Paul “Arkem” Chamberlain, the Valorant anti-cheat lead at Riot Games talked about player reports and Anti-cheat in the latest Valorant article. He explains that players are the key to catch cheaters and breaks down the numbers behind player reports.
Agents, your mission is to help Riot improve this great game! Riot’s Vanguard system is the front-line defense against cheaters and this automated software runs in the background as you play. Without this AI it would be impossible to stop all those who try to cheat in-game, but players still need to be vigilant and report any suspicious behavior they see. You can do this by using the in-game reporting system and this keeps the game fair.
This was all explained in the Valorant: Anti-Cheat, Cheater Reported! article posted recently on Valorant’s homepage. The article describes what happens when you report a player. Vanguard then decides if that player was cheating or not and if further action against that player is required.
Vanguard also uses the number of reports (more specifically the number of unique reporters and number of games in which the player was reported) as an indication of confidence in its findings—which helps us ban players faster and, in many cases, without manual review.
There are some ban cases that also require manual review and the Valorant team uses their cheat analysts to remove both hard-to-detect cheaters and players they deem “disruptive.” As you may know, the arms race between game developers and cheaters is always ongoing. Riot strategy is to bans in waves meaning once a number of cheaters are reported, they ban them all. This gives the people who develop cheats less time to react, and Riot spends less time issuing bans.
Just because AI will take over one day, doesn't mean player reports don't matter. Anti-cheat lead @Arkem is here to talk player reports and how you can help us help you avoid matchups with cheaters. Read all about it: https://t.co/VYsWQUuyfO pic.twitter.com/1d7qJZez9C
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) August 31, 2020
Who Bans What? The Numbers Tell!
Riot Games has stats on bans and reports. It is clear that more players need to do more reporting. Here is a breakdown of the reporting/banning numbers:
- 97% of players have never received a single report
- 3% of players have been reported for cheating
- And of those 3% - 80% of the time only one person reported them
- 0.6% of Valorant players received more than 1 cheating report
- 0.3% have received 3 or more
- 53% of banned cheaters received a report before their ban
- 60% of players that get 20 or more reports receive bans
In the article, Paul also mentions that some players that get reported are innocent. We all know who they are talking about here. That sore loser or player who just likes to watch the world burn and reports because they are mad.
But How Do I Report?
For those who just play the game, you may not know how to report. So, when you see a player that is maybe cheating or being toxic or repeatedly AFK (also known as idling). Follow these simple steps to report a player in-game:
- During a Match, press ESC this opens the leader board
- Right-click the player and select report
- A menu should appear with multiple reasons
- Tick the boxes you feel match your observation made in-game
- Hit report one last time
Before/After a match:
- Go to the Career tab
- Find the Match with the player you wish to report
- Go to the scoreboard screen
- Right-click on the player and select report
- A menu should appear with multiple reasons
- Tick the boxes you feel match your observation made in-game
- Hit report one last time
Mission accomplished Agent! Excellent work, you have helped improved Valorant's community.
- READ MORE: Valorant Ignition Series: Pop Flash Finals
GG and play safe Agents! Please people, do not rage report when you lose this is a sure-fire way to get yourself banned! And it also just makes it harder for the workers at Riot Games to sort out the cheaters from the ragers.
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