Valorant players report being flagged as cheaters and receiving temporary bans for using third-party tracking software.
Riot Games’ anti-cheat software, Vanguard, has been reported to enforce temporary bans on Valorant players using popular third-party tracking software. These software, often used to view player match history in the lobby, are now marked as “cheating” tools by Vanguard.
The games in which the software was scanned by the anti-cheat tool were canceled, and players received temporary bans (around 24 hours) for using the tracking tools. Some players report having multiple matches terminated in a week due to “cheating,” which could be the tracking tool being flagged as a hack program.
While the banned Valorant players chose to keep mum on their specific programs, some popular third-party software includes Blitz.gg and Tracker.gg – and are mostly powered by Overwolf.
The news of third-party software bans has received mixed reviews from the community. While some players think that playing with trackers is the best way to keep in touch with their progress, some think that trackers lead to pre-game throwing.
Aside from tracking player progress and win rating, some third-party software can also bypass streamer mode and reveal hidden identities and IGNs of players, which can lead to stream sniping and compromised ranked games.
Moreover, some third-party software enables players to instalock certain agents during selection screens, making it hard for solo-queue players to have a cohesive team comp for the map.
While Riot Games has yet to clarify or update Vanguard terms regarding non-hack third-party software, players are advised to disable or uninstall these programs for the time being to avoid unexpected bans.