Valorant’s new Vanguard update seems to be bricking cheaters’ PCs. Riot’s response? “Congrats on your $6k paperweights”
https://www.pcgamesn.com/valorant/vanguard-update-bricking-pcs-riot-response
Valorant’s new Vanguard update seems to be bricking cheaters’ PCs. Riot’s response? “Congrats on your $6k paperweights”
https://www.pcgamesn.com/valorant/vanguard-update-bricking-pcs-riot-response
43 Comments
Cheaters in multiplayer games are scum and I’m not going to shed a single tear for them.
With that said I have *concerns* about a game copy having this level of access to consumer devices.
I thought this would have to be a bug but that response from Riot makes it sound like they actually meant to brick these machines.
I’m guessing they’re just being edgy for the social media “likes” because bricking machines can’t be legal.
Ban them and their hardware from all your franchised games, heck, share it in an anti cheat database, but you can’t deprive someone of their property for the full day it takes to get Windows and your apps reinstalled.
>Cheats in a video game
>Destroys your property
Who’s the bad guy here?
Bold choice considering Sony lost a similar to claim in court with their own manufactured PlayStations
Yeah fuck all of that. Surely this would lead to lawsuits?
riot’s legal team: they said *what*
The lawyers are going to love this tweet – we did it on purpose and then bragged about it.
That’s a bold strategy
If there was a software that could brick my hardware, I’d less likely install that software.
This is malware
Okay so the PCs are still usable after a reinstall of your OS, so not really bricked.
No one’s machine is getting “bricked”. The anticheat fucks with the OS on the cheating device (the DMA board that is plugged into the PC) and they have to reset it. The “paperweight” comment is referring to the fact that the device is useless for cheating in Valorant.
Just reposting the top comment from the r/games thread:
*According to people who actually know anything about how computers work, everything in the article’s headline is either grossly misleading or factually incorrect:*
1. *Vanguard doesn’t have access to the type of stuff it would need to brick your PC*
2. *The thing that it’s “bricking” is not PCs, it’s the $6000 DMA cards that cheaters use to try and get around Vanguard. (Yes, cheating has gotten to the point where cheaters are buying hardware that costs thousands of dollars just to cheat at a video game)*
3. *Vangaurd isn’t “bricking” the DMA device. What’s happening is that a built-in Windows security feature is being triggered which prevents the device from being used for cheating. Any instances of PCs “bricking” seems to be caused by Windows and the Card having issues with each other and can be completely fixed by removing the card. The PC still functions otherwise if you remove the DMA card, and this trigger can be reset by removing Vanguard and reinstalling Windows on the device. So it’s neither being bricked, nor is it being done by Vanguard itself.*
4. *The “6k paperweights” line is referring to the DMA devices no long being useful for cheating at Valorant, it’s not jeering at cheaters losing their PCs. (Because again that isn’t actually happening)*
*I’m not a computer expert, but from what I can tell what’s really happening is that Vanguard is making sure that an already built-in Windows security feature is being properly applied to the DMA device for the game to run which prevents the DMA card from accessing the system’s memory. (Which is how these types of cheats work) So a bit different from what the article title is implying.*
This is misleading as fuck.
What’s being bricked is a PCIe device used to cheat. In order to clear the flag that renders the device inoperable, you have to reinstall the OS.
Computer still usable. Terrible fucking rage bait headline.
This is a clickbait article. It doesn’t brick the cheaters PC but a component that cost $6k that supposed to bypass anti cheats
For those wondering about being sued, they are actually pretty safe.
It would be in the TOS, along a warning about improper use of the game could lead to software issues.
A reinstall of the OS fixes the issue, nothing is actually broken.
Built using cheats you accept all the risk that comes with them, including any hardware or software impacts caused by a game being altered (ie cheats)
Reading more than just the headline is hard for folks I guess…
The Title is misleading, they aren’t bricking anything they are deactivating DMA cards which are exclusively used for cheating and they can be reactivated via a Windows reinstall.
Common clickbait title
Reddit will say anything before reading or understanding what is actually going on here. It doesn’t brick your PC
I call bullshit. There would have to be people playing Vanguard for them to be cheating.
Back when i was running windows, installing Vanguard, didnt break my pc, but it fudged it up totally. Had to do a bios reset, and then add my hd’s back in one at a time and boot. When i finally got back into windows up popped vanguard again asking to startup. Thats when i though sod it, wiped win11 off my machine, installed linux (because steamdeck was a dream) and never looked back!
pcgamesn isn’t a news site, it’s a blog and it’s full of nonsense. No they’re not bricking anyone’s PCs.
Seems malicious and illegal. Curious how that plays out. Can’t imagine it’s good.
Not confident the author of this article knows what it means to “brick” a device
*I hate every body*
Cheating or not they just created malware which is far worse and then gloated. That’ll hold up well in court.
Hope they have good lawyers.
I don’t wanna believe Riot people are this stupid, but let’s see what happens.
Edit: They’re not bricking the PC, rather “bricking” their cheating-card.
Oh man I gotta get in on this lawsuit. What’s the best cheat nowadays?
Savage move.
And yet activision still can’t implement a proper anti cheat in cod
Cheaters can get fucked.
Glad we have a bunch of legal experts here!
Damn Halo Studios please do this for Halo MCC
Sounds like the headline is just clickbait, it’s basically fucking up the cheat setup not “bricking” normal PCs, and cheaters can deal with it.
DMA cards aren’t 6k though? Unless there is some super dma card that also feeds your pets I’m unaware of (entirely possible)
There is reality, and then there is what you really, really want to be reality…
Those are not the same thing.
just a grossly misleading and straight factually incorrect headline. good lord
They zero chance of winning a suit aganist Riot for this. DMCA laws are strong and they are in favor of the publisher.
It’s sucks but they violated terms and conditions. They don’t have a leg to stand on here for this. That’s why Riot is cocky.
Does anyone read anything anymore or even use a single oz of their brain? This does not brick PCs. It bricks external cheating drives and only for Valorant. Now whether that is too much is still up for you to decide. However I’ve straight up stopped playing multiplayer games at this point because cheating is so rampant making everything so unfun.
If your computer turns on and can boot from the internal storage or external storage like a USB stick, it’s not bricked…
How pathetic do you need to be to spend thousands of dollars to cheat at a game?
what’s stopping a bad actor using it as a platform to actually brick sata/nvme drives? what about it getting flagged with false positives, and “bricks” an actual drive like i still use my old go xlr so what happens to me if it bricks those drives? drives i cant install anymore, that forces me to reinstall my OS and the data corruption that could happen? its a gross overstep by a company who does not deserve any trust.
Imagine spending $6k on a setup just to lose to anti-cheat software instead of actual players