Riot Games reportedly blocked a German VALORANT player after they installed a used Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which they say had been flagged by Vanguard following its previous owner’s alleged cheating, according to Kotaku.

The player’s account, shared on Reddit and reported by Kotaku, describes a hardware-linked enforcement case that could complicate secondhand PC upgrades. The claim has not been independently confirmed by Riot in the available reporting.

The player said they bought the used CPU on Kleinanzeigen, a German online marketplace, in late September. VALORANT had worked on their computer with the previous processor, they reported, but the game kicked them out immediately after they installed the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

After contacting Riot support, the player said they were told the CPU’s ID or serial number had been blacklisted in Vanguard on August 12. The alleged reason was that the previous owner had used cheats in VALORANT; that account does not establish who owned the processor before the purchase or what Riot’s investigation found.

The player also said Riot indicated that changing the graphics card would not resolve the problem because other components in the system had also been affected. They believed replacing the entire PC might be the only way to play again, but the available report does not confirm that Riot recommended buying a new rig.

The reported sequence is straightforward, but the implications are less so: buyers cannot readily check whether a used component is associated with an anti-cheat flag before purchasing it. PCWorld has described such cases as rare, while noting that hardware-based enforcement can create problems when a flagged part changes hands.

Source link