Valorant’s anti-cheat software, Vanguard, struck again, banning a player live in a scrim against Dignitas' all-female roster.
A few hours ago, Amanda “Rain” Smith, a professional Valorant player of the Dignitas roster and a Twitch-partnered streamer, tweeted about the Vanguard ban that an opponent received in the middle of their scrim match.
The player in question, who goes by the in-game name ReFelcktions, was caught by Vanguard for using a third-party application in the shooter and immediately received an HWID ban in the middle of a match.
What’s more surprising is that the player was ranked 7 in the North American Valorant leaderboard at the time of the suspension.
Vanguard has been working overtime ever since Valorant had its official launch in June 2020.
Very recently, it cracked down on cheaters and cheat makers, which ultimately resulted in the banning of over 4,500 players in the game.
Cheating in Valorant
It’s quite hard to determine if a person is actually using third-party software in Valorant. With the amount of smurfing that goes on in-game, there is no limit to the total number of griefers that Valorant currently has.
Even former CS: GO professional and current Team Liquid Valorant star Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom tweeted that there are more cheaters in Riot’s shooter than what meets the eye.
So it’s quite challenging to say if Vanguard’s strict anti-cheat policies are making the game's competitive environment healthier.
However, there are many in the Valorant community who feel that it’s the right step forward, and Vanguard will eventually help the shooter maintain its competitive integrity in the long run.
Even the friendly-neighborhood Anti-Cheat Police feel that “Vanguard is just on a roll to finding these closet cheaters”.
Related: Valorant's Vanguard cracks down on cheats; reportedly affects 4,500+ cheat users