A German gamer bought a secondhand AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and was banned from Valorant because Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat had blacklisted the chip's hardware ID in August 2026 over a prior owner's cheating. Riot support told the buyer the ban couldn't be reversed, though Riot anti-cheat specialist Phillip Koskinas later clarified on X that such hardware bans are game-specific and last a maximum of four months, and that only the flagged component—not the whole PC—gets denylisted.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-03
A Reddit user says Valorant banned him immediately after installing a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU, claiming Riot found the chip's serial number already blacklisted and that the motherboard and storage drive were also flagged. Riot's Phillip Koskinas disputes several details, saying Vanguard does not blacklist an entire system over one flagged part and that bans are game-specific rather than applying across all Riot titles.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-03
A Reddit user reported being banned from Valorant and other Riot Games titles after installing a secondhand AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor. Riot support confirmed the chip was blacklisted because its previous owner had cheated, and said such entries are not removed manually, meaning the ban carried over to the new buyer.
hardware.slashdot.org
· 2026-10-02
GoKawiil