VALORANT players are reporting that Riot’s Vanguard anti-cheat system is causing major PC issues

If you’ve been playing the VALORANT closed beta or are thinking about trying it out, be wary of a problem that’s risen in prominence over the past couple of weeks. Many people in the community have reportedly run into varying PC issues due to Riot Games’ new anti-cheat system, Vanguard.

Based on what the player base has said so far, these issues can swing from blocking important devices to complete computer shutdowns. Some people have reported that the Vanguard anti-cheat prevented some essential programs from running on their computers, for example.

One user said Vanguard blocked him from using MSI Afterburner, which is a program used to check CPU temperatures, while another player said the anti-cheat actually blocked out control of his keyboard and mouse—he was only able to regain control by rebooting his computer in safe mode.

The most drastic problems have even caused some computers to crash completely, with some players experiencing blue screens of death due to the new program. This is because Vanguard actually starts right as your PC boots up, instead of only when the game is on. The anti-cheat conflicts with multiple different programs but doesn’t discern important programs from non-essentials.

These problems have forced players to uninstall VALORANT for the time being in fear of their computers being broken. Although there are some people who haven’t experienced any problems just yet, they’re also uninstalling the game as a precaution—it wouldn’t be worth it to keep the anti-cheat installed while it has a chance to ruin someone’s entire PC.

Riot will likely need to address these issues soon before it starts to lose more of its player base.