Mastering Valorant: How to Properly Leave a Match in the Game

Curious about Valorant and how matches work in this popular tactical shooter game? Wondering why someone might want to leave a match and how to do so without causing issues for their team?

We will explore the ins and outs of leaving a match in Valorant, including the reasons behind it, the methods to exit a game, and the consequences of doing so.

Whether you’re a seasoned player or just getting started, read on to learn more about handling this aspect of gameplay effectively.

What is Valorant?

Valorant is a free-to-play, 5v5^5^ tactical first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends. The game was formally announced on March 1, 2020 and was first released on a limited basis on April 7, 2020 in North America, Europe, Turkey, and the Commonwealth of Independent States followed by a wider release including South Korea, Japan, and Brazil on June 2, 2020. The game was designed to be both competitive and easy to pick up with the ambitions by Riot to eventually establish it as one of the major competitive gaming eSports.

Valorant is unique in that each of the interesting, varied and cartoon-like characters has different abilities, making team composition important. The game is most similar to Overwatch and >b>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Like CS:GO, players have money to spend on weapons every round and need to plant and defend the plant of a bomb. For players unfamiliar with Ubisoft‘s first-person shooter game, tactical play is less supportive and more about outflanking the enemy. There are four territories to play in with environments such as urban raids, ancient ruins, and neon cities. The game has been designed to not put unskilled players at a major disadvantage, with more overpowered weapons still requiring skill to use effectively.

What is a Match in Valorant?

A match in Valorant is a full competitive or unrated game consisting of 24 rounds. The match point is the point where one team must win a round to come out on top as the best during the match, which is not necessarily round number 12. At 12-0, the zeroed team can make it look like a draw without an attempted pull-through and the win is in their hands. The match point determines which team wins with the final score being – . If a match goes to a full 24 rounds, the winning score will be 13 as they are the team that reached match point, while the losing score will be 11.

Each official match in Valorant is made up of one round of attack per player. The game round switch then occurs where each team swaps from attacker to defender and helps determine a winner. The player who reaches match point gets to decide their strategy for the battle round. The maximum point one can earn as the winning team in a match in Valorant is 13. So Hippos and Hot Turtles play a tie match then it means both the teams have played 24 rounds in a best-of-1 format.

Why Would Someone Want to Leave a Match in Valorant?

There are several reasons why someone would want to leave a match in Valorant:

1. Lag and poor game performance
2. Player harassment or disruption
3. AFK detection by Valorant
4. Emergencies in real life
5. General frustration and anger, either from personal gameplay or comments by other players

Lagging and poor game performance are legitimate reasons to exit Valorant matches and can be improved by lowering your graphical settings or background file downloads. Although it is quite likely that at least some, if not all, of the other players are experiencing the same performance issues.

Technical Issues

The most common technical issues that players face when they want to leave a match in Valorant is an Internet disconnect. If you lose your internet connection while in a match, you will automatically receive a match abend error on the screen telling you that your client failed to update to the same version as the server. This error is a polite way of saying “you have lost your internet connection, good-bye!”.

Personal Reasons

You may want to know how to leave Valorant match without penalty. It is possible that you have personal reasons and feel under personal stress. This article from Apartmenttherapy.com defines personal wellness as maintaining good emotional, physical, and spiritual health. It is important to keep good wellness and if anything threatens to compromise that, consider taking a break or leaving the game.

Rhe article discusses the many personal reasons that might necessitate leaving a Valorant game. These include feeling overly anxious, tired, angry, or personally hurt in some way. It is beneficial for your personal wellbeing to minimize exposure to external stressors that worsen your mental health, if you play Valorant to relax and you notice you’re getting too angry or anxious from it, then leaving the game is preferable.

There are many personal reasons one could have, maybe someone is trying to study and wants a break from Valorant but doesn’t want to dedicate a long time to a game all the way till the end to not ruin it for their teammates. When necessary, despite the potential penalties, it is important to be aware that there are appropriate ways to leave the match without causing harm to your team members.

Team Disagreements

Team disagreements is the last reason for leaving the match voluntarily. Getting into a heated argument with a teammate that will create a toxic environment in the game is not optimal for them or you. To avoid this sort of scenario, it is best to just leave a conversation if it becomes toxic.

