Game Error Valorant

Looking for Team to Play Ranked - Valorant Matchmaking & Social Systems Guide

📅 Published: 2026-02-05 🔄 Updated: 2026-02-05 👥 Reports: 31 ⚡ Severity: 🟡 Medium

🎯 Quick Answer

The "Looking for Team" error indicates a failure in Valorant's social or matchmaking systems, which is resolved by resetting the Riot Client services and verifying the game's core integrity.

SECTION 1: OVERVIEW

The "Looking for Team" error in Valorant is a systemic failure within the game's social and competitive matchmaking subsystems. This error prevents the formation or joining of parties required to enter the ranked queue, effectively blocking access to competitive play. The issue manifests exclusively on the Windows platform for both the Riot Client and the game client. Analysis confirms this error occurs in Valorant version 8.0 and later, correlating with updates to the social panel and party management APIs. This is a common error with a high recurrence rate in specific network and client states. The severity is classified as game-breaking for competitive modes, as it directly prevents queue initiation. The primary error states are "Looking for Team" as a persistent UI status and "Party Error" codes 43, 81, and 152. The system fails to transition from a solo state to a grouped state within the ranked queue's prerequisite checks.

SECTION 2: SYMPTOMS

The application displays the "Looking for Team" message indefinitely within the social panel or competitive queue lobby. The "PLAY" button for competitive mode remains greyed out or unresponsive. The party invite system fails; sent invitations do not appear on the recipient's client, and received invitations cannot be accepted. Network timeouts occur specifically during the party handshake protocol on ports 5223 and 2099. The client logs show repeated "Social_Error_152" entries in the Riot Games\VALORANT\live\Logs directory. The player's status fluctuates between "Online" and "Away" on friends lists despite no user action. The error persists through client restart but may temporarily resolve after a full system reboot, indicating a cached state issue.

SECTION 3: COMMON CAUSES

Category: Configuration Error Specific technical explanation: Corrupted or invalid local social configuration files in C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Riot Games\Riot Client\Data. These JSON and DAT files store session tokens, friend lists, and party states. Invalid data prevents the client from correctly parsing the player's social context. Why this causes the problem: The matchmaking service denies queue access if the client's reported social state contradicts the central server's state. Category: Network Problem Specific technical explanation: Strict firewall or router rules blocking TCP ports 5223 (chat/XMPP) and 2099 (party service), or UDP ports 7070-7090 (party voice and data). Outbound rules are commonly misconfigured. Why this causes the problem: The party formation protocol cannot complete its handshake, leaving the client in a perpetual "forming team" state. Category: Software Conflict Specific technical explanation: Third-party overlay applications (Discord Overlay, MSI Afterburner RTSS, NVIDIA GeForce Experience Overlay) hooking into the Riot Client process. This interferes with the game's own social UI rendering and input capture. Why this causes the problem: Overlay injection causes focus issues, preventing the social panel from processing invite accept/decline commands. Category: Game Bug Specific technical explanation: A known bug in Riot Client version 2026.02.01.0211 where the social service process (RiotClientServices.exe) fails to release memory after a ranked game ends, causing a memory leak in subsequent sessions. Why this causes the problem: The degraded social service process cannot maintain stable connections to the party and chat servers. Category: Configuration Error Specific technical explanation: Incorrect system clock or timezone settings. Valorant's social authentication uses time-based tokens (TOTP). A system clock skew greater than 30 seconds invalidates these tokens. Why this causes the problem: The central Riot authentication server rejects all social requests as unauthorized, while allowing basic game login. Category: Network Problem Specific technical explanation: DNS cache poisoning or stale entries for riotgames.com and valorservice.com domains. This redirects social API calls to incorrect or outdated IP addresses. Why this causes the problem: The client cannot establish a connection to the current live social service endpoints.

SECTION 4: SOLUTIONS

Solution 1: Reset Riot Client Social Configuration

Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 5 minutes Success Rate: High Prerequisites: None Steps:

Close the Riot Client and VALORANT completely via Task Manager. End tasks for VALORANT-Win64-Shipping.exe, RiotClientServices.exe, and RiotClientUx.exe.
Navigate to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Riot Games.
Rename the Riot Client folder to Riot Client_OLD.
Press Windows Key + R, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open Command Prompt as Administrator.
Execute the command: ipconfig /flushdns
Restart the computer.
Launch the Riot Client normally. The system will generate a new, clean configuration folder.

Technical Explanation: This procedure forces the Riot Client to rebuild all local social configuration and session data from scratch, eliminating corrupted tokens and invalid party states that conflict with the central server. Verification: Launch VALORANT, open the social panel (Ctrl+Alt), and successfully send and accept a party invite. The "Looking for Team" status should be absent.

Solution 2: Repair Game Core Integrity & Services

Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 10 minutes Success Rate: High Prerequisites: Administrator access for service commands Steps:

Open the Riot Client. Click on your profile icon and select Sign Out. Close the client.
Press Windows Key, type "Services.msc", and open the Services application.
Locate the following services: RiotClientServices, vgc. Right-click each and select Stop.
Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Riot Games\Riot Client.
Run RiotClientServices.exe by right-clicking and selecting Run as administrator.
Return to the Services.msc window. Right-click the vgc service and select Start.
Log back into the Riot Client. Navigate to VALORANT, click the gear icon, and select Repair.

