Valorant’s anti cheat still coming to LoL but not how Riot first planned

Riot has announced they’re changing tact with the roll out of Vanguard anti cheat for League of Legends. The new plan focuses on rolling the software out region by region, starting with the Philippines.

Earlier this year, Riot told League of Legends fans Vanguard would be rolled out globally for both games in upcoming patches.

But plans have changed. Vanguard will now be rolled out regionally, starting with the Philippines in Patch 14.5.

According to the update, the switch from a global rollout is to allow “time on live servers to evaluate how Vanguard is functioning and being experienced before making adjustments if required.”

Vanguard won't be rolling out globally in 14.5 anymore, will only be the Philippines server which will be testing it first pic.twitter.com/D0G57P3j7Z

— SkinSpotlights (@SkinSpotlights) February 21, 2024

Riot made the announcement in the latest patch notes for Patch 14.4.

What is Vanguard anti cheat?

Vanguard, Riot’s custom anti-cheat software, made its debut alongside Valorant’s June 2020 launch. Vanguard’s software works to prevent cheating on two levels.

First is a kernel-mode driver, which starts running when a PC boots. Second, is the software client, which checks what programs players are running while they’re playing Riot’s games.

The idea behind Vanguard was, and continues to be, a simple one: upholding fairness and integrity in competitive gaming. However, Vanguard’s arrival was not without controversy.

The fact that Vanguard was always running in the background of player’s PCs was a point of contention for many.

The software also caused troubles by blocking access to legitimate software, like control interfaces for the keyboard and mouse.

Even software associated with more serious background operations, like cooling software for CPU and GPUs, ran afoul of Vanguard in the early days of the anti-cheat’s existence.

Riot has made changes to how Vanguard interacts with other software since its initial launch. Now, it’s become part and parcel of playing Valorant, regardless of the controversies.

Eventually, it’ll become the new normal for LoL players too.

Vanguard rolls out for the Philippines with Patch 14.5 on March 6.