How Riot Games is planning to tackle 'disruptive' Valorant players

Abusive Valorant players could soon have their verbal tirades come back to haunt them. Riot Games outlined a plan to begin monitoring in-game voice chat as part of a broader effort to combat disruptive behavior within its games.

Riot Games has recently updated its blog post to share a plan that will be used to fight “disruptive behaviour” within its game. The developer will start monitoring in-game voice chats to identify “abusive Valorant players,” and take action against them, reports Engadget.

On July 13th, the studio will begin collecting voice data from Valorant games played in North America. According to Riot, it will use the data to get its AI model “in a good enough place for a beta launch later this year.” During this initial stage, Riot says it won’t use voice evaluation for disruptive behavior reports.

What is Riot Games’ voice evaluation?

Riot Games has explained in its blog post that it will use this data to work on its AI model that the studio expects to be “in a good enough place for a beta launch later this year.” However, Riot has made it clear that voice evaluation won’t be used to report disruptive behaviour. The studio mentioned, “We know that before we can even think of expanding this tool, we’ll have to be confident it’s effective, and if mistakes happen, we have systems in place to make sure we can correct any false positives (or negatives for that matter).”

How Valorant players might react

As per the report, some players might not like the fact that Riot is listening to their voice communications. Just like some players were unhappy when the studio debuted its kernel-level anti-cheat software named Vanguard. However, Riot has explained that it will use voice evaluation to “collect clear evidence” against players who use Valorant’s comms channels to harass and abuse their teammates. Moreover, this tool will provide the studio with evidence to offer feedback to the sanctioned players.

Riot Games has also mentioned that this new technology might be a problem for some players as the studio wants to ensure a “safer and more inclusive environment for everyone who chooses to play” Valorant.