Riot bans its first VALORANT cheaters

The first cheaters in VALORANT have already been banned just a couple days into the closed beta. Streamer and content creator phantasy shared a clip on Twitter today, appearing to show a player using wallhacks and aim hacks.

Paul Chamberlain, Riot Games programmer and anti-cheat lead, confirmed that the company banned its first cheater today. He also warned that there will likely be more bans coming in the near future.

The revelation that there are already cheaters in VALORANT is disheartening because of how early cheats were developed and because Riot has made some big promises when it comes to preventing wallhack tampering in the game. Riot has been talking a big game in the anti-cheat department, even going as far as claiming that wallhacks would be next to impossible. 

VALORANT features a fog-of-war system that’s designed to omit the data that wallhackers typically access to cheat. The fog-of-war system works within the render engine to prevent players from seeing play locations until they’re in the line of sight. In theory, this system should prevent hacks through walls, but hackers have already shown there are flaws in the system.

In addition to the fog-of-war system, Riot has also introduced a new anti-cheat system called Vanguard. The new detection tool will constantly evolve to detect tampering and instantly ban cheaters, according to Riot.

The fight against hackers in VALORANT has only just begun. It’s essential that Riot manages cheating in VALORANT to prevent damaging the integrity of the game.