Riot Games’ anti-cheat head, Phillip Koskinas, has challenged a Reddit post claiming that a secondhand CPU left a player unable to play VALORANT and caused their other PC components to be blacklisted.
Koskinas said he couldn’t find the player’s support ticket, but described the story as unlikely based on how Riot’s hardware bans work. His response disputes the claimed spread of the ban, while leaving the player’s individual case unresolved.
In brief:
- A Reddit user claimed a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D carried a previous owner’s VALORANT hardware ban.
- They also claimed installing it caused their motherboard and storage to be blacklisted.
- Koskinas says hardware bans last a maximum of four months and apply only to the game where cheating was detected.
- Riot says matching one banned component does not cause every other component to be banned.
What Did the VALORANT Player Claim About Their Used CPU?
In a post on r/PCBaumeister, the player said they bought a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D through classified ads. The processor worked normally, but they were kicked out when they launched VALORANT.
According to the player, Riot support told them the CPU had been flagged following a hardware ban issued on August 12 because its previous owner had apparently cheated. They said they had only owned the processor since September 21.
The post also claimed that the rest of their system, including the motherboard and hard drive, had ended up on the blacklist. In an edit, the player said further contact with support had failed to resolve the problem. These are the poster’s claims, rather than a confirmed account of Riot’s support findings.
Riot Says Hardware Bans Do Not Spread to Every PC Component
Koskinas pushed back on the account and explained that Riot’s hardware bans have a maximum duration of four months. They also apply only to the game in which cheats were detected.
He specifically rejected the claim that one flagged part causes the rest of a PC to be added to the blacklist. In the statement, he said Riot does not ban “everything else” when it matches one component. Players can also ask support how much time remains on a hardware ban.
His explanation challenges the claim that installing the used processor left every other part banned. However, because he couldn’t locate the support ticket, his response does not establish exactly what happened to this player.
Vanguard Hardware Bans and PC Damage Are Separate Issues
Riot has previously addressed concerns about Vanguard affecting hardware. During its crackdown on DMA cheating devices, the company clarified that Vanguard does not physically damage PCs or their components. GameRiv covered that explanation in its report on the Vanguard cheating hardware update.
The player’s specific situation still needs clarification, but Riot has directly rejected the claim that a single matched component automatically gets the whole system blacklisted.
