Earlier today, Valorant players accused Vanguard, Riot Games’ anti-cheat software, of going full malware, allegedly bricking PCs. Things didn’t get better as Riot seemingly owned up to it by making jokes at the expense of players, but it seems like it was no more than a tone-deaf joke.
It all began when Twitter user ogisada gathered various photos, seemingly proving how Vanguard was triggering an in-game response that rendered players’ PCs unusable, whether or not they were playing the game. Riot’s official X account responded not by explaining that Vanguard wasn’t, in fact, bricking systems, but by releasing an image of a bunch of supposedly bricked graphics cards, joking that many players were now in possession of $6k paperweights.
congrats to the owners of a brand new $6k paperweight https://t.co/3rjZVQntrc pic.twitter.com/fS3JC0FL0p
— Riot Games (@riotgames) May 21, 2026
