Unlock Your Valorant Account: How to Appeal for Unban
Valorant, the popular online tactical shooter game, has strict rules in place to maintain fair play and a positive gaming environment.
Players can face bans for various reasons, including cheating, toxic behavior, and exploiting bugs. If you find yourself banned in Valorant, it is essential to understand the process of appealing for an unban.
This article will guide you through the steps to check if you are banned, how to appeal for unban, and what to expect after submitting your appeal.
Valuable tips for avoiding bans in Valorant will be shared to help you stay on the right side of the rules.
Contents
Key Takeaways:
What Is Valorant?
Valorant is a 5v5 first-person shooter game similar to Valve Corporation’s game CS:GO. Developed and published by Riot Games in 2020, the game has 2 teams of 5 unique agents that come with their own guns, equipment, and abilities, allowing players to choose their preferred strategies and playstyles. The game modes available in Valorant are currently Incursion, Spike Rush, and Deathmatch, but the most popular and primary mode remains the Standard mode.
Similar to many multiplayer games, Valorant has an unban system that allows banned players to appeal and request for a ban to be lifted. If a player witnesses inappropriate behavior during the ongoing match, they can report the player using the in-game reporting system. There have been various reasons for a player to be banned in Valorant, including cheating, utilizing mods or hacks, harassment, toxic behavior, and AFK fines. Based on the context of the ban, different steps need to be taken to lift a ban. Rules for appealing a ban may be found on the official Valorant website or forums.
Why Do Players Get Banned in Valorant?
These are the main reasons players get banned in Valorant:
- Leaving current game or repeatingly dying to end it as soon as possible (AFK and Abandonment)
- Flaming or Tortilicious attitude (CHEATING / HACKING, EXPLOITING BUGS OR GLITCHES, Griefing and Throwing the Games)
- Leaving the game in the middle or not choosing characters in time in the agent selection stage (UNSOLVED OR CRASHED BUGS)
- Using VoIP to abuse players or Defamation and profanity anytime (DECEPTIVE AND NON-COMPLIANT ACTIVITY)
After banning a player, Riot sends a notification via email.
Classified as cheating when an individual gains access to the game’s code and/or engineer procedures. These are code modifications that allow them to carry out actions such as aimbotting, wallhacking, and moving at speeds greater than what should normally be allowed. Cheating is the most severe violation of Valorant’s Code of Conduct and it severely violates the game’s integrity. The lengths are known to the point of developing AI software to identify mismatches between performance and in-game statistics and will not be tolerating any user caught cheating.
Cheating
If a player cheated in Valorant and that is why they were banned, unban is likely to be difficult. Cheating in an EORF autobot was removed, Affinix outlined the reasons a person might cheat which included pay to win, for a sense of power, out of curiosity, and resentment against cheaters. Cheating against a game like Valorant is deeply stigmatized, as most casual players despise cheating in games due to the distortion of the competitive integrity of matches.
Splashtor, an expert to pinpoint hackers in multiplayer games, stated that cheating is attractive for a number of reasons, including looking for a rise out of other players, tilting opponents, and improving one’s stats. There are a variety of cheats that players can use, including aimbots to help them target enemies in gameplay and triggerbots to improve the effectiveness of their weapons. There are third-party sites where cheaters can buy cheats to the game, with options from simple assistances such as radar-based wallhacks, to advanced versions that fully automate shooting and even move the player character into strategic positions. Any amount of cheating in the game has the potential to lead to a ban. This could either be a short-term suspension or an outright ban. Cheats are not allowed in Valorant and are considered unacceptable and unfair practices.
In the future, the multiplayer game may have built-in mechanisms to distinguish between players who cheat and those who are playing with the help of assistive technology because of a physical disability.
Toxic Behavior
Riot Games does not explicitly specify how toxic behavior within Valorant is punished. However, according to the company, toxic behavior is defined as any language or behavior that suffers the ‘radical disruption of or interference with another’s performance.’ Based on common practice in gaming, Riot will give a 3-day, 6-day, and permanent ban depending on the severity of words and/or behavior.
If you are banned in Valorant for toxic behavior, you must wait out the ban and avoid any other reports of toxic behavior until the penalty portion concludes. Following this, you may be able to appeal for earlier unbanning if the initial circumstance is deemed severe enough for immediate unbanning. However, this is rare, so it is best to just wait out the ban.
