A Reddit user under the nickname After-Cartoonist-196 reported a permanent ban in the game Valorant after installing a second-hand AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor. The user purchased the hardware on September 21.
Riot Games confirmed that the CPU serial number was blacklisted by the Vanguard anti-cheat system on August 12. The previous owner of the processor had used cheats, leading to a hardware-level ban.
The Vanguard system, which operates at the kernel level, identified the blacklisted hardware upon startup. Consequently, the developer refused to unban the user's account.
The ban extended beyond the game account to other computer components, including the motherboard and hard drive. To regain access to Riot games, the user must replace all affected hardware.
