Valorant player claims used CPU came with a cheating ban

Buying a used processor seemed like an easy way to save some money. But one German gamer says their upgrade left them unable to play Valorant because the previous owner had apparently been banned for cheating. (You could argue that's for the better haha)

The player shared their experience on Reddit, claiming Riot support linked the problem to their secondhand CPU. Riot’s anti-cheat director has since questioned the story and denied some of the details.

Player says Valorant stopped working aftetitlr a CPU upgrade

Posting in the German PCBaumeister subreddit, After-Cartoonist-196 said they bought a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D on September 21. Valorant had worked with their old processor, but after installing the replacement, they were kicked out as soon as they launched the game.

According to the post, Riot support told them the processor was linked to a hardware ban issued on August 12, before they bought it. The player said the previous owner had apparently used it to cheat.

They also claimed support told them their motherboard and storage drive had been flagged after connecting the banned processor, leaving them with no way to fix the problem.

Riot questions the account and denies other parts were banned

Riot anti-cheat director Phillip Koskinas responded on X, saying he could not find a support ticket that matched the details in the post.

He described the story as “pretty unlikely” and explained that Riot’s hardware bans last no longer than four months. He also said they only affect the game in which the cheating happened, and support should tell players how much time remains on a ban.

Koskinas separately denied the claim that installing a banned component causes Vanguard to blacklist other parts of the computer.

That leaves the player’s account disputed. If the reported August 12 ban did exist and lasted the full four months, it would run until December 12. However, Riot has not confirmed that this is what happened to the buyer.

The post still raises a concern for people buying used PC parts: how can they know whether a component is linked to a hardware ban before paying for it?

Vanguard has faced questions about its access to PC hardware before. In May, Riot drew criticism after comments about the anti-cheat being able to “brick” hardware, prompting the company to respond to players’ concerns.