# Riot Vanguard

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/riot-vanguard/

5 people recommended Riot Vanguard in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 4 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it. People recommend Vanguard because it has largely stopped cheating in Valorant. The most common caveat is its invasive, kernel-level access to the system.

Summary written by Claude from the comments below.

## What people warn about

- Invasive, rootkit-like system access (3 comments in the sample): "Riot Vanguard is extremely invasive, but it's leaps and bounds a head of VAC." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46143456)) "It rooted every OS it could find mounted." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45794136)) "Riot Vanguard is a popular rootkit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46369918))
- Spyware and malware accusations (2 comments in the sample): "enforce spyware on casual participants" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49933974)) "their malware is in fact malware" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48231681))
- Net negative for consumers (2 comments in the sample): "This anti cheat software is extremely buggy. And causes way more problems than it solves for us." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550494)) "then we're back to the thing being a net negative for the consumer again" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48851353))
- Does not stop cheating (1 comment in the sample): "Some intrusive ones (EA's anti cheat for recent Battlefields, Activision's anti cheat for Call of Duty…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45906079))

## Why people recommend it

- Cut cheating in Valorant (3 comments in the sample): "only one of them is meaningfully playable while trusting your opponents aren’t cheating" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47384273)) "The fact that vanguard “cratered” the cheats for a while shows it’s effective" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47396794)) "Riot Vanguard has all but eliminated cheaters in Valorant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49936674))

## Other anti-cheats people recommend

- [Riot Vanguard anti-cheat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vanguard/): 19 recommend, 4 mixed, 28 criticize
- [Easy Anti-Cheat](https://hackerapproved.com/p/easy-anti-cheat/): 6 recommend, 1 mixed, 23 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Riot Vanguard", https://hackerapproved.com/p/riot-vanguard/ (5 recommend, 2 mixed, 9 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.