It’s not always a fun experience to play with a popular streamer. Valorant players are furious at streamers for ruining their ranked games for Twitch impressions.
Valorant has a smurfing problem, and
Riot Games has been actively trying
to find ways to cut it out from the root. However, a new type of trol has hit the competitive queues, and players aren’t happy about it. Streamers are now farming viewers by throwing games, ruining the ranked experience of serious players.
Players have long been complaining about high-ranked players lurking in low ELO lobbies to boost their friends. Riot Games introduced five-stack queues in an effort to put an end to the smurfing problem. But streamers remain to be an issue. Some players are risking serious games to create content for their channel.
Valorant streamers are throwing ranked games
Ranking up in Valorant isn’t easy, as it’s a cut-throat shooter that requires precise gunplay and team coordination. Playing in a team that’s purposefully throwing makes it impossible to climb rank. This is precisely what’s been happening in higher MMR Valorant. Valorant player
Snagfat
highlighted the issue of Immortal level streamers creating content at the cost of crucial ranked games.
According to Snagfat, he played with a bunch of streamers who happened to be Immortals in his Silver lobby. They were clearly smurfing, but this wasn’t the main problem. The game took a turn for the worse when these streamers started throwing purposefully by revealing teammates’ positions.
Competitive Valorant requires sharp focus, which means less joking around and more work. Content creators are showing no respect for the ranked games. Not only are they throwing, but they’re doing it in low ELO lobbies. Snagfat says these smurfs don’t care about deranking as they’re getting content out of it. However, Silver players suffer significant losses as this ELO is already tough to escape.
Riot Games doesn’t currently have the policy to tackle this smurfing streamer issue, but it’s looking into Snagfat’s complaint. For now, players can only hope to not queue with streamers, at least in their rank-up games.
How to report someone in Valorant
To report a player in Valorant, press the Escape key during the game to open the menu. You’ll see a scoreboard of all players and a report option next to each name. Select the report next to a players’ name and pick a reason. You can also type out a message if your case is different.
Fariha Bhatti
About Fariha Bhatti
Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.
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