The block feature that was added with VALORANT patch 9.06 has been temporarily disabled after it was shown to reveal hidden names.
Many games and application these days allow you to hide your username from other players. This could be for simple privacy or to prevent stream sniping if you're a popular streamer. Well, Riot Games added a block feature to VALORANT, but it unintentionally made stream sniping easier.
The purpose of the block feature is so you can remove communication with other players. It doesn't avoid them during matchmaking, but it stops them from receiving message, friend requests, and hearing their voice chat.
Its a great tool to have to avoid harassment. Except when you have your Riot ID hidden while playing VALORANT, if someone blocks you, it shows you exactly who they are. That has led Riot Games to disable the feature until they can figure out a fix.
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VALORANT block feature shows ID after blocking someone with ID hidden
The ability to block a player from communicating with you in VALORANT came with patch 9.06. But as you'll see in the video below by Lothar, it has been found that this feature can actually help stream snipers.
Since it only removes communication availability and doesn't actually prevent you from playing a game with the blocked person, there isn't really anything you can. As they can see the ID of who they block even if it has been hidden in-game.
Say you block TenZ, but his in-game name is hidden and just shows the Agent he is playing. Well, the block feature in VALORANT allows you to see who is on your block list. And it would show that it is TenZ. From there, you could see if he is streaming and use his stream to snipe him.
Now, the feature is disabled per Riot Games. Of course, not everyone is out to stream snipe, but it has some streamers rattled. They're going to let us know when the feature is turned back on, so sit tight until then.
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