League of Legends moved from its older anti-cheat system, Packman, to Riot Vanguard to make scripting, botting, and repeat cheating harder to sustain. Vanguard adds an early-loading kernel-mode driver on Windows, giving Riot another way to protect the game from cheats that operate below ordinary applications. The change is already live: Riot deployed Vanguard with patch 14.9 in May 2024. Mac uses an embedded version that does not require a separate Vanguard installation.
The upgrade aims to improve detection and prevention, not promise a cheat-free game. It also brings a real trade-off for Windows players: Vanguard starts with the computer and must remain active while the League client is open.
League’s servers validate the match state, so many cheats do not simply rewrite the rules of a game. Riot says a major challenge has been scripting: software that automates inputs in response to game events, such as dodging skill shots or timing attacks. Bot accounts create another problem because they can be leveled and sold or used to replace banned accounts.
That cycle matters in a free-to-play game. A ban may interrupt a cheater, but it does not automatically remove the tools or account supply that let them return. In its April 2024 explanation, Riot said that in the months before Vanguard’s launch, as many as one in 15 League games globally had a scripter or botter, with the rate reaching one in five in some regions. Those figures describe Riot’s pre-Vanguard snapshot, not today’s cheating rate.
Riot also said its older anti-cheat, called Packman, depended more on League’s update cadence to ship new detections. The company’s rationale was that an anti-cheat with system-level protections could make it harder to hide cheats and could react without waiting for every League client update. Read Riot’s developer explanation of Vanguard in League for the original technical case.
Vanguard combines a client that runs while League is active with a kernel-mode driver. On Windows, the driver is an on-boot component. Loading early helps Vanguard address a “who loads first” problem: a vulnerable driver that gains access to the operating-system kernel before anti-cheat protections could help a cheat conceal itself. Riot says Vanguard can block known vulnerable drivers and use anti-cheat signals to identify tampering.
This does not mean Vanguard scans everything or makes cheating impossible. Riot’s technical post describes memory-signature checks and other signals, while explaining that some enforcement is deliberately delayed so cheat developers do not immediately learn which detection exposed them. That is why claims that every cheater is kicked and banned in real time are too strong.
| System | How it works | Player impact |
|---|---|---|
| Packman | League’s previous anti-cheat, as named by Riot. | Riot said detection updates were more closely tied to League’s client update cycle. |
| Vanguard on Windows | A League-active client works with an early-loading kernel driver and preventive protections. | The driver starts with Windows; Vanguard must be active while League is open. |
| Embedded Vanguard on Mac | Anti-cheat detection is integrated into the game client. | Riot began rolling it out with patch 25.S1.2 in January 2025, with no separate Vanguard install. |
Riot’s patch 14.9 notes made Vanguard a requirement for League on Windows: players who did not have it installed had to install it and restart before queuing. Riot announced the Mac implementation in its patch 25.S1.2 notes.
Riot’s August 2024 retrospective reported that it had banned more than 175,000 accounts for cheating since Vanguard launched. It also said the share of Ranked games with a scripter had fallen below one percent at the time—about one in 200 games. These are dated figures from Riot’s report, not a live dashboard or a guarantee that every queue is clean. The same update said the number of games a detected cheater could play before action had fallen from more than 45 to fewer than 10, with some delay retained to protect future detections.
Vanguard also became part of Riot’s response after a match is ruined. Starting with patch 25.06 in March 2025, Riot began returning LP to players who lost a Ranked game to a detected cheater or botter after the offending account was suspended. In an April 2025 update, Riot said that during the first patch with refunds it had returned more than 700,000 LP to over 30,000 players and banned around 24,000 accounts accused of cheating. Those numbers describe that initial patch window, not lifetime totals.
These changes support fairer competition, but Vanguard does not solve every kind of unfair play. Smurfing, account sharing, boosting, griefing, and cheating can overlap, yet they are different problems and do not all use the same detection systems. No anti-cheat can promise zero cheaters, instant bans, shorter queues, or perfectly balanced matches. Riot’s Vanguard retrospective and 2025 update on LP refunds give the dated results behind those changes.
A kernel driver has deeper access than an ordinary game process, so questions about privacy and system control are reasonable. Riot says Vanguard was developed in-house and reviewed internally and by external security experts. Riot’s technical explanation says the software does not send players’ files or documents, but it also describes collecting anti-cheat signals and some diagnostic details, including file paths that may contain a Windows username. That is more precise than calling Vanguard “read-only” or “open source”: Riot says it does not share Vanguard or its code.
On Windows, the Vanguard icon in the system tray shows when it is running. Riot’s current Vanguard FAQ says players can exit or uninstall it, but League cannot run while Vanguard is disabled or removed. If Vanguard has been disabled, restart the computer before returning to the game. Vanguard can also block vulnerable drivers or require certain Windows security settings, which may cause launch errors on some PCs. Follow Riot’s support steps for a specific error instead of changing firmware or security settings at random.
For Riot’s own account of data handling, see the Vanguard technical post and Riot’s Privacy Notice.
League of Legends adopted Vanguard because the old anti-cheat was not keeping pace with scripts, bots, and cheats that exploit system-level access. On Windows, Vanguard adds protections that begin earlier in the boot process; on Mac, Riot uses detection embedded in the game client. Riot has reported fewer Ranked scripts and added LP refunds for some losses to detected cheaters. The trade-offs are a Windows driver that starts with the PC, privacy questions, and potential compatibility friction. That is the fair-play rationale—and the cost players should weigh.
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