Riot has officially banned the first account found cheating during the Valorant closed beta. Since the opening of the beta, thousands of players have ecstatically geared up to experience the game for the first time. The game’s fun gunplay and free-to-play format (F2P) has attracted a massive amount of attention. But while F2P games are highly accessible, that also makes them more susceptible to cheaters and hackers.
Other F2P shooters like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have had issues with blatant cheaters wreaking havoc throughout matchmaking servers. Now, some of these individuals have set their sights on Valorant, and Riot is already fighting back.
Hackers break the anti-cheat
Paul Chamberlain, Anti-Cheat Lead for Valorant, revealed the team has banned the first account it’s found cheating. He continues by stating they fully expect to ban more accounts shortly.
Well it sucks, but today we had to ban our first cheater (and it looks like more bans are on the horizon).
I was hoping for a little more time before this fight kicked off but we're in it now and we're ready.
— Paul Chamberlain (@arkem) April 9, 2020
The announcement came quickly after content creator Mark “phantasy” Pinney posted a clip on Twitter. This showed a user, “weird,” blatantly using both aim and wallhacks in the middle of a match. Weird is seen confidently moving around the map, aim-locking at players’ heads through walls and acing his opponents without breaking a sweat.
Valorant has only been playable for a short period, so the fact that hackers have already discovered ways to infiltrate the game’s anti-cheat is disheartening. However, Chamberlain emphasizes that Riot is ready and able to combat the inevitable influx of cheaters. Furthermore, developers have spoken on how seriously the team plans to punish cheaters. Joe Ziegler, Design Director for Valorant, stated they would even implement full hardware bans. Banned users, then, couldn’t reaccess Valorant servers without obtaining an entirely new computer system.
Fans of the game have responded well to Chamberlain’s announcement. After all, the company’s proactive approach shows that Riot prioritizes upholding competitive integrity and facilitating a healthy community. It’s exactly what you want to see in a new and upcoming title like Valorant.
