Riot Will Record Valorant Voice Chat To Fight Toxicity

Games is going to start recording in-game voice communication in Valorant, with the intention of evaluating and moderating toxic behavior in its first-person shooter. The League of Legends developer announced the new policy Friday in a letter to players. Valorant is the only game in which Riot will record and review voice chat right now, despite the policy applying to all Riot games, including Teamfight Tactics and League of Legends. Riot said it will listen to and review voice logs only if a player is reported. Players who don’t want their voice chat recorded will have the option to turn off voice chat entirely; otherwise, by using chat functionality on Valorant, your communication will be recorded and moderated. The new policy is a step in Riot’s attempts to make Valorant a game that’s “safe and inclusive for everyone,” the company said. This problem isn’t unique to Valorant, nor is it the first time Riot has tried to moderate toxic behavior in its game communities; League of Legends is notorious for this. And so it was no surprise when players and Riot developers reported sexism, racism, and harassment in Valorant.

Soon after, Riot made a promise to players that it would work to combat this sort of behavior in the game. The company started the Social and Player Dynamics team, led by producer Sara Dadafshar, to work on all social features in Valorant. “Our goal our full-on endeavor is not just to reduce toxicity, but to bring players together as well,” Dadafshar told Polygon. Dadafshar and the Social and Player Dynamics team have already begun implementing some changes to Valorant that players may have noticed, like detection systems for AFK players and new reporting tools. Voice-chat moderation beginning with recording player chat is the next step in moderating toxic Valorant players. In 2020, Sony was criticized for implementing an unannounced feature that gave the company the ability to record voice chat audio for “moderation review.” The problem wasn’t necessarily that Sony was recording voice chat, but rather that the system wasn’t clearly explained. Players raised privacy concerns, with some worried that Sony was actively monitoring voice chat at all times. Later, Sony clarified that voice chat recordings would only be used to review complaints. Riot appears to be anticipating similar concerns and is addressing that directly; after all, the company has already been dealing with players questioning Vanguard, the Valorant anti-cheat system. “Ultimately, it makes sense that we’re doing this,” Dadafshar said. “I hope that players will see that and understand we can’t moderate without moderating. I hope [players] see the bigger picture of it all.” As part of its announcement, Riot addressed data privacy, too: We believe we should collect the absolute minimum data to effectively run our games and continuously improve your experience. When we collect data, we’ll be transparent, we’ll keep it for only as long as necessary, and we’ll protect it as if it were our own. We know collecting voice data is a concern for many of you, but be assured that we would never ship anything if we weren’t comfortable having our own data treated the same way. And if you prefer to not have your voice chat captured, you may turn off voice chat. Riot also clarified to Polygon that it’s not monitoring all voice activity coming into the computer just voice communications using Valorant’s official channels. Voice chat evaluations won’t start to happen immediately, Riot said. The new behavior system tools are still in development; players won’t notice much happening right away. According to Dadafshar, the tool in development will work “kind of like Amazon Alexa,” in that it “responds and reacts” to player chat using “contextual clues of natural language” to “moderate in real time.” “But the end road for this is to actually moderate what is being said,” Dadafshar said. “When someone starts to say something bad, we can be like, ‘no, you can’t do that.’ Obviously we’re a little bit away from that, but this is definitely the first step. That sort of catch is happening right now with text we just launched that. Now, the next step is to not only make text [moderation] better, but voice as well.” Riot will continue to update Valorant with new features, including ones that address player behavior. Dadafshar pointed to features like player reputation and honor tools, like in League of Legends. But Riot also wants to create tools to bring like-minded players together, like a search feature for people looking for groups to play with. “We have a long journey ahead of us,” Dadafshar said. “And I want to fix that for not only just the players, but for myself.”

Valorant: Reyna

Reyna is a VALORANT agent with an aggressive, duel-centric playstyle. Reyna's unique mechanic are the so-called Soul Orbs, which drop when she kills an opponent and which, upon consumption, give her various bonuses — from massive healing to invisibility.

Reyna's ultimate ability is Empress, which turns her into a rapid-fire death machine, dramatically increasing all her combat stats. Every kill renews Empress' duration, and a skilled Reyna player can wipe away the entire team in one swift offense.

 

Abilities

Dismiss (E) – Consumes a nearby soul orb, becoming intangible for a short duration. If your ultimate is active, also become invisible.

Leer (C) – Throw an eye through surfaces. The eye will blind all enemies who look at – only affects distant vision, so use to take on AWPers.

Devour (Q) – Enemies killed by Reyna leave behind Soul Orbs that last 3 seconds. Consume a nearby soul orb, rapidly healing for a short duration. Health gained through this skill exceeding 100 will decay over time. If your ultimate is active, this skill will automatically cast and not consume the orb.

Empress (X) – Enter a frenzy, increasing firing speed, equip, and reload speed dramatically. Scoring a kill renews the duration.

