How to change your VALORANT region
Mostly, you cannot — and that is the answer the results promising otherwise are competing with.
The short answer
Your region is set when the account is created and is not a setting you can change in the client. Riot supports moving an account between regions only in limited circumstances and through support, not through a menu. A VPN changes which servers you connect through, not which region your account belongs to — and it usually makes your connection worse rather than moving you.
Why it is fixed
Region is not a preference in VALORANT, it is where your account and its data live. Your rank, match history and progression are held regionally, which is why moving is a data migration rather than a toggle.
It also protects matchmaking. If region were switchable, players would move to whichever region had the weakest competition or the friendliest schedule, and both matchmaking quality and leaderboard integrity would degrade for everyone in the destination.
This is also why a VPN does not do what people hope. Routing your traffic through another country does not move your account; at best you connect to your existing region over a worse path, and at worst you trip security checks by appearing to log in from somewhere new.
The route that does exist
- 1
Check whether your case qualifies
Riot considers region transfers principally for players who have genuinely relocated. It is handled case by case rather than as a standing entitlement, and there is no guarantee.
- 2
Contact Riot Support directly
The only supported route is a support ticket. No third-party service can move an account, and any that claims to is either doing nothing or asking for credentials it should not have.
- 3
Expect to lose some things
Where a transfer is granted, expect rank and some progression to be affected — regional data does not always move cleanly. Ask what specifically carries before accepting, rather than after.
If the real problem is ping
Most people asking how to change region are actually asking how to get a better connection, and those are different problems with different answers. Region determines which servers you are matched into; ping is determined by the route between you and those servers.
If your ping is poor within your own region, the fixes are local: a wired connection rather than wireless, nothing else downloading, and a router restart. Those address the actual cause far more often than anything involving servers does.
If your ping is poor because you have genuinely moved and your account is on the other side of the world, that is the case Riot Support exists for — and it is the one situation where the transfer request is likely to be granted.
Common questions
Can you change your region in VALORANT?
Not from a setting. Region is fixed to the account at creation, and the only supported route is a Riot Support request, considered case by case and usually for players who have actually moved.
Does a VPN change your VALORANT region?
No. A VPN changes the path your traffic takes, not the region your account lives in. In practice it adds latency to the region you were already in, and can trigger account security checks.
How do I make an account in another region?
By creating a new account with that region selected at sign-up. That is genuinely a separate account with its own rank and inventory — nothing transfers from the first one.
Can I play with friends in another region?
You can queue together in some cases, at the cost of latency for whoever is further from the server. Ranked restricts this more tightly than unrated does.
Will I lose my skins if I transfer?
Ask support before agreeing. Inventory and rank do not always survive a regional migration intact, and the specifics depend on the regions involved.
Is it against the rules to play on another region's servers?
Playing on another region by making an account there is allowed. Using tools to disguise your location, or buying an account in another region, both breach Riot's terms and risk the account.
Why is my ping bad if my region is correct?
Because ping is about the route between you and the server, not the region label. Wired rather than wireless, nothing else downloading and a router restart address it far more often than anything server-side does.