Riot Vanguard
Ranked 3 of 3 anti-cheats by recommenders
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.
5 people recommended Riot Vanguard in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from the comments below.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- mixed feelings
- 2
- warn against or regret it
- 9
The record
Recommended in 4 of 12 months
In 4 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 4 threadsNeeds 5 or more, not met.
- The biggest thread supplies 40% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 15 of the 17 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Invasive, rootkit-like system access
“Riot Vanguard is extremely invasive, but it's leaps and bounds a head of VAC.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm” “It rooted every OS it could find mounted.”
Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark” “Riot Vanguard is a popular rootkit.”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Local AI is driving the biggest change in laptops in decades” Spyware and malware accusations
“enforce spyware on casual participants”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “Redditor buys used CPU, turns out it was banned on Valorant and they are SoL” “their malware is in fact malware”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Riot Games celebrates bricking cheat devices” Net negative for consumers
“This anti cheat software is extremely buggy. And causes way more problems than it solves for us.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Anti-cheat evolution in Windows 11” “then we're back to the thing being a net negative for the consumer again”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “Remote Attestation” Does not stop cheating
“Some intrusive ones (EA's anti cheat for recent Battlefields, Activision's anti cheat for Call of Duty…”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “Steam Machine”
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cut cheating in Valorant
“only one of them is meaningfully playable while trusting your opponents aren’t cheating”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “How Kernel Anti-Cheats Work: A Deep Dive into Modern Game Protection” “The fact that vanguard “cratered” the cheats for a while shows it’s effective”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “How Kernel Anti-Cheats Work: A Deep Dive into Modern Game Protection” “Riot Vanguard has all but eliminated cheaters in Valorant”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “Redditor buys used CPU, turns out it was banned on Valorant and they are SoL”
Other anti-cheats people recommend
The two most recommended other anti-cheats, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riot Vanguard anti-cheat | 19 | 4 | 28 | 40% | 10 | — | — |
| Easy Anti-Cheat | 6 | 1 | 23 | 21% | 5 | — | — |
| Riot VanguardThis page | 5 | 2 | 9 | 36% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 17 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Riot Vanguard has all but eliminated cheaters in Valorant”
“enforce spyware on casual participants”
“then we're back to the thing being a net negative for the consumer again”
“Missing is Vanguard / Riot Anti-Cheat, no idea when that will get added.”
“If you no longer play any of Riot's games (which you should if you really care about the integrity of your system”
“their malware is in fact malware”
“The fact that vanguard “cratered” the cheats for a while shows it’s effective”
“only one of them is meaningfully playable while trusting your opponents aren’t cheating”
“gets rid of the requirement of anticheat drivers, freeing your hardware”
“This anti cheat software is extremely buggy. And causes way more problems than it solves for us.”
“Riot for example is quite transparent about what their anti-cheat does, how it works”
“Riot Vanguard is a popular rootkit.”
“Riot Vanguard is extremely invasive, but it's leaps and bounds a head of VAC.”
“Some intrusive ones (EA's anti cheat for recent Battlefields, Activision's anti cheat for Call of Duty…”
“It rooted every OS it could find mounted.”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.