Through their last devblog, Riot Games has reported significant progress in their battle against cheaters on League of Legends, thanks to the integration of Vanguard, their advanced anti-cheat system. Since Vanguard's implementation on live servers, on May 1st, the game has seen a dramatic decrease in both scripters and bots, making the competitive experience much fairer.

Significant Reduction in Scripters and Bots

One of the most notable achievements of Vanguard is the drastic decreasing number of scripters—players who use automated scripts to gain an unfair advantage. According to Riot Games, the number of Ranked games involving scripters has dropped to below 1% for the first time in nearly four years. This success is underscored by the fact that over 175,000 accounts have been banned for cheating since Vanguard's implementation.

Botting, another pervasive issue, has also seen a significant reduction. Before the Riot's anti-cheat system, bots were consuming over 1 million game hours per day. Thanks to Vanguard's anti-virtual machine techniques, this number has plummeted to less than 5,000 hours daily. The crackdown on bots has also involved the removal of 3.5 million bot accounts, which were often used to fuel account-selling markets and smurfing.

Vanguard has not only reduced the number of cheaters but has also improved the speed at which they are banned. Riot's data shows that the "Time-to-Action"—the number of games a cheater can play before being banned—has decreased from over 45 games to less than 10. This swift action is crucial as it brought quick and effective results.

Despite its aggressive stance against cheating, Vanguard has maintained a remarkably low false positive rate. Less than 0.01% of all bans have been reversed due to errors, and in those rare cases, the average suspension lasted less than 72 hours. This level of accuracy is essential for preserving player trust in the system.

Analysis on the 9 Most Scripted Champions

Riot Games also shared an analysis of Vanguard’s impact on the nine most commonly scripted champions. The dashboard you'll find below highlights how these champions' performances change between cheaters and legitimate players, showing win rate variations over time. The timeline reveals that scripters' win rates have dropped noticeably since Vanguard’s introduction, suggesting that cheaters are facing significant hurdles. Vanguard has made internal cheats harder to use without detection, prompting many cheaters to switch to external cheats.

These external cheats, which rely on screen reading rather than direct game memory access, are inherently less effective. Consequently, we’re seeing a decline in both the performance of scripters and the overall win rates of commonly scripted champions. While variables like balance changes and seasonal shifts play a role, the trend indicates that cheaters are struggling to maintain high ranks, adding a positive twist to the ongoing fight against cheating.

Challenges and Future Outlook

While Vanguard has made progress in fighting cheaters, Riot Games is committed to continuous improvements to ensure a fair gaming experience for everyone. One key challenge is making sure Vanguard blocks cheaters before they can access the system’s core. Sometimes this conflicts with older and legitimate software drivers, but Riot is working to balance security with user convenience.

Another major concern from the community is regarding "bootlooping", where a malfunctioning driver could cause system crashes. They are stating that Vanguard avoids this problem by using a simple, static code and a safety mechanism to ensure the system remains stable. League of Legends players have also faced issues with Vanguard sessions when switching devices or leaving their client running. Riot Games is addressing this by improving session checks to prevent disruptions.

Looking ahead, Vanguard plans to enhance its features to tackle boosting, where players cheat to rank up by pairing with lower-ranked accounts. Riot also aims to reduce the need for constant system protection with updates for Windows 11, promising a smoother experience.

Additionally, Vanguard is expanding to macOS around the end of the year with a new version called Embedded Vanguard (mVG). This will help tackle cheats that have moved to macOS systems.