Learn How to Block Someone in Valorant – Step-by-Step Guide

Are you a Valorant player looking to maintain a positive gaming experience? Blocking someone in Valorant can be a useful tool to combat toxic behavior, harassment, or cheating within the game. We will explore what it means to block someone in Valorant, how to do it both in-game and through the Riot Games website, and what happens when you block someone. Reasons why you might want to block someone, how to potentially unblock them, and alternative options such as muting and reporting will also be discussed. Stay tuned to learn more about managing your gaming interactions in Valorant.

What Is Valorant?

Valorant is a 5v5 PvP tactical shooter from the game development division of the Chinese technology company Riot Games. Although it has elements similar to CS:GO and Overwatch, the gameplay was designed from the ground up with unique features as well. The hypothesized backstory provided for Valorant is that there was a mysterious event called Radianite which occurred on Earth causing humans and other sentient beings to develop magical powers. Years later, an organization called VALORANT that is dedicated to opposing the theories at the organization called Radiant has emerged. In-game, this is represented in matches visually and narratively by a mixture of sci-fi environments and magical powers. Riot’s head of shooting games, J. Nicolas Lee, who is dubbed as the game’s director aka dotesports. Lee commented on Valorant that it has the core mechanics and design featuring from the previous project, and it also has a deep and rich lore environment with spells and items and elites but the speeds of the game are still tactical shooter speeds and not the much speedier League of Legends. Introduced in June of 2020, the competitive, free-to-play game received three million daily active players during its beta period and became fully available on June 2 of the same year. Players choose from a rotating roster of agents with highly varied and unique abilities and engage in a series of rounds on a variety of maps in a plant-the-spike/defend-the-bombs location context. It is available on PC only.

What Does It Mean to Block Someone in Valorant?

List of what it means to block someone in Valorant:

• Prefer not to be placed on the same team
• Block communication and chat
• Block User’s access to view your Profile
• Prefer not to see what the User types in chat

Blocking is the impossibility of further contact and it is the action of choosing to prevent Users/searchers from interacting with you on certain platforms or in certain ways. In the context of Riot’s games such as Valorant, there are often shadowbans or mute options available which are not the same as blocking. According to Riot there ‘ur mute’ and ‘ur ban’, actions are not the same as blocking. The most common meaning of blocking in Valorant is to ping out someone you dislike. Yet for the time being there is no official blocking feature in Valorant. Players alternatively opt to turn their chat off or use the mute command. Mute and ignore actions have different meanings and different consequences. A mute option in Valorant’s chat or any other game prevents you from hearing the negative things another player is saying but does not stop them from speaking or lying. Blocking is a tool that would not only prevent you from seeing their chat but prevent them from speaking to you. At present, blocking in Valorant is perhaps best defined as limiting. You must be tagged in posts in which you have a strong opinion on so that you can be heard and understood as such in the chat or a pinned chat.You must be tagged in posts in which you have a strong opinion on so that you can be heard and understood as such in the chat or a pinned chat. Shortly thereafter, the official Valorant website was reached out to again for updated information.]

How to Block Someone in Valorant?

You cannot block someone in Valorant because the game does not offer such a feature. The only main techniques to prevent someone from interacting with you within the game’s communication system either via text or voice are mingling communications in the game menu so that the abusive person doesn’t know which one is you or disabling it altogether. Riot Games neither endorses nor supports blocking someone in an actual game but suggest reaching out to a player’s Support or Player Behavior team, through which this issue can be raised.

In-game Blocking

In-game blocking is the strategic and manual process to reduce negative interactions with individuals in Valorant’s UI, chat, or mics, but does not eliminate contact altogether. Users can toggle those features that are distracting or harmful between Show and Mute. Users can also report those who are trolling under Penalties in chatblock options, or toggle agent voices on and off using the Character’s Voice option under the General settings in the Audio tab. Blocking in-game can help registered players control their anonymity by letting them decide who can talk, communicate, and emote in their game space.

Blocking Through the Riot Games Website

here is currently no way to block a player in Valorant on the official Riot Games website. The website has a support section with articles outdated from 2020 and thus it is unclear if they have a more recent guide. According to their older article, simply viewing a player’s profile (by hovering over their username in either the post-game lobby or the Friends List, and right-clicking), having them in you Friends List, or finding them via the search players functionality in the lobby you can block players whenever they make themselves known to you. Simply click their username in any of the aforementioned situations, bring up the options menu with a right-click, and click the block option. They will then be ignored and you will never again hear from see them in VALORANT [sic]. There is no sort of registry or account based list of blocked players. Simply the option to mute from the moment you want to, until the end of time, or until you specifically unblock them. Until they unblock you, they will not hear you nor see your messages should you play with them again.

