Riot Games has never exactly been shy about going after cheaters — but their latest Vanguard anti-cheat update has taken things to a gloriously brutal new level. The update is reportedly bricking cheaters’ PCs so thoroughly that the only fix is a full Windows OS reinstall. And Riot’s official response to the outrage?
“Congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight.”
Absolutely zero remorse. Legends.
So what actually happened?
For context, Vanguard is Riot’s kernel-level anti-cheat system — required to play both Valorant and League of Legends. Operating at the deepest level of your operating system, it’s designed to catch cheats that try to bypass conventional detection. It’s powerful, it’s controversial, and apparently it just got a whole lot meaner.
The latest update now blocks what’s known as DMA firmware — software cheaters use to disguise hacks on their machines via SATA and NVMe-connected SSDs. The nasty twist? Once Vanguard triggers its IOMMU restart warning, the DMA firmware becomes permanently unusable — even after uninstalling Vanguard entirely. You could wipe the game off your PC completely and still be left with a machine that refuses to cooperate. Full OS reinstall is the only escape route.
Riot’s response is genuinely iconic
Rather than issuing the usual corporate non-apology, Riot quote-replied to cheater complaints with an image of various bricked PCs and the “paperweight” comment. No backpedaling. No “we’re looking into it.” Just a firm, extremely confident middle finger in meme format. It’s the kind of PR response that makes the entire internet briefly root for a corporation — and that’s not something that happens often.
The elephant in the room
Here’s the uncomfortable bit, though. Kernel-level anti-cheat is powerful precisely because it has deep, privileged access to your system. The same tech that’s bricking cheaters’ rigs could theoretically misfire on a legitimate player. That’s a real concern — and one the gaming community has debated since Vanguard first launched.
Riot Games has since issued a formal statement by posting on X clarifying the Vanguard does not “brick” PC components and make them worthless in any way or form, it’s just their anti-cheat make those components worthless to play Valorant.
