A Valorant player’s viral claim that a secondhand CPU resulted in a permanent hardware ban has drawn a direct response from Riot Games’ anti-cheat leadership. While the company acknowledges the risks inherent in the used PC hardware market, officials have disputed specific technical details of the player’s account, stating that hardware bans do not “infect” other components as alleged.
The situation began when a German Reddit user, posting under the handle After-Cartoonist-196 in the r/PCBaumeister community, reported being banned from Valorant shortly after installing a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The player claimed that because the previous owner had cheated, the CPU arrived with an existing hardware ID (HWID) ban. According to the player’s account, Riot support initially suggested that the ban had spread to their motherboard and storage drives, effectively blacklisting the entire system.
Riot Disputes ‘Infectious’ Ban Mechanism
Phillip Koskinas, Riot Games’ head of anti-cheat, addressed the claims on October 2, noting that he was unable to find a support ticket in the company’s system that matched the specific details provided by the player. Koskinas explicitly clarified how Vanguard, Valorant’s anti-cheat software, handles hardware identification. He denied the possibility of a ban “infecting” clean components simply by being paired with a banned part.
While Vanguard can identify specific components like the CPU or motherboard to enforce a hardware ban, matching one banned serial number does not cause the system to automatically blacklist every other piece of hardware in the machine. This technical distinction suggests that while the CPU itself might be flagged, the player’s original motherboard and SSDs would remain in good standing once the banned part is removed.
The technical reality of buying used CPUs is that there is currently no public database for gamers to verify if a component has been flagged by major anti-cheat engines before completing a purchase. This leaves secondhand buyers reliant on the seller’s honesty regarding the hardware’s history in competitive titles.
Understanding Hardware Ban Limitations
For players who find themselves with flagged hardware, Riot Games maintains a standard policy that limits the impact of these penalties. According to reported technical data and official responses, Valorant hardware bans generally carry a maximum duration of 120 days (four months). After this period, the hardware ID is typically cleared, allowing the components to be used in the game again, provided no further violations occur.
Furthermore, Riot’s HWID bans are game-specific. A hardware ban triggered in Valorant does not automatically lock a player out of other Riot titles, such as League of Legends or Teamfight Tactics. These measures are designed to preserve the integrity of Valorant’s tactical environment without necessarily terminating a user’s entire ecosystem of accounts across different genres.
Community members have noted that if the player’s account of a mid-August ban is accurate, the hardware in question would naturally become eligible for use again by mid-December. Despite the friction caused by the secondhand purchase, Riot maintains that the 120-day cooldown serves as the final resolution for most hardware-level infractions.
