"Valorant is Winning the Battle Against Cheaters in PC Gaming."
The Vanguard system by Riot Games generates controversy, but it turns out to be effective.
In 2020, multiplayer games on PC faced serious issues due to the proliferation of cheats, especially during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Titles like Call of Duty: Warzone, PUBG, and Destiny 2 were plagued by players using aimbots to automatically shoot their opponents or wallhacks to gain visibility of all players on the map. However, Riot Games' Valorant stood out for its controversial and aggressive anti-cheat system, known as Vanguard, which has proven effective in the fight against cheaters.
Phillip Koskinas, the director of Valorant's anti-cheat system, explained that it is currently less common to see cheats operating directly on the machine, as it has become a too complicated challenge for cheat developers. Vanguard has considerably hindered the use of tools like aimbots or wallhacks thanks to a kernel-level driver that remains active after the PC is powered on.
Nick “Everdox” Peterson, one of Riot’s engineers, developed a system within Vanguard that identifies when cheat engines attempt to access the game. Koskinas drew an analogy with a device whose manufacturer learns if the warranty has been violated, indicating that when something suspicious is detected, the team waits for confirmation of misuse in Valorant.
Due to Vanguard's effectiveness, cheaters have begun resorting to specialized hardware to bypass these systems. A current popular cheating technique involves direct memory access (DMA) using dedicated hardware. This allows a cheater to use a second PC to scan Valorant's memory and locate the positions of other players, which is devastating in a game where tactics and positioning are key.
Riot has also implemented measures to detect this type of hardware cheating, blocking reads from suspicious devices. Koskinas shared his personal experience of how Vanguard blocked his network card, demonstrating the powerful capabilities of this anti-cheat system.
Nowadays, most cheats in Valorant boil down to triggerbots, programs that use screen readers to determine when the player's cursor is over an opponent and shoot automatically. These cheats account for about 80% of those used in the game. The inclusion of Vanguard in League of Legends earlier this year has also led to a significant reduction in the use of scripts, with over 175,000 accounts banned since its implementation.
Despite Riot's success, other game developers face greater challenges. A recent study from the University of Birmingham revealed that cheats in Call of Duty: Warzone remain accessible, and Activision’s Ricochet anti-cheat system is insufficient against more sophisticated cheats. The lack of funding and freedom seems to be a barrier to the effectiveness of the Ricochet team.
On the other hand, researchers agreed that Valorant's anti-cheat system is the best, followed by Fortnite, which also employs a kernel-level system. Additionally, weaknesses in Windows protections that allow cheat programs to inject themselves into the system’s kernel were highlighted.
With an eye on collaboration with Microsoft, Riot plans to make Vanguard launch only upon starting the game, assuming the use of all security features in Windows 11. This could help address some privacy concerns.
For now, Riot is focused on Windows and has no plans for Linux support in Valorant or League of Legends. Kernel manipulation on Linux raises similar concerns that led Respawn to stop supporting Apex Legends on that platform.
While Riot manages the situation with conventional cheats, the possibility of cheats powered by artificial intelligence (AI) remains an emerging concern. Koskinas mentioned the worry regarding image reading techniques that utilize AI models, which could radically change the landscape of the ongoing battle between cheats and detection systems.