Valorant: Omen

Omen is a VALORANT agent who is clouded in mystery and speacializes in covering the battlefield and his enemies in darkness. Two of his abilities, Paranoia and Dark Cover, are ranged attacks that obscure vision and give Omen a huge advantage in duels and teamfights.

On top of his crowd controlling skills, Omen has the ability to teleport around the map — either on short distances with Shadow Walk, or globally on the map with his From the Shadows ultimate. Therefore, a team with both Omen and Brimstone becomes incredibly dangerous, as it can deploy damage and crowd control anywhere on the map, seemingly out of nowhere.

 

Abilities

Dark Cover (E) – Cast an orb that bursts into a sphere of shadow obscuring the final location. Can be charged to increase distance.

Shrouded Step (C) – After a delay, teleport a short distance.

Paranoia (Q) – Cast a shadow in a straight line that blinds anyone it touches.

From the Shadows (X) – Select anywhere on the map to teleport and reform, will initially appear as a shadow, which can be killed by enemies and cancel the teleport. If teleport is successful, you become invisible for a short time.

Valorant: Sova

Sova is a VALORANT agent, who specializes in scouting and reconnaisance. Sova's entire kit is built around finding the enemies and marking them for his allies. Owl Drone and Recon Bolt are a single target and AoE scanners, respectively. Sova's ultimate, Hunter's Fury, is a map-wide damaging ability that also marks enemies it hits. Teams that like to rely on complete information on enemies' movements and positioning will want to have a Sova in their ranks.

 

Abilities

Recon Bolt (E) – Fire a bolt that deploys a sonar emitter and tags nearby enemies, revealing them.

Owl Drone (C) – Deploy and control a drone that reveals enemies around the map. Once active you can fire a tracking dart that reveals one enemy’s location until they remove it.

Shock Bolt (Q) – Fire and explosive bolt that damages enemies on impact. Use it to clear out boxes and corners.

Hunter’s Fury (X) – Fire up to three energy blasts that spear across the entire map and each hit enemy takes damages and is marked.

Valorant: Cypher

Cypher is a VALORANT agent who is the embodiment of the spy and infiltrator archetype. Cypher relies on ambushing enemies with various traps, which daze, restrain, and slow enemies in their range.

Cypher is also skilled in gathering information about the battlefield, using Spycam's to monitor enemy team movements or extracting information from dead enemies to reveal the location of their allies. Skilled Cypher players will have intimate knowledge of VALORANT maps to know the best places to set traps and Spycams, crippling the enemy team while staying hidden in the shadows.


 

Abilities

Spycam (E) – Place a remote camera, once placed reactive to view the video feed. Left click while the camera is activated to fire a tracking dart.

Trapwire (C) – Place a tripwire between two walls, triggered enemies are restrained and revealed for a short time. If the trap hasn’t been destroyed, it activates to daze the trapped victim.

Cyber Cage (Q) – Place a remote activation trap, reactive to create a cage that slows enemies who pass through it. Traps can be detonated.

Neural Theft (X) – Once an enemy is killed, information can be extracted of the locations of their living allies.

Valorant: Breach

Breach is a VALORANT agent to whom walls are no obstacle. Breach's kit is designed to inflict damage and crowd control through walls and terrain, taking people out of cover or aiding his team's peaking. Flashpoint is a fast-acting burst that blinds enemies, while Aftershock does damage while also dazing all players in the area of effect. If that's not enough, Breach's ultimate, Rolling Thunder, is an ability that passes through all terrain in a cone, knocking up and dazing players.

Good Breach players will find clever ways to ambush the enemies without even being seen. Teaming up with Sova to learn enemies' positioning is a deadly combination that can catch the enemy team completely off-guard.

Abilities

Fault Line (E) – Equip a seismic blast, hold fire to increase the distance, and release to set off a quake that dazes all players caught in it.

Aftershock (C) – Equip a Fusion Charge and fire it to send a slow-firing burst through a wall, which
deals high damage to anyone it connects with. More handy for clearing corners than actually getting frags.

Flashpoint (Q) – Equip a blinding charge that can be set on a wall. It fires a fast burst that blinds anyone on the other side.

Rolling Thunder (X) – Equip a seismic charge, fire to send a quake through all terrain in the ult’s cone of effect. This dazes and knocks anyone caught in its blast into the air. It also deals some damage.

Valorant: Viper

Viper is a VALORANT agent which deals with poison and acid, burning down and suffocating his enemies. Viper uses to fuel to activate some of her powerful area-of-effect abilities like Poison Cloud and Toxic Screen to melt passing targets. Viper's Snakebite ability and Viper's Pit ultimate are also area-of-effect, completing the dangerous skill kit of this US agent.

Abilities

Toxic Screen (E) – Deploy a line of gas that can be reactivated to create a wall of toxic gas which costs fuel.

Snakebite (C) – Fire a projectile that explodes into a pool of acid that does damage.

Poison Cloud (Q) – Throw a cloud of gas that can be reactivated to create a smoke cloud which costs fuel. This can be redeployed after a cooldown.

