Riot is rolling out Vanguard-yes, the same kernel-level anti-cheat from Valorant-into League of Legends. That immediately grabbed my attention because scripts and botting have been a slow-burning problem in League for years. Whether you’ve run into “unmissable” skillshots, suspicious orbwalking, or lobbies full of leveling bots, you know the vibe. Bringing a tougher anti-cheat to the Rift could actually move the needle-if Riot executes well.
Vanguard is a kernel-level driver that starts with your PC and needs to be running before League lets you queue. If you exit it, you’ll have to reboot to play again. Valorant players have lived with this for years, so the playbook is familiar. The upside: it makes life harder for cheat developers who rely on low-level hooks and external tools. The trade-off: it’s strict about what runs alongside your game.
From a boots-on-the-ground perspective, the biggest early wins should be around script-heavy behaviors: perfect dodging via “evade,” automated last-hitting that never misses, and hyper-consistent kiting that looks inhuman. It also raises the barrier for bot farms that level accounts for resale. If you play norms or low-ranked games and see 4-5 bots auto-pathing to towers, you know exactly why this matters.
Performance-wise, kernel anti-cheat doesn’t inherently tank FPS, but conflicts can. If you suddenly see crashes or the client refusing to launch, start by uninstalling legacy utility apps you don’t use anymore. It’s not glamorous, but it solves most headaches I’ve seen with similar drivers.
League’s Season 14 changes reshuffled the meta—from terrain tweaks to itemization—and the skill floor has been in flux. That makes competitive integrity more important than ever. Nothing ruins a learning curve like running into someone with robotic dodge timing or a lane opponent who last-hits with machine precision while tabbing out. Cleaning up that noise helps legit players feel their improvements matter, which keeps people queuing after rough nights.
It’s also about trust. Riot’s earlier anti-cheat solutions could catch low-effort scripts but felt whack-a-mole against paid tools. Moving the fight to a deeper layer is Riot admitting the old tooling wasn’t enough. That’s not a failure; it’s an evolution most competitive PC games have had to make. Valorant, major battle royales, and tactical shooters have all gone lower-level in the last few years because the cat-and-mouse escalated.
Let’s be real: no anti-cheat is magic. Cheaters iterate, and there will be workarounds. The real test isn’t the first week—it’s three months in. Does ranked feel cleaner? Do you see fewer brand-new accounts playing like seasoned smurfs with perfect mechanics and zero hesitation? Are bot lobbies rarer in off-hours queues? Those are the metrics that matter to players.
I’m also watching how aggressively Riot tunes false positives. Valorant had stretches where perfectly normal drivers got flagged and players couldn’t even boot the game. If Riot communicates quickly, publishes known-conflict lists, and pushes fast fixes, frustrations stay manageable. Silence breeds conspiracy theories.
Short term, expect fewer blatant scripts and a hit to account-leveling services. Medium term, Riot needs to pair Vanguard with smarter behavior systems—AFK/intentional feeding punishments, remake improvements, and better smurf detection—to cash in on the cleaner baseline. Long term, success looks like players not talking about cheating much at all. The best anti-cheat is the one you forget is there because the games feel fair.
Vanguard in League is a big step that should reduce scripts and botting, especially on fresh and lower-MMR accounts. Keep your drivers and utilities updated, expect a reboot on first launch, and give it a few patches before judging the results. If Riot communicates well and stays nimble, ranked integrity gets a real boost.
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