Valorant Anti-Cheat Lead Talks About Hardware Bans, Detection and AI Approach

Cover and thumbnail via @Riot Games

Valorant’s Anti Cheat lead, Paul Chamberlain recently did an interview with techtudo.com to talk about the anti cheat measures in the game. Since then, he has also replied on a Reddit thread to clarify on what Valorant’s position on cheating is and how they approached the process of developing an Anti-Cheat. Here are some key excerpts from both the interview and the Reddit thread. 

Valorant’s Anti-cheat to be called Vanguard

The anti-cheat will be game agnostic ie, it could be applied to games other than Valorant as well. According to Chamberlain, there were three key approaches when designing the game and the anti-cheat:

1. Making the game resistant to cheating
2. Making development of cheats difficult and expensive
3. Having a flexible investigation system and quick action system

AI Based System

Vanguard will be an AI based system that monitors players and servers in real time. The platform will be in charge of detecting, investigation and even banning players who are using cheats. Common cheats in FPS games such as aimbots and wallhacks have been a core focus when developing Vanguard. 

Other than Vanguard, the team is also working on data driven approaches to make aimbot detection models, but it is in its early phase. 

Temporary Hardware Bans for Cheaters

Not only will accounts who use cheats be suspended, there are also plans to issue temporary hardware bans to the computers to prohibit cheaters from making new accounts. In case of repeat offences, a permanent hardware ban could also be issued. However, hardware bans will only be issued for cheating and not for griefing and/or bad behavior. 

Within the Reddit thread, Chamberlain also talks about accuracy of detection, learning from other AI anti-cheat systems and having other systems such as trust factor or prime matchmaking.