Valorant Just Banned a Ton of Players

Valorant's open beta test has proven quite popular since its debut. Unfortunately, that popularity [...]

By Marc Deschamps

Valorant's open beta test has proven quite popular since its debut. Unfortunately, that popularity has also attracted a number of cheaters looking for ways to seek out ways to break the game. In order to prevent the problem from becoming widespread, Riot Games has enacted anti-cheat measures in Valorant, and it seems that the system (named Vanguard) is working. According to Riot's anti-cheat engineer Phillip Koskinas, nearly 9,000 cheaters have been banned from the first-person shooter. While some users have expressed frustration with the bans, it's clear that Riot is not messing around when it comes to kicking cheaters out of the game!

Understandably, Riot has not detailed the exact process by which players are being banned. That said, it appears that Vanguard is targeting any player that has used a cheat, regardless of whether it was in practice modes or in the actual game. Koskinas and the rest of the anti-cheat team also seem to be monitoring known cheat sites, in order to make things even more difficult for cheaters. On Twitter, Koskinas' tweet has been met with replies from gamers claiming that they were banned without cheating, but Koskinas remains firm that this is not the case.

It's not unsurprising to see Riot taking these issues so seriously. After all, a number of online games have been struggling with cheating over the last few months, including Call of Duty: Warzone, and Destiny 2. As the game ramps-up towards its public release, Valorant seems poised to become the next big thing in online shooters. The last thing Riot wants is to launch the game with widespread cheating.

While the bans are clearly proving successful, cheaters will inevitably find ways to work around them, but the point is to make it increasingly difficult for them to do so. Riot has already started making efforts to build a strong competitive scene for the game, so it will be important to make sure that players cannot gain an unfair advantage when the game receives a full release.

Are you happy with Valorant's anti-cheat measures? Have you been playing the game's open beta? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

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