Even with one of the industry’s best anti-cheat systems, VALORANT isn’t exactly free of hackers. While Riot Vanguard manages to punish most offenders in the tactical shooter, the community isn’t satisfied with its nonchalance by letting those fueling the practice—players who pay to get boosted by cheaters—run free.
On May 19, a player shared their concerning experience against an enemy Jett who dropped 54 kills with 97 percent headshots in a ranked VALORANT game. Interestingly, while the cheating was “obvious,” they noted the cheater was grouping up with four other players not just once, but regularly.
After investigating their Tracker.gg pages, the player came to a concerning conclusion. “So it looks like the person with the cheats just switches accounts when the previous one is banned, and yet the people he’s boosting aren’t getting punished at all,” they shared. “Getting boosted is one thing, but getting boosted by a cheater? Every match is the same 4 people + the 40 kills & 90% hs cheater on different accounts.”
Cheating in video games is serious, but those who promote it without being a cheater themselves are equally at fault—and it looks like Riot isn’t doing enough to deal with the latter group. Needless to say, cheating will persist if we don’t eliminate the demand.
While Riot Vanguard does flag players who regularly play with cheaters, this report proves it may not be consistent enough. Also, anti-cheat bypassing techniques are evolving each day, so it’s not surprising, either.
Stressing that those who consistently play with cheaters should be equally punished, another player highlighted the need for an Elo refund system similar to Rainbow Six Seige, which gives back players their lost ranked points if a cheater is detected after the match ends.
As great as the idea may seem, Riot hasn’t indicated any interest in adding such a feature to VALORANT—yet. It could help alleviate the community’s frustration, so the devs should probably look into it.
