Riot Vanguard anti-cheat
The most recommended of 3 anti-cheats
Riot's anti-cheat that people credit with deterring cheaters in competitive games; critics warn its kernel-level access is invasive and risky.
Riot's anti-cheat that people credit with deterring cheaters in competitive games; critics warn its kernel-level access is invasive and risky.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 29
- approval share
- 44%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Effective at deterring cheaters
“Their anti-cheat is actually much more involved and effective than most would assume.”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Kernel Anti-Cheat Is an Overreach” “It’s so good in fact that it deters most cheaters from even trying.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Games using anti-cheats and their compatibility with GNU/Linux or Wine/Proton” “Kernel anticheat does work.”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “How Kernel Anti-Cheats Work: A Deep Dive into Modern Game Protection” High-quality implementation in Valorant
“Valorant with Vanguard is the highest quality example we have”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “CAPTCHAs can still detect AI agents” “that's dramatically worse as anticheats like Vanguard do PCIE & DMA screening, vulnerable driver blocklist enforcement, and other hardening at boot time”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Anti-cheat evolution in Windows 11”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Invasive kernel-level access
“These things are nasty and invasive, and due to how they are designed could be even used for exploits”
Comment from 29 Nov 2025 in “Wine 10.20 Released With VKD3D 1.18 Upgrade For Direct3D 12” “It's invasive, it's an endless arms race, and it runs ring 0 code on your machine.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Our game anticheat has no kernel driver, we catch not block” “I would’ve been pretty miffed if I had accidentally gotten their kernel modules”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” - Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Kernel Anti-Cheat Is an Overreach”
Security exploit and malware risk
“the hackers could turn a bug in the game code into full kernel-level root access via the anti-cheat”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Games using anti-cheats and their compatibility with GNU/Linux or Wine/Proton” “something like Vanguard in particular is exploited and abused by malware”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “How Kernel Anti-Cheats Work: A Deep Dive into Modern Game Protection” “sooner or later we will have vulnerabilities in their kernel spyware”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm”
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 | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riot Vanguard anti-cheatThis page | 23 | 29 | 44% | 10 | — | — |
| Easy Anti-Cheat | 9 | 24 | 27% | 7 | — | — |
| Riot Vanguard | 8 | 10 | 44% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 55 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's fast and easy to use.”
“Stupid choices by services (like Vanguard!) making those extra characters a liability.”
“The website is legitimately amateur hour and has been for decades.”
“Their website isn't great (and the new modern one is worse, IMHO)”
“an undisclosed max length that doesn’t throw an error is horrible”
“the buy/sell/exchange is right by each asset listing.”
“The boring staid firms like Fidelity/Vanguard have vastly superior products not designed to incentivize gambling”
“Vanguard does get some support right as they tier their support based on how much you're worth.”
“both Bluetooth and my printer stopped working the last time I tried playing a Riot game”
“Letting RIOT into your ring ZERO is not a risk I'm willing to take.”
“Their anti-cheat is actually much more involved and effective than most would assume.”
“multiplayer competitive games are so damaged without it”
“It's invasive, it's an endless arms race, and it runs ring 0 code on your machine.”
“We actually have pretty good evidence that these other structures are more resilient and more stable”
“Valorant with Vanguard is the highest quality example we have”
“they do a lot to protect their shareholders”
“I've personally found Riot fairly transparent regarding Vanguard.”
“They are as big as they are because they solved the original alignment problem.”
“Fees are lower for US customers than UK ones on comparable funds”
“Vanguard's brand is low-risk passive, but they are now selling high-risk active funds under that brand”
“Fidelity has been closer to Vanguard's historical reputation than Vanguard itself in recent years.”
“it was temporary and cheating is now stealthier, better and pushed the global community to innovate”
“Vanguard is probably the most principled when it comes to passive index tracking”
“something like Vanguard in particular is exploited and abused by malware”
“Kernel anticheat does work.”
“The future is usermode anticheats and gameplay analysis, drop kernel mode anticheats.”
“It felt amazingly modern compared to any other bank.”
“that's dramatically worse as anticheats like Vanguard do PCIE & DMA screening, vulnerable driver blocklist enforcement, and other hardening at boot time”
“I would’ve been pretty miffed if I had accidentally gotten their kernel modules”
“sooner or later we will have vulnerabilities in their kernel spyware”
“Riot games decided it in like 2020 and the players have middling to negative feelings about it”
“the hackers could turn a bug in the game code into full kernel-level root access via the anti-cheat”
“It’s so good in fact that it deters most cheaters from even trying.”
“These things are nasty and invasive, and due to how they are designed could be even used for exploits”
“I really like that Vanguard supports Yubikeys too.”
“Fidelity and Vanguard are very good at solving this for you.”
“new company plan is not as good as Vanguard”
“I wish more startups would find a way to use Fidelity or Vanguard (with access to the very-low-ER index funds).”
“I always role mine over to my Vanguard account.”
“Not using Fidelity for HSA and Vanguard/Fidelity for 401k is a sign of bad leadership.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.