Viper’s Pit (X) – A toxic cloud covers a large radius and highlights enemies to Viper, the duration of the cloud extends if Viper remains in the cloud.

Valorant: Sage

Sage is a VALORANT agent, whose abilities make her a key support in the game. Sage equips various orbs which can slow enemies, heal allies, or erect walls to control the battlefield. Her ultimate, Resurrection, can even bring dead allies back to life, swinging the balance of power in a match in seconds. Sage thrives when she's behind her team, hidden from enemy fire.

Abilities

Healing Orb (E) – Heal an ally or yourself to full health over a few seconds.

Barrier Orb (C) – A wall that can be rotated.

Slow Orb (Q) – An orb that breaks into a slowing field on impact with the found, all caught in the field are slowed, grounded, and make a noise when moving.

Resurrection (X) – Target a friendly corpse, after a short delay revive them with full health.

Valorant: Jett

Jett is a VALORANT agent who specializes in mobility and assassinations. Like a true ninja, this South Korean agent can dash short distances to catch-up enemies or escape dangerous situation, and even propel herself upwards to reach highground places and surprise lurking targets who think they're safe up there. The combination of the Cloudburst ability and the Blade Storm ultimate make Jett a close-combat nightmare, as she can execute enemies who won't even realize what hit them.

Abilities

Tailwind (E) – Dash a short distance.

Cloudburst (C) – Throw a cloud of fog that obscures vision on impact.

Updraft (Q) – Launch upwards after a brief delay.

Blade Storm (X) – Throw deadly throwing knives that deal damage and kill on headshots. A kill restores daggers, left click throws a single dagger and right click throws all remaining daggers.

Valorant: Brimstone

Brimstone is a VALORANT agent, specializing in supporting allies and damaging enemies all over the map. Brimstone is unique in the way he uses the minimap to deploy some of his abilities, making him dangerous even if he's not directly present in the fight. He can deploy smokescreens that block vision or Orbital Strikes that deal damage-over-time anywhere on the map, while his direct-combat abilities can boost allies' rate of fire or create area-of-effect fire fields. The best Brimstone players will have great map awareness, so they can fight on one side of the map and hurt enemies on the other all at the same time.

Abilities

Sky Smoke (E) – Use your map to call in smokescreens that obscure vision, click to set the locations, and confirm to launch.

Stim Beacon (C) – Target a nearby location to call in the beacon, giving all players near the beacon rapid-fire.

Incendiary (Q) – Launch a grenade that deploys a damaging field of fire

Orbital Strike (X) – Target a nearby location, launch a devastating orbital strike that damages enemies for several seconds.

Valorant: Raze

Raze is a VALORANT agent, whose skill kit is centered around mines, grenades, and general explosions. Raze is all about dealing AOE damage to enemies and will become a favorite agent for those players who like chaos and mayhem.

Blast Pack and Paint Sheels are Raze's main abilities, with which she melts the opposing team. While Paint Sheels is a more direct damage grenade-throw, Blast Pack can stick to walls and be detonated on command, making it great for defending critical choke points or messing up spike plant sites. Raze's signature ability, Boom Bot, is an auto-lock Bot that chases enemies and explodes if it catches up to them, making it a great space-maker of a skill. And if someone lives after encountering Raze on the battlefield, the Showstopper ultimate does just that — it ends everyone's life.

Abilities

Paint Shells (E) – Cluster grenade that deals initial impact damage, followed by damage from the clusters.

Boom Bot (C) – Set down an explosive robot that goes in a straight line, bouncing off walls until it detects an enemy in front of it. It will then home in and detonate on them unless shot.

Blast Pack (Q) – Like a C4 satchel. Throw it down and either detonate it when you want or let the timer run down. Deals AoE damage and displaces Agents.

Showstopper (X) – Pull out a rocket launcher and fire it down a lane. The explosion deals huge damage to anyone in its radius. We’ve seen aces with a single shot from this.

Valorant: Phoenix

Phoenix is an offensive VALORANT agent, who specializes in hunting down enemies, while crippling their ability to fire back. The Blaze ability creates walls that blocks vision and deals damage, allowing Phoenix to sneak past defended open areas, while Curveball blinds enemies, even if they're hinding behind corners. In combination, Hot Hands and the Run it Back ultimate make Phoenix a very durable duelist and players who like to play aggressively will really enjoy this agent's gameplay.

Abilities

Hot Hands (E) – Throw a fireball that explodes after a short delay on impact with the ground. The fire zone damages enemies but heals Phoenix.

Blaze (C) – Cast a flame wall that blocks enemy vision and damages anyone passing through it. The wall can be bent both horizontally and vertically so you can cover ramps, too.

Curveball (Q) – Cast a curved flare that bursts into a light after a short delay, temporarily blinding anyone and can be curved left and right.

Run it Back (X) – Marks your current location. If you die while this ability is active, or when it expires, you’ll respawn at the marked location with full health.