Deus ex machina. Ghost in the machine. There may be secrets hidden in our computer components. Corrupt files. Spyware. Unused memes. Rarely paranormal spirits, but sometimes a past life will persist. A German Valorant The player allegedly experienced an unforeseen interruption when they were unceremoniously blocked from the game. Were they arrested for cheating? No, but the previous owner of their used processor was.
“I launched Valorant and was immediately kicked,” posted Reddit user After-Cartoonist-196. “I found this strange because the game ran fine on my old CPU. When I contacted Riot, I was told that my CPU ID/serial number was blacklisted by the Vanguard system; he had been hit with a material ban on August 12 because the previous owner had apparently used him to cheat Valorant.”
According to the poster, they purchased a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D from Kleinanzeigen, a German alternative to eBay, in late September. Saving a few euros on equipment wanted, but unable to exercise the equipment on a tour Valorantthey discovered that the coin was internally tagged by Vanguard, Riot’s infamous internal anti-cheat detection system. In a later comment, the poster states that even though they replaced the CPU with another, Riot informed them that all parts of their rig had been equally tainted by the cursed microchip. Short of buying a whole new rig, “there’s nothing” they can’t do.
“I’m leaving the post online anyway,” the message said, failing to come up with a clean solution, “maybe this will help save someone else from a similar situation.”
Perhaps finally answering Theseus’ dilemma, this crazy coincidence illustrates just how deep anti-cheat technology can go. How far a digital fingerprint will reach, even if someone else is wearing the glove. Popular anti-cheat systems are capable of tagging individual computer components, from the motherboard to more sophisticated Ethernet cables. This isn’t the first time Vanguard has been called overzealous, but as high-performance computer parts become a hot commodity, increasing their price and scarcity, how they will ultimately be tracked can’t help but leave one feeling a little haunted.
Gn tech
