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VALORANT disables Waylay in all queues — a Refract visual bug threatens "competitive integrity"

July 31, 2026 publishedVALOPEDIA編集部

This article was machine translated from the Japanese original. Quotes were translated too, so they are not the speaker's exact words. Where anything reads oddly, the Japanese version is authoritative. Read the Japanese original →

On 31 July, Riot Games temporarily disabled the duelist Waylay across all VALORANT queues. A bug was confirmed in which visual information that should not be visible appears after using her signature ability Refract; citing the impact on competitive integrity, she has been removed from every mode with no return date announced.

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What was happening with Refract

At the centre of the problem is Waylay's signature ability,Refract.

The ability places a beacon of light on the floor and, when reactivated, turns the user into pure light particles that return instantly to that spot — effectively an escape and repositioning tool. It also grants invulnerability while active, making it very strong. With this bug, however, after that returnpositional and visual information that should not be visible appeared on screen.

Riot judged this to "grant an unfair informational advantage". Deciding that fairness could not be guaranteed in casual play either, not just the competitive scene, they disabled her in all queues.

Patch 13.02 had already fixed a separate bug that let Waylay get inside a wall on Icebox, but this visual bug is a different issue, newly reported after that patch went live.

Precedents for emergency agent disables in VALORANT

Disabling an individual agent is a measure Riot have used consistently in the name of competitive integrity.

The most recent case was at the end of May 2026, whenCypherwas disabled. A serious exploit had been found that let a dropped weapon be attached to a spycam and fired remotely; Cypher has been temporarily disabled several times before for similar problems. EvenClove, released only in March 2024, was pulled from a VCT international event right after launch over a smoke ability sync bug.

Omen, Neon, Deadlock, Tejo and Reyna have all been disabled promptly as well whenever map exploits, unintended vision through geometry or server crashes were confirmed. This "when in doubt, disable" stance functions as a kind of safety net for protecting competitive quality.

Where things stand and what comes next

Riot say they will announce Waylay's return on the official VALORANT social media channels once the fix is complete. No date for a fix patch has been given, so players are waiting on official word.

An agent disable in the middle of a decisive stretch of the VCT 2026 season also raises questions for the pro scene. How high Waylay's pick and ban rates were across the regional leagues and Play-Ins will make teams' drafting patterns after her return worth watching.