Riot Vanguard: About VALORANT’s Anti-Cheat System
In the past decade, there has been a rise in competitive online gaming, where it has become a hobby for some and a career for others. With the number of players increasing yearly, game developers are finding it hard to maintain a fair environment.
This article will go over everything you need to know about VALORANT’s anti-cheat system. Keep reading until the end, as we will cover how you can install this system.
Let’s get started!
Why Is There a Need for Advanced Anti-cheat Systems in Online Games?
As cheating continues to plague the online gaming industry, playing competitive games has become extremely frustrating. According to recent studies, around 30% of all online players in a game cheat. That’s a huge statistic by any standards!
Game developers are taking active measures to prevent cheaters from accessing online matches and playing against genuine players. However, it seems like no matter what they do, the cheaters always find a way around it.
To prevent cheaters from accessing VALORANT, Riot Games created their own proprietary anti-cheat system that not only identifies the players who cheat in online games but also prevents them from disturbing the gameplay.
What Is Riot Vanguard?
The Riot Vanguard is a custom anti-cheat system created by the developers behind VALORANT. It upholds the game’s integrity and is currently the most effective program out there in the competitive gaming world.
Compared to other anti-cheat systems, the Riot Vanguard is more intrusive. It gains access to a player’s system on the kernel level and boots up with Windows.
When Riot launched Vanguard, there were a lot of concerns among its player community. Many felt that the developers were collecting sensitive data through their anti-cheat system.
Some players even alleged that Riot was using their systems to mine cryptocurrencies.
Regardless of the rumors you’ve heard about Vanguard, it’s best to understand how Riot’s anti-cheat system works so that you can put these theories to rest.
How Does the Riot Game’s Vanguard Anti-cheat System Work?
The Vanguard anti-cheat program uses an AI system that always runs in the background. Even if you're not playing VALORANT, the anti-cheat system remains connected to the game’s servers, allowing it to detect suspicious activities or cheats on your system.
What’s great about Vanguard is that it not only helps detect cheaters but also assists developers in discovering new types of cheats and learning more about them.
The AI anti-cheat system allows Riot Games to keep up with the latest cheating techniques and improve their programs to fight against them.
When Vanguard detects any suspicious activities, it goes through a certain protocol to confirm whether the player is cheating.
Upon confirmation, the AI anti-cheat system either temporarily bans the players for up to 180 days (according to the June 2022 update) or permanently bars them from playing.
Riot Games’s Vanguard works on the kernel level. Instead of banning the player based on their gamer tag, it places restrictions on the player’s hardware ID. Even if players create new VALORANT accounts, they still won’t be able to play the game if they’ve been caught cheating.
Given the high level of competition in the game, you may encounter players with advanced skills. While it might appear as if they're cheating, in reality, they're playing strategically. You may want to consider VALORANT boosting as an option to learn various strategies and improve your skills in the game.
Is Riot Games’s Vanguard a Chinese Spyware?
Some players have expressed their concerns over Vanguard requiring kernel-level privileges. They believe that the level of access is unnecessary in identifying cheaters and preventing them from playing VALORANT.
Due to the rising concerns of the players, Riot Games decided to address the issues over kernel-level access. It stated that the developers designed the anti-cheat system with the game’s and personal computer’s safety in mind.
Since Tencent, the company that owns a major stake in Riot Games, is a Chinese conglomerate, some players accused the developers of spreading a Chinese spyware program. So far, there have been no reports supporting these concerns.
At times, the game may be pausing during an update, which can adversely affect the gameplay. This could happen for many reasons, so make sure to check out our guide on how to fix this problem.
How to Install Riot Vanguard?
Since Vanguard is part of the game, you don’t need to install it separately. Simply create a Riot account and download the game.
The anti-cheat system requires players to enable “Secure Boot” mode and TPM before launching the game. To do that, you must navigate to your system’s BIOS settings and enable them under the boot options.
Final Thoughts - Have Fun and Play Fair
It’s crucial for the players to understand that the developers created Vanguard to ensure an environment where all of the gamers can have fun and immerse themselves in the thrilling gameplay offered by VALORANT.
Players have complete control over their gaming sessions. If you feel that the anti-cheat system is intrusive and might be stealing data, you can suspend your account and explore other games that offer similar gameplay.
