Valorant defends Rank Rating penalty for players who queue dodge

The latest edition of Ask Valorant tackles two interesting topics and gives players some insight into the plans and priorities of the Valorant team. The first question deals with the planned Rank Rating penalty for Valorant players who queue dodge. The second is about the incredibly poor hit detection of Valorant’s melee weapons.

The Ranked Rating penalty for queue dodgers is scheduled to arrive with Valorant patch 2.04 – along with a bunch of other penalties for bad behavior. In the initial post about the changes, Riot Games referred to the penalty for pre-game dodging as a small deduction to player Rank Rating. In the latest Ask Valorant post, the team clarified that the amount will be just three points.

The penalty is intended to deter players who regularly dodge. At just three points a pop, players who very rarely need to dodge a game will barely notice the change. However, if you dodge a few games per day, those three-point increments will add up. Riot also points out that its system has high forgiveness for infrequent offenders.

If you look at the numbers, more than 50% of Valorant queue dodges are performed by less than 2% of players. Riot also revealed that the vast majority of players very rarely queue dodge and probably never do. Therefore, the planned change should only impact the 2%. In fact, you’ll be less likely to encounter queue dodgers yourself.

Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight

Particularly if that knife is a Valorant knife. Since day one, players have noticed how awkward it is to hit an enemy with the in-game melee weapons. These issues were exacerbated with the knife round in the new Escalation game mode.

The Valorant team explains that the reason melee weapons are bad is because the hitbox is static, unintuitive, and only active for a very brief window. In short, melee weapons don’t do damage throughout an entire swing, which results in perceived hits not connecting.

Unfortunately, fixing the knife’s hitbox isn’t a priority for Riot right now. Other weapon issues are far more important, because they form a critical part of the gameplay. For now, you’re better off putting your knives, axes, and candy canes down.