR loss barrier.
• Queue Restriction Timer: This step will force players to wait anywhere from three minutes to four hours until they can queue again. This is for non-custom games.
• Ranked Restriction Timer: This punishment will stop players from searching in the Competitive queue for at least seven days. This can extend to as long as 14 days if the circumstances are severe enough.
• VALORANT Game Ban: Players who receive this type of ban will be punished from at least seven days onwards. This penalty can be permanent. 

The penalties will escalate based on the severity of the case. Players can receive the same penalty several times without getting a game ban, but don’t push your luck.