Valorant isn’t even out of closed beta yet and the game has already had two significant ban waves. Riot Games announced a week ago that over 8,000 cheaters had been booted from the game and now another 1,600 are following in their footsteps.
According to Riot’s anti-cheat data engineer Phillip Koskinas who is “geeked up off the ban juice,” 1,600 accounts “just went missing.” It’s a pretty interesting way of announcing he and the rest of the anti-cheat team just swung the ban hammer, but it’s good news for the competitive playerbase who are sick of facing cheaters in ranked mode.
Vanguard, Valorant’s anti-cheat system, might have come under fire for its intrusiveness and for causing problems with drivers – something Riot insists it has fixed – but at least it’s actually doing what it was built to do.
While those banned won’t be able to play the closed beta anymore, some will get a chance to prove their worth once the game launches later this summer.
1600 VALORANT accounts just went missing and we’re still geeked up off the ban juice
— Phillip Koskinas (@mirageopenguins) May 19, 2020
“Valorant ‘soulbans’ are live,” he says on Twitter. “So if you’ve cheated before, all your past, present, and future accounts will also be suspended. Some spirits will be released when the game is, allowing you to try once more on a new account – but this is the absolute limit of our mercy.”
Valorant doesn’t have a proper release date yet, but it’s due to come out later this summer.