VALORANT Vanguard Anti-Cheat system bans thousands – But some are innocent
VALORANT’s anti-cheat program Vanguard has been a success in many ways. Riot Games gave players no choice but to install the software in order to play the PC shooter, and so far, it’s been doing its best to combat cheaters and hackers.
Vanguard anti-cheat Data Engineer Phillip Koskinas tweeted on the 19th of May that Vanguard had recently banned 1600 players.
Some players find the program intrusive, and it’s “always-on” method of running in the background 24/7 is something the community find invasive. Players are finding the software is disrupting not only their VALORANT games, but their PC as a whole, forcing it to boot in Safe Mode, and uninstalling at will. One player went so far as to call Vanguard “a virus.”
But what happens when the anti-cheat system fails, and innocent players suffer?
One such instance is CS:GO pro Mixwell, who was kicked from a VALORANT match for seemingly no reason.
There are also several reports of Vanguard booting or even banning players for reasons such as having a mobile device plugged into their computer, or falsely identifying programs such as Steam and Discord as a reason for the anti-cheat system to kick in.
In the right hands, most of the community trust Riot with their data, and understand that VALORANT’s Vanguard system is for the greater good. But it seems enough of the community believe it has a long way to go, and Riot Games still have a lot of tweaking to do.
Images via Riot Games