Exploiting Bugs
Bugs are faults or errors in the game’s systems, including mistaken features, such as a semi-transparent wall, and glitches, such as the error tracking smooth movements before a resistance is applied. When there is no clear in-game guidance regarding whether something is a bug or an exploit, players should be honest with themselves and admit when they are exploiting software to gain an advantage that has not been intentionally created as part of the gameplay by the developers. Riot bans players for malicious use of bugs in Valorant for periods based on their evaluation of Severity, Repeat Offense, Duration, and Bug Severity. The duration tends to be two weeks with the possibility of being converted to a permanent ban if the violation is repeated. The description of the bug and how teams initially exploited it in real competition is also shared on the Valorant website, a strong warning to those who may use the same exploit to be more careful.
How to Check If You Are Banned in Valorant?
To check if you are banned in Valorant, you try to log in to your game account and an error message saying that you are banned will appear. The most likely error codes that accompany such a ban, refer the player to the article ATC0000097: Using the Riot Client on the Riot Games support website. Codes 61 and 1753 are both about account suspensions and require the user to consult support. You can also check if the Valorant server status is okay as the issue could be on their end and not because of ban.
Sometimes a player might think that they are banned when they are not. Valorant player Zytirex on reddit claimed that the Riot Vanguard anti-cheat software is particularly buggy when preventing the running of closed-source applications. To determine if the Riot Vanguard or administrative settings on your computer might be the cause, Zytirex suggests running an application similar to F.Lux or GeforceExperience for example. If Riot Vanguard doesn’t block that application, Riot Vanguard’s biggest security compromise is still pretty much as effective as ever. Run a few games with this single “bypass” application running to see if this affects the error messages you are receiving.
How to Appeal for Unban in Valorant?
To appeal for an unban in Valorant, fill out a support ticket. The support ticket can be accessed at the following link: https://help.playvalorant.com. From there, click on the Submit A Ticket button at the top of your screen. Choose the Submit an unban appeal for cheating or conduct violation option. Fill out the required fields and provide any context or additional information that will help Riot staff better understand the situation and provide a fair outcome for the case.
When appealing for an unban in Valorant following a violation report by an abusive in-game behavior category, reviewing the Game IDs displayed on the report user option to verify the players match. Submit the support ticket by restating the situation and clarifying that it is not a cheat report. This can occur when the incorrect user selects the Report “User category that can apply to cheating. Provide as much evidence as possible, such as chat logs or recordings, to help the team reviewing the report better understand what occurred leading up to the report. Remember, only the team at Riot working on the case can make the final determination regarding an appeal. Riot Games aims to handle support tickets within 24 to 48 hours of receipt.
Understand the Reason for Your Ban
You should appeal for an unban in Valorant only if you have a real case that shows your ban was given unfairly. Therefore, the first step in the appeals process is to understand why you were banned in the first place. Start by examining the email from Valorant or Riot Support’s website stating the reason for the action against your account.
If you haven’t received an email or message, you can contact Valorant at support-valorant.riotgames.com. Understanding the matter will show whether your situation is eligible for an appeal and if so how it should be done. Below are common reasons for receiving an action against your account with some suggestion on who to proceed in those cases.
Gather Evidence to Support Your Appeal
Besides showing sincere concern for your wrong playing, gathering supporting evidence is the best way to appeal a ban in VALORANT. For every account ban in ICEYMIKES mistitled agent policy? something is wrong with this sentence. VALORANT there is a reason that can be shared in the ban notice, whether they do it or not is a different story. Players should study the ban notice and figure out what evidence they can muster to clear themselves. The more evidence provided, the more likely the ban is to be lifted. Once there is a list of evidence they believe will be useful, players can contact VALORANT support with this information. This support information is found with riot.games itself. This link will take you to the riot games support page where you will be able to describe the issue and be given a list of ways to contact support.
