League of Legends Devs Say Anti-Cheat Isn’t Bricking PCs

Patch 14.9 for League of Legends, released in full on April 30, introduced the Vanguard anti-cheat system. Riot Games’ custom kernel-level software has been a hot topic among players since it was first announced, but its implementation has been more of a mess than anyone could have predicted, with players claiming that it’s bricking PCs, asking them to delete core Windows systems, and locking HDMI drivers.

K30 took to Reddit as a representative of Riot Games, denying the claims outright despite hefty evidence to the contrary.

“Since 14.9 went live, fewer than 0.03% of players have reported issues with Vanguard,” the post reads. “In most cases, these are common error codes such as VAN codes 128, 152, 1067, -81, 9001, or 68 that are easily solved through player support or troubleshooting, and account for the vast majority of issues we are seeing.”

Vanguard, despite not taking screenshots of multiple monitors, can take a picture of a player’s game client and the region the game client occupies.

“This is a very normal practice when it comes to anti-cheat and almost all anti-cheat do this. It is also a known element within the community of folks familiar with anti-cheat software,” K30 writes. “When it comes to privacy concerns, Vanguard features are compliant with regional privacy laws, and the team works directly with Information Security teams and Compliance teams to ensure that Vanguard is safe.

“At this point in time, we have not confirmed any instances of Vanguard bricking anyone’s hardware.”

On May 1, the Mid-Season Invitational for League of Legends began in Chengdu, China. 12 teams are competing for a spot at the 2024 World Championship.