Riot bans nearly 9,000 Valorant hackers, warning this is just the beginning

Valorant is still in closed beta, but that hasn’t stopped hackers: hacking and breaking games. Riot has worked hard to apply the Vanguard system to prevent this problem. However, this system is controversial because it is a kernel-level driver, runs from boot time and is always open whether you play games or not. You can turn it off if you want, or remove it completely, but to play Valorant you need Vanguard.

Although controversial, the system appears to work. According to anti-hack data engineer from Riot, Philip Koskinas shared on Twitter that the studio has just banned nearly 8,900 Valorant hacking accounts. We don’t know how many people participate in the closed beta, so it’s impossible to guess the percentage of banned accounts.

located a VALORANT universe where there were 8873 less cheaters and moved us all into it, please be careful as your bones may’ve shifted during dimensional travel

— Phillip Koskinas (@mirageopenguins) May 12, 2020

Koskinas didn’t elaborate on how your system works, but he added that it’s not a hardware ID board – that’s directly into the hardware that runs the game. He also admits that these hackers “will find a way” eventually, but thinks they can’t be dodged “easily”.

And yet, according to Riot’s senior anti-cheat analyst, Matt Paolette (aka RiotK3o) said on Reddit that “this is just the beginning” with a warning on Tweet.

Even though this is just closed beta, we’ve promised that we’re going to be heavily committed to anti-cheat. This banwave is still only the beginning. We’re going to ensure the highest standard of competitive integrity in VALORANT. https://t.co/EjxuYG0JEE

— Riot Vanguard (@RiotVanguard) May 12, 2020

Riot also recently released a new Valorant update that changes many characters “so that they are similar to their original roles and balance skills that are considered too weak or too strong”. Viper’s Snake Bite radius has been increased to accommodate other denys, while Sage’s Slow Orb has been nerfed quite a bit.

Many other bugs and gameplay tweaks added. You can read the full update on playvalorant.com.

You can read more articles about Valorant here: