Known Lag Problems
These problems are reported by real players. If your region or ISP is listed, a network optimizer is likely to help.
India
15-50ms Mumbai (good ISP), 60-120ms (routing issues)- Players report sudden ping spikes from 30-35ms to 100ms+ on Mumbai server
- Riot staff have acknowledged ISP routing issues and contacted ISPs like Netplus for fixes
- BSNL and some Airtel Broadband users report inconsistent routing to Mumbai servers
- Players in northeastern India route through congested paths, often 80-120ms to Mumbai
Southeast Asia (Philippines, Indonesia)
30-80ms Singapore (good ISP), 80-150ms (PLDT/poor routing)- Philippine ISPs (PLDT, Converge) route through congested paths to Singapore servers
- Indonesian players outside Java experience 60-100ms to Singapore due to inter-island routing
- Hong Kong server helps some SEA players but is further from southern SEA countries
- Evening peak hours cause significant jitter spikes in the region
Latin America (non-Brazil, non-Chile)
50-120ms- No dedicated servers in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, or Ecuador
- Players route to Miami, Mexico City, or Sao Paulo depending on ISP
- Venezuelan players face especially poor routing due to infrastructure limitations
- Colombian players often get better ping to Miami than to Sao Paulo despite geographic proximity
Oceania
10-30ms Sydney (AU), 30-60ms (NZ)- Smaller player population leads to longer queue times, especially at high ranks
- New Zealand players connect to Sydney server at 30-60ms
- Off-peak hours may force matches on SEA servers at 100-200ms
What players commonly report
- Peeker's advantage feels unfair against high-ping players
- Ping spikes during evening peak hours
- Mumbai server routing issues from certain Indian ISPs
- SEA players experiencing high ping to Singapore from Philippines/Indonesia
- Ghost shots — shots that appear to hit but don't register due to desync
- Cannot manually change region without contacting Riot support
How to Fix It
Try these first — they're free and solve the problem for most people.
01 Check server ping in the server select menu
1. On the Play screen, look for the server/region indicator above the Start button 2. Click it to see ping to each available server in your region 3. Select the server with the smallest ping value 4. If all servers show high ping, the issue is your ISP path or your distance to Riot Direct PoPs, not the server
Ensures you are playing on the closest server. Often improves ping by 10-30ms when matchmaking was placing you on a suboptimal server.
02 Switch to Ethernet and disable WiFi
1. Connect your PC to the router with an Ethernet cable 2. In Windows Settings > Network & Internet, disable your WiFi adapter 3. Launch Valorant and check ping in the server select screen 4. Compare with your previous WiFi ping
WiFi adds 2-10ms of latency and introduces jitter from interference. In Valorant, where one server tick is 7.8ms, WiFi overhead equals one or more ticks of delay. This is the single most impactful free fix for WiFi users.
General network tips (not Valorant-specific)
03 Enable the network stats overlay to diagnose your connection
1. Open Valorant Settings (Esc > Settings) 2. Go to Video > Stats 3. Enable 'Network Round Trip Time' — set to 'Both' (text + graph) 4. Enable 'Packet Loss' and 'Network RTT Jitter' 5. Play a match and watch the overlay — ping spikes and packet loss will show clearly 6. If ping spikes but FPS is stable, it's a network issue. If FPS drops but ping is fine, it's hardware.
Does not fix anything, but identifies whether your problem is network or hardware. Essential first step before any other fix.
04 Forward UDP ports 7000-7500 on your router
1. Find your PC's local IP (open CMD, type: ipconfig, look for IPv4 Address) 2. Open your router's admin panel (usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1) 3. Navigate to Port Forwarding settings 4. Add a rule: UDP, ports 7000-7500, forward to your PC's IP 5. Save and restart your router
Prevents your router's firewall from inspecting and delaying game packets. Fixes packet loss caused by strict NAT. Most impactful on older or ISP-provided routers with aggressive firewalls.
05 Flush DNS and reset network stack
1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator 2. Run: ipconfig /flushdns 3. Run: netsh winsock reset 4. Run: netsh int ip reset 5. Restart your PC 6. Launch Valorant and check if ping has improved
Clears stale DNS cache and resets corrupted network state. Quick fix when ping suddenly increases for no apparent reason.
06 Set QoS priority for Valorant traffic
In router admin panel, enable QoS and prioritize UDP traffic on ports 7000-7500. Alternatively, prioritize VALORANT-Win64-Shipping.exe if your router supports application-based QoS.
Ensures game packets are processed first even when other devices are streaming or downloading.
Regions with good connectivity
Players in these regions likely won't benefit much from a network optimizer.
- North America (major cities) — Six server locations across US provide excellent coverage. Riot Direct has strong peering with US ISPs. Most players in major cities get 10-35ms. PingAim benefit is lower here unless ISP has specific peering issues.
- Western Europe — London, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm servers with Riot Direct PoPs provide 10-30ms for most Western European players. Strong ISP peering infrastructure.
- Korea — Seoul server with Korea's excellent internet infrastructure. Most players get <10ms. Minimal PingAim benefit.
- Japan — Tokyo server with Japan's high-quality internet backbone. Typical ping 5-20ms.
Still lagging? The problem is likely your ISP's routing to the game servers.
PingAim detects Valorant automatically
No manual config. PingAim identifies Valorant by process name and routes it through your fastest connection using a kernel-level WFP driver.