Riot Games Comments on Vanguard Bricking PCs Rumors

Riot Games has stated that it “would not and cannot” brick players' PCs, after a number of people began claiming that the company's Vanguard anti-cheat software disabled their devices. Riot Games is the developer behind the incredibly popular League of Legends and Valorant, and its Vanguard system is intended to combat increasingly sophisticated cheats and cheats, particularly hardware-based methods used to bypass traditional anti-cheat protections.

On May 19, a Vanguard update appeared to block DMA, or direct memory access, devices using SATA or NVMe firmware. Claims began to circulate that Vanguard bricked computers, and humorous images of a “red screen of death” faced by players began to appear on social media. Riot Games, perhaps inadvertently, fueled the rumors by two days later posting an image showing a collection of cheat units with the caption “congratulations to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight.” Some users started claiming that the Vanguard update had rendered the DMA firmware unusable, even after uninstalling the anti-cheat software. Others said they started getting instability warnings about an in-out memory management unit, or IOMMU, security feature.

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Riot Games says Vanguard doesn't brick PCs

In response to the rumors spreading online, Riot Games responded, saying on Twitter that “Vanguard does not damage hardware or disable your devices.” The paperweight joke had specifically referred to cheating hardware no longer working Valorant. The studio further explained that their latest Vanguard updates are intended to maintain standard security protections such as IOMMU on accounts detected with DMA-based cheating. These protections prevent unauthorized memory access by rogue devices but do not permanently disable computers or components. Any hardware failures or instability experienced by users, Riot clarified, are expected behavior of these security protections and not intentional damage caused by Vanguard. “We would not, and cannot, affect the functionality of your computer in any other way.”

In the Twitter post, the developer further clarified that disabling IOMMU would allow DMA devices to function normally again outside of Riot's games. However, IOMMU protection will still be required to boot Valorant. Also, normal players won't experience any hardware-related issues, as the update only affected DMA-based cheat hardware. In a second FAQ-style post, Riot reiterated that “no hardware is damaged and no other features are affected.” The situation is reminiscent of similar claims that surfaced in 2024, when some users claimed that Vanguard updates caused computers to crash. At the time, Riot had stated that it could not verify reports that the anti-cheat software bricked computers.

The situation has sparked a wider discussion about the increasingly aggressive measures being taken to combat cheating in video games. DMA hardware in particular has become a problem for developers because it can directly access system memory to bypass many traditional anti-cheat systems. Riot claims that Vanguard is one of the industry's most advanced anti-cheat systems, and many players welcome the company's strong stance against cheating. At the same time, however, there are concerns about core-level anti-cheat software, potential privacy issues, and the degree to which developers interact with player hardware to achieve their goals.

Scratch & Peek

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Scratch & Peek

Identify the wrapper while scraping off as little foil as possible.

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Despite the periodic controversy surrounding Vanguard and other anti-cheat software, Valorant continues to be a huge success for Riot. The tactical first-person shooter has enjoyed a strong player base around the world since its launch in 2020. The game receives regular seasonal updates, new agents and anti-cheat improvements, and it maintains a healthy presence on esports.