Riot Games launched the closed beta of VALORANT with strong anti-cheat protection called Vanguard from day one.

Just after players realized that Vanguard actually works at the kernel level to deal with cheaters, many opposed the idea of Riot Games having such access to players’ personal devices. Many argued that they are not gonna subject themselves to Riot’s seemingly intrusive anti-cheat system just to play a video game.

Even though Riot continued to explain to their community that they were not selling user data, many rightfully concerned users were really not happy with Vanguard. Some complained about the fact that there wasn’t enough visual indication of when Vanguard was running in the background. As Vanguard started at system boot, many also were concerned with external attacks by other malicious parties.

Vanguard will now show a system tray icon while it is running

After listening to their community feedback regarding their anti-cheat solution, Riot Games finally decided to add a new visual component that will give you, the player, more visibility and control over it.

If Vanguard blocks certain incompatible or vulnerable software from running on your machine, then you are gonna get a notification alert like this one above.

Clicking on the notification will provide you with more details on why your programs were not compatible with Vanguard.

Riot Vanguard will now give you an option to uninstall it completely. However, if you uninstall it, you will not be able to play VALORANT. Right after you restart your PC, Vanguard will automatically reinstall itself. Only then will you be eligible to play VALORANT.

Riot Games also decided to be more transparent with how Vanguard actually works without compromising its system too much. This level of openness from Riot Games is commendable.

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