Valorant Player Banned Because Previous Owner of Used CPU Cheated

A German Valorant player says they were locked out of the game right after buying a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D, because the processor's previous owner had cheated and Riot's Vanguard anti-cheat had flagged the chip with a hardware ban. The player has no way back in short of replacing their whole system, according to a post on Reddit.

The player, who goes by After-Cartoonist-196, described the incident on Reddit. "I launched Valorant and was immediately kicked out," they wrote. "I found this strange because the game ran fine with my previous CPU. When I contacted Riot, I was told that my CPU ID/serial number is blacklisted in the Vanguard system; it had been hit with a hardware ban on August 12th because the previous owner apparently used it to cheat in Valorant."

A ban that follows the hardware

According to the poster, they bought the chip on Kleinanzeigen, a German eBay alternative, in late September. The 5800X3D is a sought-after gaming processor, and buying it used saved them a few euros. That saving ended up costing them access to the game.

The poster adds that Riot told them the problem is not limited to the CPU. Other parts in their rig are also affected, and short of buying an entirely new system, "there is nothing" they can do. They left the post up in the hope of warning others: "I'm leaving the post up anyway, perhaps it will help save someone else from a similar situation."

Why this can happen

Vanguard is Riot's kernel-level anti-cheat, and it has drawn criticism for being overzealous before. Anti-cheat systems of this kind can tag individual components, from the motherboard down to network hardware, so a ban can attach to the parts rather than to an account alone. When the hardware changes hands, the flag goes with it.

That matters more as PC components get pricier and scarcer and more players turn to the secondhand market. A buyer has no easy way to know whether a part carries a ban, and the only check available is to ask the seller whether the hardware was ever used to cheat. The Reddit post is a single account of one player's experience, and Riot has not publicly commented on the case in anything the poster shared.

If you are buying used CPUs, motherboards, or other components for a Valorant rig, it is worth asking the seller about the part's history first, and keeping the listing and messages in case you need to appeal.