Here is some of the most common categories of supporting evidence for which you can try to obtain proof that you did nothing wrong: Malware presence not affecting game play and thus brought into game unintentionally. Logs from anti-virus and anti-malware scans can show that the only instance of malicious software was after a specific point. Network error, i.e. most common reason for getting banned Game logs for every game that demonstrates a sudden increase in lag and subsequent lack of control. Video or livestream links, Smartphone and computer screenshots of the abuse report after having a player report you before cheat was even shown to them Hack allegation, Smartphone and computer screenshots demonstrating that software considered cheats was not running on the game system when claim was made by another player. Descriptive emails to the games player support that include times, and videos/screenshots that show that you were not at you PC when the allegation is said to have occurred.
It is important to gather evidence that proves it was impossible for the offense to have occurred as well. An example is activity logs and closed-circuit camera footage from the job tells you missed a day but were actually at work. Gathering evidence is just half the job. Afterward, prepare to vigorously defend your case and be sure you are present when a decision is made. Too often people write out their complaint, provide a list of evidence, and then go disappear, never to check up on it again. Whether or not a person will get an answer is not a given. Players may even have to write a persistence post on the game’s message board. Todd Baldwin aka L.A. Beast, the competitive eater spoke of his tenacity when he was first beginning on youtube. Even after his videos completely flopped he kept going. It was only later that one of his videos went viral that the hits on the previous videos people started watching his early flops. He called it a persistence post and it may be needed to bring attention to the banning issues.
Write a Polite and Detailed Appeal Letter
Write a polite and detailed appeal letter of medium length, including your Riot or Valorant game ID, the reason for your ban or suspension, when you got banned or suspended, your admission of fault if you are at fault, an apology, and your request to have the suspension or ban revoked.
Here is a sample appeal letter for an automatic ban on Reddit. Note that you will be writing this in support tickets or emails: Hello Riot Games customer service, My Riot ID is xyz. I violated the rules and received a ban from your system starting on April 1st, and due to its length which took me by surprise, I tried creating a few new accounts and circumventing the system, which I also was quickly banned from. With all of that experience, I understand that what I did was wrong. I am sorry and I am asking for my original account where I received the ban to be reinstated. Note you may want to provide more information depending on your circumstances.
Submit Your Appeal through the Official Channels
After preparing a support ticket and AR-200 form, submit your appeal through Riot Games customer service. This is typically done by email or webform as the company does not operate a telephone support line. To submit your appeal through email, use the following address: [email protected]. Once submitted, monitor your email, and be prepared to hand over any further information or evidence of your innocence as soon as they get back to you. Your involvement will expedite the process.
What Happens After You Submit Your Appeal?
After you submit your appeal it theoretically goes into Riot’s appeal queue. Riot does not disclose how long this queue is at any given time or how quickly it moves, although they did acknowledge in a December article that it may be moving slower as more and more players load up Valorant. Keep in mind that there are over 14 million daily active players according to numerous reports. Valorant does have some automated responses for frequently asked questions so that users do not have to wait that time for a response to find answers to simple questions.
If you submitted your appeal but it was rejected for either false positives, offense severity, or subversion of the system, you are not able to reappeal your decision. As such, it is important to carefully read the appeal rules that are sent to you from the support team. In these rejection notes, they will almost always describe why your account was banned. This is sometimes difficult to read because Riot has their own internal jargon, but is not using some insidious excuse to deprive of your account rights.
Thus, if the appeal is rejected, while you cannot ask for further to be reconsidered, you at least have a shot of changing your behavior so that your team is not unfairly impacted. Otherwise, this will turn into a vicious cycle of an appeal being rejected ad infinitum.
Your Appeal May Be Accepted
If you have been banned in Valorant, the merits of your appeal may lead to an unban. Players frequently complain that they have been unfairly banned on reddit, discord, and VALORANT forums, even from just one bad game. Carl Felder, one of Riot’s Anti-Cheat Developers, recommends that players appeal bans within tickets, as league employees do research on their end prior to granting/commuting/escalating a punishment.
Some of the reasons why an appeal for an unban might succeed according to RIOT support include a false positive by their anti-cheat software, unfair enforcement of bans due to errors made by their staff, or circumstances of the case which could lead them to remand the case back to their Engineer or Fraud and Investigations Department. Though rare, there have been instances in the past where Valorant issued an apology and unbanned all players. For example, when hackers breached French company Bouygues Telecom‘s network and exploited thousands of customers’ data including assigning it to large French businesses such as Capgemini profile to prevent their malicious activities.