What Happens When You Block Someone in Valorant?

When you block someone in Valorant, you will not see any more messages from them in-game. They will also not see any of your messages in Voice or Text chat. This comes in handy if you find yourself not enjoying the conversation or if a more negative tone arises. A blocked user, however, can still see your location pings in Voice Comms. The player is notified when they receive a block, but Riot Games has not stated whether or not player ratings of other players or accounts play a factor in having these blocks reversed.

They Cannot Join Your Party

The party invites users receiving messages from blocked individuals. Recalls Riot’s Healthygamer interview saying that this is undesirable behavior being adjusted. As of the time of writing for this document, the parties and invitations feature does allow you to both block and unblock other users. Riot employees are adding features which could alter this temporarily or for some party functions. This docs section will be updated live to reflect the specifics when they change.

You Cannot Join Their Party

Ahmad’s email implies that if you block him, he could prevent you from joining his team’s party, so the case of whether blocking prevents party join is most likely tied to whether blocking prevents playing on the same team in an LFG (looking for group) scenario. Based on the research carried out by Ahmad and Ryan, the best answer we have as to whether you can join the party of someone you have blocked in Valorant is currently uncertain. Looking at the way other systems are set up suggests it’s unlikely the party play of those you have blocked is limited. Not being able to join the party of blocked players in Valorant does seem illogical though, as it almost entirely limits the ability to play games with or against your friends in a matchmaking system that only pit players against each other, hence our uncertainty. The Valorant Ignorant duck twitter bot says it still has to test this functionality, which could change the answer, but until it or Riot confirms otherwise, the likely answer to whether you can join the party of someone you have blocked in Valorant is Yes.

You Cannot Send Each Other Messages

Another consideration is that you cannot send messages directly through Valorant. This makes blocking and unblocking in Valorant somewhat easier, as Riot Games does not have to add extra features onto the blocking process. If you are unblocking someone because you would like to speak with them, you can look for them in whatever third part communication software you both use. Error messages like the above image indicate that the messaging system is down, but unlike the friend’s list, the messaging system is seldom down. This is because Valorant knows it can depend on external messaging systems, and the primary purpose of blocking messages is to theoretically allow blocking players to never communicate. As with the friend’s lists, declining a friend request indicates to the blocked friend that they are still blocked. If you accept a friend request, it is indicated that they can send messages in game. For instance, if I tried to re-add a player I had blocked, I get the answer that they have sent a friend request on my behalf already active and I can accept the friend request.

Why Would You Want to Block Someone in Valorant?

You might want to block someone in Valorant if a toxic player is bothering you in chat or over voice comms through harassment or offensive language. In such cases, harassment may have serious negative consequences for your enjoyment of the game or mental health more generally. Riot Games has put extensive systems into place to help eliminate toxicity in its games, and you should make use of these systems in order to have the best gaming experience possible.

Toxic Behavior

The prime use case for blocking someone in Valorant is toxic behavior. If the opponent or teammate is being overly hostile or simply gets under your skin, blocking may be the best course of action. When blocking an individual in Valorant, you won’t be automatically matchmade with them, and their profile will show up with a note that you have blocked them.

Harassment

From the RIOT official terms of service, the definition of Harassment is clear – harassment is any communication or activity that intentionally degrades the gaming experience, character, or reputation of a user, including such behaviors as those that are defined as real-world harassment. If you feel that the communications or behavior of another player constitute harassment, it is recommended to Mute their chat and/or non-verbal calls as well as block them. Blocking is a more severe tool that stops any interaction between both parties and is typically used when muting is not sufficient to handle the situation at the user’s discretion. Real-world harassment is taken very seriously by RIOT and appropriate action will be taken when reported.

Cheating

Digressively, another reason you may attempt to block someone in VALORANT is because you suspect they are cheating. When discussing cheating in electronic sports, the term cheater refers to a false competitor who utilizes unfair methods to gain an edge against a rival. Cheaters are penalized in VALORANT for various activities, including aimbots, wallhacks, and the abuse of a radar. According to the Riot Games Anticheating and Security Techland blog, developers have stated that 0.22% of all actives accounts are still cheating at the end of Episode I – Ignition. As a result, their server intends to identify and kick them immediately following beginning a new match. If you suspect someone of cheating in the game, you should first report them using ALT + F4. This will record the match and can be sent to Riot Games. Additionally, muting or blocking the player will help keep your actions and tactics concealed from the suspected cheater.