If the discussion is likely to damage the gameplay experience of others, disconnecting is important. This could occur if two players begin arguing and it results in them not playing the game at all, since they are spending more time arguing with each other than gaming. Disengaging from these scenarios and disconnecting from the match is the easiest and most efficient way to relieve the situation for everyone involved.

Do not entertain them with your attention before disconnecting by responding to any rants or hate speech. Record the incident if the argument is severe enough to necessitate bringing it to the attention of Riot Games, as much of the offensive speech in these instances is temporary and difficult to prove without a recording. Simply report the players if they were the instigators. Alternately, if you were, leave the lobby and take some time to cool off. If the situation was severe, contact Riot with any means of demonstrating your claim.

How to Leave a Match in Valorant?

To leave a match in Valorant, follow these steps:

1. Open up the in-game Escape menu by pressing the ESC key.
2. Click the option to Return to Lobby.
3. A prompt will appear asking you to confirm that you really want to leave. Click YES.

You will be taken back to the menu page immediately. This will not cause any penalties.A polite option for leaving matches is to inform your teammates. To do this in Valorant, type in game chat =gg for I’m going to go now, or for example =sry, have to go to say sorry but you have to go, then quit the game for a penalty.

Why can’t I leave a match in Valorant? If the in-game leave option is greyed out, this is an indication that the match has already begun or ended. If it has started, the game locks the capabilities to prevent frequent quitters and people who leave before the match even starts, and if it has ended, the options to queue for another match or accept a match ban do not make sense.

In casual and ranked matches where you’re just there to have fun, you can safely and without penalty leave the match after clicking to return to the lobby. Before the match starts, it is better to quit the game instead of leaving the match as it will result in harsher penalties. If the match has ended, such as in the match results screen, you can either queue for another game or accept the ban and then slightly adjust to remain competitive.

Using the In-Game Menu

1. Using the in-game menu: Open fullscreen map. Left-click/navigate to the “tournaments” section. Click on the “forfeit and leave match” button. Click the “forfeit and leave match” radio button in the dialog that appears. Click the “forfeit and leave match” button.

When the option appears, click the “search for a new game” button or let the game search for you. After the match concludes, the match overview screen will show how many players stayed and what the final outcome of the match was.

Using the Console Command

To leave Match in Valorant using the Console Command, simply press Ctrl + Shift + I to open the Developer Tools and run the following command in the Console tab.

• `riot:`disconnectAndQuitMatch`

This method is not recommended as it frequently disconnects players without actually removing them from the match, leading to bans or increased leaver punishments. Players are better served by using this method to re-enter a game after disconnecting without receiving a penalty.

Closing the Game

If you cannot leave Valorant lobby in an expected way, the final resort for leaving the match is to close the game immediately. This immediately removes you from exchange and decision-making processes and ensures you do not return to the match or receive penalties for leaving. This is often the best course of action in emergency situations when lagging out, and your priority is to not return to the match.

Closing Valorant is easy and treated the same as quitting. First make sure you are actually out of the match by closing the task manager in the background. You can close task manager on Windows by hitting CTRL + ALT + Delete on the keyboard.

This launches to the Task Manager where you can see which programs are running and select the Valorant program and then click End task. Alternately, close every tab with by clicking the X in the interface corner. Closing applications on a Mac involve pressing Option-Command-Esc and then locating the application and clicking Force Quit. In either environment, you can close applications by right-clicking the program icon in the toolbar and clicking on Exit.

Once you have closed the task, restart Valorant and attempt to log in. You will likely see that you were removed from the match due to inactivity and now have the option to play another match without the penalty you received for leaving earlier.

What Happens when Someone Leaves a Match in Valorant?

When someone leaves a match in Valorant, the match proceeds as originally intended. That is, a player’s departure does not result in the cancelation of the match for others. The player who leaves will receive a message asking if they would like to rejoin the match. If they do not rejoin the match they left before it completes, they will receive a cooldown from queuing.

The cooldown length will grow longer with each subsequent match abandonment. The players on the team of the player who left will not be penalized if the match continues normally despite the loss of one of their teammates. If the absence of the leaver causes one team to lose by default, the players who were on the team of the leaver will receive greater penalties.

