Riot Games’ Vanguard anti-cheat technology garnered some controversy among Valorant fans last year. The anti-cheat program loads at boot by default and lurks quietly in the background. While it’s easier to set it up to your preference, you still need to run the program if you want to play Valorant. 

One year or so later, Riot Games can proudly say that its anti-cheat program is doing its job. The developer said that Valorant cheating is now at an all-time low. Riot anti-cheat analyst Matt Paoletti said on a Riot Games post that the rate of reports is the lowest the company has seen. Riot Games has been staying ahead of hardware-based cheats and machine learning algorithms.

“Despite what developers may say, the words ‘artificial intelligence’ do not make a cheat undetectable. Not only that, we’re tackling unique forms of cheating outside of the typical aimbots, such as cheats that look to tamper with the game engine and assets. As of today, report rates are at an all-time low.”

Nonetheless, the act of cheating in Valorant will still be present, so Riot Games is going to keep on developing Vanguard while taking advantage of more general advances in cybersecurity. These include security upgrades in operating systems, such as Trusted Platform Module 2.0 requirements on PCs running Windows 11. Vanguard’s kernel level anti-cheat is also making other companies use it for its online multiplayer games; one great example is Call of Duty: Warzone and the upcoming Call of Duty: Vanguard.