Can You Unblock Someone in Valorant?

No, you cannot unblock someone in Valorant. The client allows players to block those they do not wish to interact with further which extends beyond interacting in-game. Blocking in reverse, whereby once you block someone you decide they can be interacted with again, is not allowed by Riot Games. Every time you confirm a player required blocking, Riot Games records the decision and enforces the block on all chosen interactions between you and the player involved. This decision and enforcement processes were implemented as part of research by Riot Games into the effectiveness of the behavior management system Valorant uses. Riot Games noted that users most often regretted unblocking players rather than blocking them. The most important visible difference between blocking and unblocking is that the effect of blocking is immediately enforced while unblocking does not enable any new actions. Therefore, for the moment, there is no unblock feature available in Valorant.

What Are Some Alternatives to Blocking Someone in Valorant?

Some alternatives to blocking someone in Valorant include muting them. If a player is just being annoying rather than harassing, muting is a simple solution to avoid dealing with them. If you are feeling particularly bad or angry in-game, try speaking to them negatively and then muting them, as per the recommended way to contact Player Support. Contacting a player through in-game messaging. If you are not feeling threatened by the player, try reaching out to them on the messaging system in-game and asking them to stop harassing you.

Muting

Muting in Valorant is the best acknowledgement that the player is toxic and should not be listened to anymore. Players may not realize that muting all audio and chat functions from a particular player does not change voice chat control entirely before going through with a block altogether. Muting a specific VOIP channel via the in-game voice widget or bypassing the automatic system to do the same with all teammates could provide a final opportunity for that match to be enjoyable. To mute a specific person in Valorant, hit Tab to open the Score screen, then click the small speaker icon next to their name. This is for voice chat, while muting text chat is done via the appropriate text option. The only reason you should block someone without muting them in-game first is if that person is a threat to the continued fun or emotional health of the game.

Reporting

Delete and block do not call lists for e-mails, phone calls, and texts in the US at least. Reporting inappropriate but not illegal behavior would be classified as the final step in how to block someone, but there is not actually a proper mechanism within Valorant. Players on the Riot Games server are currently unable to report toxic behavior and inappropriate interaction unless it relates to hacking tactics or cheating. On Valorant’s servers, there is an automated system against cheating, so it does not rely on stacking up player reports. The game itself has automated criteria to determine cheating.

Avoiding the Player

The final thing you can do as a non-aggressive block in Valorant is to simply avoid the player. Since blocking them does not prevent much besides blocking their messaging, this will at least prevent any more abusive behaviors directly against you. The person you are trying in some way to discipline is effectively getting a hollow victory, and you are letting them win, but it is a better fix than not having one at all. The scale of the map in Valorant means avoiding someone to a great degree is not as simple as just avoiding them at all times. Particularly if the opposing team member is highly skilled – you cannot just avoid them without giving up map control or crucial objectives. Use this method but remember to also focus on the game and not forget to play and work together as a team despite having a less-than-ideal player in your midst.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How to Block Someone in Valorant?

To block someone in Valorant, go to your Friends list and click on the person you want to block. Then, click on the “Block” button and confirm your action. This will prevent them from being able to contact you or join your games.

2. Can I block someone in Valorant during a game?

Yes, you can block someone in Valorant even while you are in the middle of a game. Simply press the “Esc” key to bring up the menu, go to your Friends list, and follow the same steps as mentioned in the first question.

3. What happens when I block someone in Valorant?

When you block someone in Valorant, they will no longer be able to send you messages, join your games, or add you as a friend. They will also be removed from your Friends list.

4. How do I know if someone has blocked me in Valorant?

If you try to send a message or join a game with someone who has blocked you in Valorant, you will receive a notification that you are unable to do so. Additionally, they will no longer appear in your Friends list.

5. Can I unblock someone in Valorant?

Yes, you can unblock someone in Valorant at any time. Simply go to your Blocked list and select the person you want to unblock. Then, click on the “Unblock” button and confirm your action.

6. Is there a limit to how many people I can block in Valorant?

There is no set limit to how many people you can block in Valorant. However, it is important to note that blocking too many players may negatively impact your matchmaking experience. Use the block feature responsibly and only block those who you feel are violating the game’s code of conduct.