Want to add someone on VALORANT or League of Legends? Both VALORANT and League of Legends use your Riot account's Riot ID, so the same rule works in either game: type the full ID, name plus tagline, into Add Friend and send the request. Where people get stuck is usually one of three places.
You only know their in-game name and not the tagline. You typed it in and got an internal error, or nothing happened at all. Or the opposite: random players keep sending you requests and you want them to stop.
This guide starts with a quick table of common problems and fixes, then explains what the tagline is and where to find yours, walks through adding friends on PC in five steps, and finishes with a checklist for blocking unwanted requests.
At the end you will also see how to find the people you just played with and keep that match as a clip. Menu paths and limits come from Riot Support articles and official patch notes.
VALORANT add friend not working: common problems and fixes
| What you see | Likely cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Player not found, or the request never sends | A typo in the name or tagline, a missing tag, extra spaces around the #, or a recently changed Riot ID | Ask them to send their full Riot ID as text, then copy and paste it instead of typing |
| An internal error when adding a friend | Server maintenance or an outage, or the client briefly lost its connection | Check Riot's service status page for your region, close the Riot Client completely (not just the game), sign back in and try again |
| Friend list full | Riot Support lists a maximum of 375 on the friends list, and yours or theirs has reached it | Remove friends you no longer play with to make room, then send the request again |
| Request sent, but they never show up | They have not accepted yet, they turned on auto-reject for friend requests in VALORANT, or they blocked you | Ask them to check the friend requests tab in the social panel; requests can also be handled in the Riot Mobile app |
| You are friends but cannot queue together | Your accounts are on different regions, so you cannot meet in the same queue | Check that both accounts are on the same region. To move or start an account elsewhere, see how to change server or region in LoL |
| You cannot type their name | Their name uses accented or non-Latin characters your keyboard layout does not type easily | Paste the name from a text message; in VALORANT a pasted full ID splits into the name and tag fields by itself |
Riot ID and tagline explained: where to find yours
Friend search in both games runs on your Riot ID, not an old summoner name. A Riot ID has two parts, the game name and the tagline after the #, and it is the same across every Riot game, which is why a friend you add in League also appears in VALORANT's social panel.
According to Riot Support, game names are 3 to 16 characters and taglines are 3 to 5 characters. Game names do not have to be unique; only the full Riot ID does.
That is the real answer to how to add someone on VALORANT without a tagline: the game cannot tell which of several players with the same name you mean, so you need the tag. By default the tagline is a region code such as NA1, and once you change it you cannot go back to a region code.
You can see your exact Riot ID on your League client profile and on the Riot Account page, where you can also change it for free once every 90 days. When you share your ID, copy and paste it as text into Discord or a chat app rather than reading it off the screen. If a friend changed their Riot ID recently, the old one will not find them, so ask for the current one.
How to add friends on VALORANT and League of Legends PC in 5 steps
- 1Get their full Riot IDAsk for the name and the tagline after the #, and send them yours too. Copying the ID as text from Discord or a chat app saves you from typos on both sides.
- 2Add a friend on VALORANTFrom the main menu, open the social panel on the right and choose Add Friend. There are separate fields for the Riot ID and the tagline, and since patch 9.0 (June 2024) you can paste the full ID with the # into the first field and it splits automatically.
- 3Add a friend on League of LegendsIn the League client, click the add friend icon, a person with a plus sign, at the top of the social panel on the right. Enter the name and tag together as Name#TAG and send the request. It shows up in their social panel as a friend request.
- 4Accept a friend requestIncoming requests appear in the social panel, where you can accept or decline them. Patch 12.00 (January 2026) gave VALORANT's social panel a dedicated tab for friend requests, and the Riot Mobile app lets you manage requests when you are away from your PC.
- 5Bring in your Discord friendsIf your group mostly talks on Discord, choose Connect Discord Account from Add Friends. After linking, Discord friends who also linked their Riot account appear in your friend list, and you can add Discord-only friends as Riot friends without asking for their tag.
How to stop friend requests from strangers: checklist
- Block in League: right click their name in your friends list, or open your profile, go to Match History, select the game and right click their name, or open Settings (the gear, top right) and use the Block List. Blocked players cannot send you friend requests, invites or private messages, and they are removed from your friends list.
- Block in VALORANT: patch 9.06 (September 2024) added blocking on PC, which stops friend requests, party invites and requests, text chat and voice comms from that player. If you want no requests at all, VALORANT also has a setting that auto-rejects friend requests; look in the privacy options under Settings.
- Hide your name in matches: League's Streamer Mode under Settings, General, System has Hide My Name, which hides your Riot ID from other players in champ select, on the loading screen and in game, and VALORANT can hide your Riot ID from players outside your party under Settings, General, Privacy. Fewer people see your ID mid-match, so fewer requests come in. Your friends list still shows your Riot ID, and so do League match history and replays.
- Change your tagline: if unwanted requests keep coming, change your name or tag on the Riot Account page and the old ID no longer leads to you. It is free but limited to once every 90 days, and you cannot return to a region code tag such as NA1.
- Clear what is already there: decline pending requests in the social panel or the Riot Mobile app, and right click anyone already on your list to remove or block them.
Find who you just played with, then keep the match
Had a good game with someone and want to add them afterwards? In League, open your profile, go to Match History and open that game to see the Riot IDs of everyone who played it, then enter the one you want in Add Friend. If DOR was running, it is even quicker.
DOR is a free Windows app that detects League of Legends and VALORANT when you launch them, records the whole match, and saves highlight clips automatically: kills, multikills and objectives in League, and kills in VALORANT with ace and clutch tags.
Open the match in My Clips and, depending on who was in it, DOR lists "Friends in this game" (your Riot friends), "Guildmates in this game" and "DOR users you just played with", and the "Follow all friends" button follows your Riot friends in one click.
These suggestions only appear for League and VALORANT matches. Inside DOR you can also search by nickname or ID to follow someone, and connecting Discord shows which of your Discord friends use DOR.
To send a clip from that match to your new friend, use Share with friends, or send a dor.gg link that plays right in a phone browser; see how to share League gameplay with friends and how to share VALORANT clips with friends. If you played that match in a party of two or more, a party clip can put each person's view into one highlight video.
