Cheating (and the anti-cheat systems that game developers create to protect players) is always a hot topic in the world. pc games space, and is particularly relevant for highly competitive PvP shooters like Counter-Strike or Valuing. The latter is actually going through a pretty considerable upheaval right now centered around its anti-cheat, sparked by a controversial post from Riot Games, the studio behind it.
On Tuesday, Valorant players began to report that an update to Riot’s Vanguard anti-cheat software was preventing DMA firmwares (specially designed pieces of hacking hardware that connect to your PC and bypass kernel-level anti-cheat solutions) from working properly.
Even when the free tactical shooting game is not running or Vanguard is removed from your system, the firmwares no longer work; the only way to make them functional again on your PC is to completely reinstall them windows or any other operating system you are using.
You may be thinking, “What’s the problem?” Well, the new effectiveness of Vanguard against DMA cards could have been celebrated by the Valorant community, if not for Riot makes a pretty bold statement: “Congratulations to the owners of a new $6,000 paperweight.”
That was posted on And as you can imagine… that didn’t go well. You are welcome.
Well, that escalated quickly. There’s been a wave of complaints from cheaters about Vanguard “crashing” their PCs, so let’s get that straight: Vanguard doesn’t damage your hardware or disable your devices. The photo we posted is an image of cheating hardware devices that are sold explicitly… https://t.co/dXb75Z91k9May 22, 2026
The post’s misunderstanding spread like wildfire and caused a colossal stir, prompting Riot to clarify things in detail in a long follow up post. “Well, that escalated quickly,” the developer wrote. “There’s been a wave of claims from cheaters about Vanguard ‘crashing’ their PCs, so let’s get that straight: Vanguard doesn’t damage your hardware or disable your devices.”
The studio went on to explain that Vanguard connects to your PC’s Input Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) security feature to detect and counter devices like DMA cards, preventing them from functioning while IOMMU protections are enabled. Disabling them will make the firmware devices work again, but since Valorant and other Riot games require them, you won’t be able to use them in those titles.
“This means that the cheat device will not work with our games, but your PC is not ‘locked’. We would not and cannot affect the functionality of your PC in any other way,” Riot said. “This functionality only applies to systems that attempt to use DMA cheat devices, and players not using DMA-based cheat setups are not affected.”
Ultimately, that makes things pretty clear, although some still argue that Vanguard’s protections go overboard here and shouldn’t affect a piece of hardware someone buys. Others, however, consider them appropriate since that hardware is used to violate Valorant’s Terms of Service. Some have also expressed concern about possible issues with false positives with anti-cheat.
It’s an undeniably murky topic, and one around which debates will surely continue ad infinitum. But I’m at least glad Riot took the time to make it clear to people that Vanguard isn’t bricking Valorant players’ PCs.
What do you think about Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat and the fact that it prevents DMA cards from working without disabling IOMMU or reinstalling the OS? Let me know below.
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