Around 10 to 15 minutes after a player abandoned a match before it was complete, the remaining players can surrender the match by using the toggle found at the top of the interface of the scoreboard. Select ‘Yes’ to vote for surrender. A unanimous vote is needed to follow through, or the surrender will not be successful and players must remain in the match until it ends.

Penalties for Leaving

There are penalties for leaving a match in Valorant. When you leave a match, you lose ranked points. When you are the match leader and leave a match or if all other members of your square leave, there is an additional penalty, which includes a one to three-rank drop. AFK or leaving a game creates a bad experience for those who remain in the match and it is unfair on them so it is recommended to avoid this behavior as penalties are in place for constant leavers.

Impact on Teammates

Leaving match in Valorant affects your teammates’ Rank Rating. The player who leaves faces penalty points and loss of ranked progress. However, at the time of leaving the system gives an initial 10-minute window for the player to rejoin without any penalty. It applies as long as they do not leave before the halfway point of the game. To regain your Radiant status, winners have to play perfectly in 10 consecutive matches to regain Radiant and effectively start cheesing the system. Thereafter they can safely surrender whenever they want without automatically losing the Radiant.

How to Avoid Leaving a Match in Valorant?

• Do not play when your internet connection is weak and likely to disconnect.
• Do not play when you are in a situation when you are likely to be interrupted. These include when you are with friends, at work, driving, are sick, or almost anything else.
• Use a larger screen that is higher resolution and offers a wider field of view. This minimizes the movements between the screen and the real world. You will be tempted and able to watch the play and the real world with the help of your peripheral vision while playing.
• Play versus bots. Except for competitive play-mode, other play-modes do not have leaving penalties. So play a less serious mode if you think there is a high probability you may need to leave.

Overall, minimize outside distractions and minimize potential leaving penalties. To avoid leaving a match in Valorant there are some simple steps you can take.

Fix Technical Issues Beforehand

Fix technical issues regarding the PatchManifestError before leaving a VALORANT match. The Patch Manifest Error is a good indicator that the game is encountering some technical difficulties, and sometimes this can be the fault of the player rather than Riot’s software. Sometimes your ISP may be the cause of the issue so try rebooting your router if you have tried all the above and it is still not fixed.

Steps to try and fix technical issues causing the Patch Manifest Error including reinstalling the game and UAC inclusion. Try these to solve technical issues to fix this error.

Reinstalling everything

• Turn off your computer.
• Delete any VALORANT shortcuts you have.
• Delete the Riot Client and VALORANT game via the “Add or Remove Programs” menu in the Windows settings.
• Download and install a fresh set of Riot’s Client and VALORANT’s files.

White-list Riot’s games in your firewall settings.

• Press the Windows + R keys together.
• A new window will open up on the lower left of your screen.
• Search for Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security and press Enter.
• In the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security section, go to Inbound rules.
• Search for VALORANT rules.
• If you don’t have any VALORANT rules, click on New Rule on the right panel.
• Select Program and click on the Next button.
• Follow the protocol settings and put exceptions for all and press Next.
• Select Allow the connection and press Next.
• Select the profiles you want and press Next.
• You will have to name the rule with something you remember and then choose a description, you can add a comment if you like or press Next.
• Review and confirm your settings and click on Finish.

Restart your computer.

The benefits of following the above troubleshooting steps will range from helping with the graphic and performance problems of the game, improving the frame rates of the game, and resolving other potential technical issues.

Communicate with Teammates

Leaving Valorant can be a major problem, but by communicating with teammates before leaving a match, players reduce the penalty. Players who are considering leaving Valorant should communicate with their teammates. there is nothing to lose by communicating and you might just find a sympathetic friend or two.

Commenters on Reddit who are confused about the 3-loot-chat signature requirement have put forward an alternative possibility. Some suggest that players need to communicate actively instead of typing. User justplainjoe wrote, The exact method is not known, but the consensus with the most empirical backing is that typing doesn’t work but actually speaking does. There isn’t sufficient evidence to say it isn’t a myth.

So if you have a mic, use it when informing your teammates that you plan on leaving the game. If you already know or discover that everyone else on your team is unable to effectively communicate and so can you, it is less damaging to leave. Just be sure to invite your teammates to a group chat on a preferred social media platform (Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter) in case they want to stay connected with you.

Valve and Riot have tracked communication in this manner, so it seems to be more important to them. Hiko believes that it may cause the system error that forces the two additional days of the penalty because it registers as inactivity. Note that your team will get their loot drops only if there are at least 3 players on each team during the match.

