Disaster Vanguard just went live and LoL players are already claiming it’s bricking their PCs - reddit jannies currently deleting threads about it

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Vanguard has finally arrived in League of Legends, and nearly immediately the online community has been awash with players claiming their computers have been “bricked” by the kernel-level program and its activity.

The claims⁠, which were mainly shared on X (formerly Twitter) but also popped up across Reddit and Facebook, range from Vanguard preventing startup programs from firing correctly to other programs crashing when the anti-cheat software loads, and some have even suggested Riot’s kernel program has been “tampering with unrelated files.” Others simply dubbed it “malware” and declared they would be quitting League until the program stopped breaking PCs.

The Vanguard system has the power to shut down League matches. Image via Riot Games
One high-profile example came from famed League creator LS, who reported both his computers breaking after Vanguard was installed on May 1. He said he fixed one by taking out the CMOS battery and forcing BIOS access, but suggested his other computer is “still bricked.”

Several user posts on the purported Vanguard issues have also been shared to the main League subreddit but they have since been deleted.

While Riot has yet to address any of the early backlash directly, tech staff have been active in the “Patch 14.9 Bug Megathread” on /r/LeagueOfLegends. One Riot reply suggested some of today’s alleged issues “wouldn’t be related to Vanguard” and offered up a simpler solution⁠—restart impacted devices and run PC troubleshooting.

The same Riot staffer also suggested any aggrieved players could upload Riot Vanguard logs to the League support page to help “isolate what the issue is.” All the Reddit comments from that Rioter have since been removed.

Today’s Vanguard launch comes after the kernel program was originally delayed. The anti-cheat software, which has been running in VALORANT since the tactical shooter debuted in 2020, is designed to detect third-party programs running on a user’s PC and ban the offending player. The aim is to maintain competitive integrity, with the tradeoff being Vanguard is always running.

League (and VALORANT) are far from the only modern gaming titles to run kernel-level programs like this; Overwatch, Helldivers 2, and Call of Duty are just some other games that include similar programs.

Dot Esports has contacted Riot for a response to today’s claims.
 
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Someone posted on reddit their alert for Vanguard detecting a kernel level video driver and BSOD'ing them

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Day of the Cope said:
Never underestimate the length at which some degenerates will go to in order to win at a fucking video game.
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Fair, but I never hear about cheats in League of Legends, just sometimes bots/scripts that make really hard moves easy. While that's still technically cheating it's nothing like you'd expect from yester-year. No insta-kills or infinite health or clipping through the map to blow up the enemy Nexus while dabbing on them or full map vision.
 
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Lady Adjani said:
Does LoL have a massive cheating problem to the point where they have to use kernel-level anti-cheat?
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no.
the way league (and other games that use rts style engines, like dota or starcraft) works is that pretty much everything is done server-side, the only cheating you can really do in it is client side scripting where you use programs that automatically input movement commands to help you avoid enemy abilities instead of trying to rely on your own reaction speed to do it.
you can also use scripts to keep track of information so you don't have to do it in your own head, like jungle camp respawn timers or enemy skill cooldowns.
it's all very minor stuff, not even close to the crazy advantage you get from cheating in shooters with wallhacks and aimbots. it's also extremely rare, nowhere near as widespread as in games like tarkov.
 
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Bonedome said:
Fair, but I never hear about cheats in League of Legends, just sometimes bots/scripts that make really hard moves easy. While that's still technically cheating it's nothing like you'd expect from yester-year. No insta-kills or infinite health or clipping through the map to blow up the enemy Nexus while dabbing on them or full map vision.
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Exactly, unless they've fully embraced their AI overlords and just allow the bot to do everything for them.
Day of the Cope said:
Never underestimate the length at which some degenerates will go to in order to win at a fucking video game.
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Oh I know, I played MMOs back in the day so I'm kinda used to people cutting corners.

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Bonedome said:
No insta-kills or infinite health or clipping through the map to blow up the enemy Nexus while dabbing on them or full map vision
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Bobba Fett's Trainer in the original Diablo.

I liked doing the "jump key" prank on noobs. Use the cheat to cast spells in town to teleport across the little stream by the spawn point, then drop a bunch of cool loot on the ground. Some noob would join the game and ask, "how do I get over there to pick that stuff up?" Then you just keep telling them to find the jump key until they rage quit.

Fun times.
 
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Lady Adjani said:
Does LoL have a massive cheating problem to the point where they have to use kernel-level anti-cheat?
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No, they have a problem with bots, rage-quitters, and win-trading more than actual cheating. I don't play anymore but I've only ever encountered an actual cheater twice in all of my games. One scripter and one ddoser.

Oh and toxicity but that's really just a fake problem latched onto by developers to ignore the real problems in their games.
 
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Its just worthless Chinese spybots, pretty much all hacks are custom made for small batches of people by pros. You won't catch then unless you are using locked down terminals. There's been fps pros playing at LANs that sneak in hacks in custom mouse or keyboard firmware. It's over.
 
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See this is why I don't care about these malware anti-cheats not working on linux, not only do they not stop cheating but they literally will target completely legitimate software. not only that, but it has been revealed that Vanguard literally takes screenshots of open windows including discord chats.
 
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Lone Wandering Courier said:
See this is why I don't care about these malware anti-cheats not working on linux, not only do they not stop cheating but they literally will target completely legitimate software. not only that, but it has been revealed that Vanguard literally takes screenshots of open windows including discord chats.
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That last part sounds all kinds of illegal given it would be real easy to compromise peoples security, confidential data and shit that might be protected by NDAs or HIPAA such as a window open with a email half written to a doctor, client or employer. To say nothing of the fact there is no legitimate reason to do such a thing

The same Riot staffer also suggested any aggrieved players could upload Riot Vanguard logs to the League support page to help “isolate what the issue is.”
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Yeah thats a real smart thing to tell people with a bricked PC to do

All the Reddit comments from that Rioter have since been removed.
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Gee i'm sure riot games isn't trying to shut customers with legitimate grievances up at all by contacting reddit and putting pressure on to them to illegally shut up customers and try to hide incidents like that. Totally not violating consumer protection laws at all there i'm sure

This whole thing is sketchy as fuck. There is no legitimate reason to be doing this kind of shit for 'anti cheating' purposes. Nor should they be causing these kinds of issues unless whatever they're trying to do involves more than anti cheat related shit
 
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