Valorant players call for Overwatch-style feature to combat toxicity

A tweet from Cloud9 streamer Joseph ‘Keeoh’ Winkler, calling for an Overwatch-style ‘honor’ system to allow for greater separation between toxic and better-behaved players in Valorant matchmaking, has drawn massive support from players.

Toxicity is a massively troublesome topic for any multiplayer game producer to combat, and Valorant gets its fair share of complaints.

Ever since the game’s release, high-profile instances of players receiving abuse over voice comms have sparked discussions over how to handle toxicity. The likes of popular streamer Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys and chess star Andrea Botez have both experienced the issue in the past.

Riot have assured players that plans to clamp down on toxic behavior are in the works, but how that will manifest is as yet unclear. But Keeoh’s suggestion has had players discussing ways of combatting the issue at hand.

On June 12, Keeoh tweeted a loose plan suggesting Valorant takes a leaf out of Overwatch’s book and adds “endorsements or commendations ratings”.

In this system, players could be commended for being a “good teammate”, proactive “shot caller” or for just having good “sportsmanship.” The more of these ratings you have, the more likely you’d be to queue into people with high levels of commendation – similar to CSGO’s ‘trust factor’.

“This doesn’t solve toxicity, but it solves it for the people who are positive, motivated, and want good communicative teammates,” he added. “Toxic or negative teammates get to play with other toxic or negative teammates.”

The likes of Team Liquid streamer Jonas ‘AverageJonas’ Navarsete and former Overwatch pro Ludvig ‘Luddee’ Håkansson threw their support behind the system, with the latter labeling it a “good start” to solving the problem.

This method directly corresponds with Overwatch’s ‘endorsement’ system, where players can receive loot boxes for being deemed honorable by their teammates. Any Overwatch player could tell you endorsements don’t exactly take care of the toxicity problem, but as Kekeoh said, it could do a bit to help.

And Riot are not averse to adding honor-based commendation systems. In League of Legends, players who are honored at the end of a game can pick up free loot to unlock skins, champions and emotes, as well as having their honor rating displayed on their profile.

From what we know, Riot have plans in the pipeline to deal with toxic players, though whether this will take the form of an honor or endorsement system similar to Overwatch, or something else entirely remains to be seen.