Riot clamps down on LoL cheaters with series-first hardware bans

League of Legends developer Riot Games has made further changes to clamp down on cheaters by introducing hardware bans, a first-ever for the MOBA.

The news has come after the rollout of Vanguard in the MOBA, which led to a large increase in the number of bans across the game’s higher elos.

“Now that Vanguard has had a bit of time to roll out, we’re starting to target more cheats that we weren’t able to action on in the past,” the dev team stated. “These new waves also will come with League’s first ever Hardware ID bans, increasing the action weight against cheaters.”

Head of anti-cheat at Riot Games Phillip Koskinas also came forward with stats on the matter, revealing that hardware bans were taking up the second-highest amount of bans implemented.

Hardware ID bans mean anyone caught offending will no longer be able to participate while using the same PC, preventing cheaters from playing the game until they replace their hardware — a costly fee that’s sure to dissuade many.

The hardware bans began around May 15 according to the data, with many of the cheaters being from higher elos, mainly Masters and above. This took place only a month after Vanguard itself was introduced to League of Legends, proving Riot is ready to take on cheaters seriously.

With that being said, Vanguard hasn’t gone without its issues. Coming from Riot’s tactical FPS Valorant, many League of Legends players claimed that the anti-cheat was “bricking” their PCs. The devs later responded stating that they have not confirmed any instances of Vanguard doing so.

These hardware bans will prove an interesting strategy against cheats in League of Legends and are just part of Riot’s ongoing efforts to combat cheaters in their games.