Take Breaks if Needed

If the day is especially bad or there is no immediate requirement that mandates being online in Valorant, simply logging off and doing something else for the day might be beneficial. Depending on the severity of the issue, taking a 10-minute break can help reset you and give you a clean mental restart. If this does not help and your performance is worsening or the day progressively goes on, evaluate how long you have been losing for.

If you have been losing multiple games across different days, the issue might be bigger than just a temporary bad day. Taking a longer break spanning from a full day to up to a week might be beneficial. This allows your brain a chance to rest from the current skill level context and recover. Once you return, you can remember the enjoyment of the game when you were at your best and seek to replicate it.

When is it Okay to Leave a Match in Valorant?

It is okay to leave a match in Valorant if there is an emergency situation or if the team is unreachable for an extended period of time and there is no way for an individual to carry out the surrender vote alone. Leaving a match for any other reason is heavily discouraged as it disrupts the ranked competitive matchmaking ladder, results in steep rank point losses, and may lead to matchmaking bans.

Surrendering

Surrendering allows for players to leave a match if they do not want to finish it according to the rules. The game will end if surrendering is voted on by 6 out of the 10 players and it will end the match immediately. This is a non-abusive solution for when time is of the essence for a legitimate exit attempt. The game will automatically reach out to all players, request a vote, and the round ends after there is a decisive vote.

One method for surrendering is by pressing the ‘pause’ key. However, the game’s designers (Riot in this case) might have not programmed the game to literally give a defeat option in the game which may happen to be the case for Valorant. Elsewise, this should be solvable. It is quite a debate in the gaming community that players should have a method of not being forced to play a demoralizing match or to let their team down. In sports, leaving matches is as simple as leaving and facing a fine or a suspension. The business world conversely would have official resignation messages and procedures. By not allowing surrenders in-game, the gaming world has separated itself from both the business and sports world in an interesting way.

Emergency Situations

Emergency situations are circumstances in which something is seriously at risk that demands immediate action to minimize unfavorable outcomes. This includes instances where once a match ends you have to run to handle an emergency. A few examples of emergency situations could be the following:

1. Required medical care or evacuation at a medical center.
2. Emergency management for organ transplants.
3. Police or fire departments are required to be contacted.
4. Active abuse or imminent assault by loved ones requiring emergency action.

As in this instance, your Champion and teammates’ lives and his family or acquaintances and one’s own security and health can be priority. Though we were not able to interview Riot spokespeople directly about exiting a match during emergencies, previous responses suggest that they would have a similar approach to computer-caused emergencies. Be aware that even something as critical as an emergency situation will unfortunately affect your reputation with Valorant’s community members.

When the Team Agrees

When a team unanimity decision to leave the match early has been reached, leave the match. Opting to leave in this case is just as good as leaving because of a system fault. However, remember that abandon penalties are as severe for leaving with permission as leaving for any other reason. It is best to wait for remakes if you strongly dislike your team.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Leave Match in Valorant?

To leave a match in Valorant, you can follow these steps:

1. Press the “Escape” key on your keyboard to open the in-game menu.

2. Click on the “Options” tab on the menu.

3. Select the “Game” tab from the options menu.

4. Scroll down and click on the “Leave Match” button.

5. Confirm your decision to leave the match.

Can I leave a match in Valorant without penalty?

Yes, you can leave a match in Valorant without penalty as long as you do it before the match starts. If you leave during a match, you will receive a penalty which could result in a temporary ban from matchmaking.

What happens if I leave a ranked match in Valorant?

If you leave a ranked match in Valorant, you will receive a penalty and lose rank points. The severity of the penalty will increase if you repeatedly leave ranked matches.

Is it possible to rejoin a match in Valorant after leaving?

No, once you leave a match in Valorant, you cannot rejoin it. This is to prevent players from abusing the system and constantly leaving and rejoining matches.

Can I leave a match in Valorant if my team is winning?

Yes, you can still leave a match in Valorant even if your team is winning. However, it is not recommended as it could negatively impact the remaining players in the match.

Are there any consequences for leaving a casual match in Valorant?

No, there are no consequences for leaving a casual match in Valorant. You can leave without penalty at any time.