Riot Games announced another Valorant ban wave. This time, 1600 Valorant cheaters were banned thanks to Vanguard anti-cheat sweep.
According to Phillip Koskinas, Riot Games’ head anti-cheat engineer, they have triumphantly managed to ban Valorant cheaters. The popular first-person shooting game is being closely monitored in its closed beta testing phase.
1600 VALORANT accounts just went missing and we're still geeked up off the ban juice
— Phillip Koskinas (@deteccphilippe) May 19, 2020
Constant fight with cheaters
A few weeks ago, the developers revealed that their war with the Valorant cheaters will be one of the most critical projects they will face in the coming days.
Just last week, Riot Games announced they have banned nearly 9000 players since the closed beta testing started. Today, Koskinas proudly disclosed that another ban wave made during the week has caught 1600 new cheaters.
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 (@deteccphilippe) May 12, 2020
These cheaters will also not be able to play on future accounts. Koskinas revealed that Valorant is implementing “soul bans”.
This means players who have been caught cheating will have their past, present and future accounts suspended. They are also aware that cheating attempts are expected to increase in the coming weeks since Valorant’s competitive mode has been released to more regions.
Worthy trade-off
Vanguard – Valorant’s anti-cheating system has been a subject of controversy because of its meddlesome and disruptive nature.
While Vanguard is meant to be a shield against cheaters, Vanguard has been reported to cause frame drops and sometimes block out a player’s hardware. This happens because Vanguard runs on kernel levels even when a user is not playing a game.
Even pro players were note spared from the controversy. Mixwell was flagged as a cheater when he plugged his smartphone on his computer.
Hello @RiotSupport @PlayVALORANT I was playing on stream with my friends. I connected my usb charger to my phone and I got disconected by the anti-cheat, can you unlock me please. 😂 pic.twitter.com/kpUSlCiKB4
— Heretics m1xwell (@Mixwell) April 16, 2020
Vanguard noticed the new device and was enough for the anti-cheating system to kick him out of the game.
However, Vanguard is not ready to give up and has proven that it is fairly effective during these times. Riot chose the trade-off was worth it since Vanguard consistently catches hackers and cheaters.
Vanguard shows no mercy to anyone who wants to intervene with the competitive reputation of Valorant even if the game is still in closed beta testing.
Cheaters are mad
Koskinas’ innovative ways of spreading information about the bans have made him famous among Valorant fans and haters alike.
The conversations between the cheater and hackers are not visible to the public. However, Twitter’s Overwatch Police Department ensured everyone made a good laugh out of their sorrow.
https://twitter.com/OverwatchPD/status/1262447523974840320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1262447523974840320%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.altchar.com%2Fgame-news%2Fvalorant-ban-wave-goes-out-puts-cheat-makers-out-of-business-a9eAt2J3hWjO
For those unaware, OWPD is a Twitter page dedicated to calling out hackers and cheaters as a way to actively fight them. This time around, the page made a video compilation of Valorant cheaters sending hate messages to Koskinas.
Featured image courtesy of Ev. Safronov/Shutterstock