author: Bart Swiatek
Valorant - More Problems With Anti-cheat, This Time it Freezes PCs
Valorant's anti-cheat system Vanguard blocks important programs on some users' computers. Sometimes it slows down or completely freezes the PC. In rare cases, the effects of using the app can be even more serious.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Valorant anti-cheat system disables critical programs without notifying us;
- In some situations this causes the computer to freeze and even creates a risk of damaging the hardware;
- The developers promise to fix this, but they also say they don't want to let cheaters into their game.
Some time ago we reported that the anti-cheat software accompanying the shooter Valorant - called Vanguard - runs in the background even when the game is not running, which caused a lot of controversy among the gamers. The creators from Riot Games have made some improvements to the application, but it seems that more will be needed, because this is not the end of problems. Some Reddit users report that Vanguard... is blocking important programs on their computer, in some situations making it completely unusable, slowing down hardware and even creating a risk of damage.
Vanguard - Anti-cheat with Issues
"I just spent the last 3 hours figuring out why I couldn't get into Windows because my keyboard and mouse wouldn't work. Just before that, I started smelling hot plastic - my graphics card was running +90°C because again, Vanguard disabled my cooling software (My PC case got very bad airflow, I have to decrease my GPU performance to keep it cool enough).
Vanguard really needs to prevent us from launching the game while X software is active -and asking us to close it, even if we need to reboot just after- instead of disabling everything silently," wrote Hugometeo.
Similar requests have been made by other players - they want Vanguard to start asking for their opinion before it blocks another program.
"I thought Vanguard was not a problem UNTIL I actually got impacted by it... I got a soft-brick with all of my peripherals requiring me to reboot through BIOS... It's an inconvenience at most but other people have had bigger issues.
Regardless, this is a huge problem... because VANGUARD IS NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THINGS LIKE THIS... you can't disable programs that people use for other applications without permission... Riot is assuming that our PCs are solely for the purpose of playing Valorant and doing nothing else.
Vanguard was communicated to us a an Anti-Cheat Program... but it is operating on a capacity far more invasive and aggressive than that. I don't get why they can't just do something like EAC who have done a pretty decent job with the games that they are licensed to," complains itsyoboyeden.
Riot Games is aware of the problem - there will be fixes
The developers addressed the issue by stating that the notification system is not as good as it could be. We can expect further improvements.
"We're working on ways to make the experience better. Our current notification pop-ups aren't as good as they could be and we're looking for ways to give you more control over how Vanguard works.
We're happy to do anything we can to make this smoother for everyone as long as it doesn't give an opening for cheaters.
TL;DR: Expect improvements before launch," we read.
