A gamer purchased a second-hand CPU only to find their Valorant account banned immediately after installation, despite never cheating themselves. The incident occurred in October 2026 when the buyer plugged in the processor and launched the game, triggering an instant ban from Riot Games' anti-cheat system. The previous owner of the CPU had been identified as a Valorant cheater, and the hardware ban followed the device across ownership.
Riot Games' Vanti cheat detection system can issue hardware-based bans that tie penalties to specific components like CPUs or motherboards. When a cheater is caught, the system may flag their hardware identifiers, preventing future use of those parts on new accounts. This means even if the original offender sells the component, the ban remains attached to it. The unsuspecting buyer inherited this penalty simply by using the same processor, demonstrating how deeply embedded these restrictions can be in the gaming ecosystem.
Appealing a hardware ban linked to a used component is extremely difficult, as Riot Games typically does not distinguish between original offenders and subsequent owners in their enforcement logs. Support teams often require proof that the hardware was acquired after the ban was issued, which is nearly impossible to verify without transaction timestamps or seller admissions. In this case, the buyer had no recourse and was forced to replace the CPU to regain access to Valorant, highlighting a growing concern in the second-hand PC market about inheriting penalties from strangers' misconduct.
How does Riot Games assign hardware bans? When Vanti detects cheating, it can generate a unique hardware hash based on the CPU, motherboard, or other core components, then block any account from launching Valorant on that specific hardware configuration.
Is it possible to check if a used part is banned before buying? No public tool exists to scan hardware for prior bans, and sellers are not obligated to disclose such history, leaving buyers unaware until they attempt to play and get blocked.
What should you do if you buy a banned component? The only reliable fix is to replace the flagged hardware, as appeals rarely succeed without clear evidence of innocent acquisition timing, which is hard to prove after the fact.