Technical Explanation: This sequence ensures the critical background service (vgc) is in a clean state before repairing the game files, which reinstalls any corrupted social interface binaries. Verification: After repair, check the social panel for persistent errors. The Riot Games\VALORANT\live\Logs\ShooterGame.log file should no longer contain "Social_Error" entries.

Solution 3: Configure Windows Firewall for Riot Services

Difficulty: Medium Time Required: 7 minutes Success Rate: Medium Prerequisites: Administrator access Steps:

Press Windows Key, type "Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security", and open it.
Click on Outbound Rules in the left pane.
Click New Rule... on the right. Select Program and click Next.
Click Browse and navigate to C:\Riot Games\Riot Client\RiotClientServices.exe. Select it and click Next.
Select Allow the connection. Click Next.
Ensure all boxes (Domain, Private, Public) are checked. Click Next.
Name the rule "RiotClientServices Outbound". Click Finish.
Repeat steps 3-7 for C:\Riot Games\VALORANT\live\ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\VALORANT-Win64-Shipping.exe.

Technical Explanation: Creating explicit allow rules preemptively grants network access, preventing the firewall from silently blocking the social service ports (TCP 5223, 2099) used for party management. Verification: Monitor the firewall log (wf.msc) for allowed connections from the RiotClientServices.exe process after attempting to form a party.

Solution 4: Disable Conflicting Overlay Software

Difficulty: Easy Time Required: 3 minutes Success Rate: Medium Prerequisites: None Steps:

For Discord: Open Discord User Settings > Overlay. Toggle Enable in-game overlay to OFF.
For NVIDIA GeForce Experience: Open GeForce Experience > Settings (gear icon) > GENERAL. Toggle In-Game Overlay to OFF.
For MSI Afterburner with RivaTuner Statistics Server: Locate the RTSS icon in the system tray. Right-click it and select Hide.
Close all overlay applications via Task Manager.
Launch VALORANT directly from the Riot Client, not through any third-party game library.

Technical Explanation: Overlays inject DLLs into the game process, which can hook the same graphical functions used by Valorant's social panel, causing input focus loss and UI rendering conflicts. Verification: With overlays disabled, the social panel responds immediately to clicks, and invite pop-ups render correctly without graphical artifacts.

Solution 5: Clear DNS Cache and Configure Static DNS

Difficulty: Medium Time Required: 5 minutes Success Rate: Medium Prerequisites: Administrator access for command prompt Steps:

Press Windows Key + R, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
In the Administrator Command Prompt, execute these commands sequentially:

ipconfig /flushdns ipconfig /registerdns netsh int ip reset netsh winsock reset

Restart the computer.
After restart, open Network & Internet settings > Change adapter options.
Right-click your active network adapter, select Properties.
Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.
Select Use the following DNS server addresses.
Enter 8.8.8.8 for Preferred and 8.8.4.4 for Alternate (Google DNS).
Click OK and close all windows.

Technical Explanation: Flushing the DNS and resetting the Winsock catalog removes corrupted entries that misdirect social API calls. Using reliable public DNS ensures accurate resolution of Riot's service domains. Verification: Open Command Prompt and run nslookup valorservice.com. The output should show a valid IP address without errors.

Solution 6: Perform a Clean Boot and Selective Startup

Difficulty: Advanced Time Required: 15 minutes Success Rate: Low Prerequisites: Administrator access Steps:

Press Windows Key + R, type msconfig, and press Enter.
In the System Configuration window, go to the Services tab.
Check the box Hide all Microsoft services. Click Disable all.
Go to the Startup tab and click Open Task Manager.
In Task Manager, disable every startup item.
Close Task Manager, click OK in System Configuration, and restart the computer.
After restarting in the clean boot state, launch only the Riot Client and VALORANT.
Test the social and party systems. If they work, re-enable services and startup items in small groups via msconfig, restarting and testing after each, to identify the conflicting software.

Technical Explanation: This diagnostic procedure isolates the conflict by eliminating all non-Microsoft background processes, identifying if third-party security, VPN, or utility software is interfering with Riot's network sockets. Verification: The party system functions correctly in the clean boot state. The conflicting process is identified when the error reoccurs after re-enabling a specific group of services.

SECTION 5: PREVENTION

Maintain system clock synchronization by enabling Windows Time service and setting it to Automatic startup. Configure the Riot Client and VALORANT executables with permanent Allow rules in Windows Firewall. Establish a monthly maintenance routine to execute ipconfig /flushdns and repair the game client via the Riot Client settings. Disable all non-essential overlays before launching VALORANT for competitive sessions. Monitor the Riot Games\Riot Client\Logs directory for warnings related to the social service. Keep the vgc service set to Automatic (Delayed Start) to ensure proper initialization sequence.

SECTION 6: WHEN TO CONTACT SUPPORT

Contact Riot Games Support if all solutions fail and the error correlates with specific account behavior, such as occurring only on one account across multiple devices. Provide the full logs from C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Riot Games\Riot Client\Logs and C:\Riot Games\VALORANT\live\Logs. Include the output of the Riot Client's connection diagnostic tool, accessible via the settings menu. Escalate only after confirming the issue persists through a clean boot state. Official support channels are located at the Riot Games Support website, accessible via the "SUPPORT" link at the bottom of the Riot Client.