Your Appeal May Be Rejected
Your appeal may be rejected, and according to Riot’s terms of service, there is no expectation to have your appeal be accepted in the case of unauthorized cheating bans. The vast majority of appeals are denied and players can very easily receive a standard “The account has been noted and confirmed for the violations detected.” response. Hard data isn’t known, but prevailing wisdom across the community associates any message other than the previous one and the presence of the ‘Banned and unbanned again’ notice in the previous one as indicators that an appeal is likely successful.
Your Appeal May Be Under Review
Your appeal may take time to be reviewed, and the fact that your appeal is still being considered may be one reason you may not have received a response from the Valorant CCM. Appeals likely take time for them to review properly, and it is possible they may allow your account to remain disabled until they have fully reviewed your case.
Disabling an account allows them to protect players from anyone whose behavior might further harm players in the short term as they receive a high number of appeals. This could be why they make you appeal the disabling of your account in the first place, to allow more time to fully review your case. If this turns out to be the case, there is very little a player can do to hurry up the process. As the saying goes, “the ball is in their court”
The best path to follow in realizing your account has its chat privileges disabled because of a communications ban and your final steps according to Valorant is obtaining a clarification by reaching out through the original support ticket. – If you are dissatisfied by the absence of an initial response following your appeal to customer service, you can obtain a clarification via your original support ticket or issue a new one for an update after any time you deem reasonable.
Tips for Avoiding Bans in Valorant
There are several tips for avoiding bans in Valorant:
- Play by the rulebook: Be a good sport, play fairly, and be a good team player.
- Ensure Stable Internet: Use a wired connection, fix problems that cause connection dropouts.
- Do Not Dodge Games: When entering a match (intentionally leave the match before it starts) and queue dodging (Opting out from playing a competitive game).
- Avoid Toxic Behavior: Do not use toxic language, throw games, abandon teams, or abandon the game.
- Use Correct and Updated Valorant System Settings: Incorrect settings in the game, caused intentionally or accidentally, can lead to a ban.
- Ensure a Good Computer Environment: Close unnecessary applications. Use sufficient cooling to prevent your computer from overheating. Wherever you are, play comfortably. Unfavorable playing conditions can lead to personal errors that may result in a ban.
Play Fair and Follow the Rules
Only players that abide by the rules and play fairly can have a chance of being un-suspended in Valorant. If players want to appeal being banned in Valorant, they need to make sure that they are no-long aggerating/racism behavior, cheating any time with any one. This ensures that Riot’s Vanguard system is not set off when doing so. Always adhere to Riot’s Terms of Service and end user license agreement to ensure they can see that you are obeying their rules to the fullest.
Communicate Respectfully with Other Players
If the Valorant ban appeal is due to bad behavior and your intent is to become eligible for appealing the ban earlier, maintain the positive behavior. While in a Valle game with strangers, communicate nicely and be accommodating. Try to introduce interesting conversation topics or suggest things to teammates that encourage easy collaboration on the object of the game.
Report Bugs Instead of Exploiting Them
When users discover a bug in the game, they should not exploit it. If the bug is exploited, the player is considered to have an unfair advantage and gets banned in the same way as if they were cheating. You can report bugs by heading to the Riot Games website and using the Report a Bug feature. Here you can input the severity of the bug, from a visual only bug up to a potentially high severity Small Moments bug that causes your game to crash.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Appeal for Unban in Valorant?
If you have been banned from Valorant and want to appeal for an unban, follow these steps:
What information do I need to include in my appeal?
When appealing for an unban in Valorant, make sure to provide your in-game username, the reason for your ban, and any evidence or explanations that may help your case.
How do I submit my appeal?
You can submit your appeal by contacting Riot Games support through their website or by submitting a ticket in-game. Make sure to provide all necessary information and details in your appeal.
What can I do to increase my chances of being unbanned?
It is important to be honest, polite, and provide any evidence or explanations that may support your case. Admitting to any wrongdoing and showing remorse can also help your appeal.
How long does the appeal process usually take?
The length of the appeal process can vary, but it typically takes a few days to a week. Be patient and make sure to check your email for updates from Riot Games support.
What happens if my appeal is denied?
If your appeal is denied, you will not be able to play Valorant on that account. You can try appealing again in the future, but it is important to follow the game’s rules and guidelines to avoid being banned again.
