Riot Games recently revealed that almost 300,000 League of Legends and VALORANT accounts have been punished for various forms of rank manipulation in the last few months. The team posted on social media that Vanguard’s ‘boosting detection expansion’ has resulted in hundreds of thousands of ‘rent-a-rank customers’ facing the swift hammer of justice.
Per the team’s description, rank manipulation includes boosting, smurfing, and hitchhiking, all of which they’ve classed as cheating, plain and simple.
What Does Vanguard Actually Do?
Riot Games’ anti-cheat ecosystem is Vanguard, and it’s something that even the most bang-average gamer would have heard of. It has evolved this year, so much so that Phillip Koskinas, Riot’s head of anti-cheat, needed to address the platform with a massive explanation published in a recent blog post.
He spoke quite specifically about the system’s anti-boost measures:
Vanguard’s anti-boost system is a classification layer that simply detects when a significant amount of an account’s ranked points… are obtained by another, higher-rated player…
It’s looking at boosters that might be playing on a lower-tier player’s account, ‘hitchhikers’ queueing with smurfs and boosters to be dragged upwards, and boostees receiving bolstered ranking from their carry.
This year, almost 300,000 accounts across League of Legends and VALORANT were slapped with punitive measures after rank manipulation was detected by Vanguard. They had their boosted rank revoked and, in the most serious of circumstances, their accounts were suspended.
Any smurfs and purchased accounts are outright banned by Vanguard. In the blog post, Koskinas admitted they’re banned for eternity.
Riot Games then revealed that around 9% of all daily ranked accounts are secondary accounts, but only half of that number is represented by malicious smurfs. Koskinas put it simply when addressing rank manipulators:
Remember that fair play is the best kind of play, and that when you steal from your community, you’re only stealing from yourself.
Are you shocked that this many Riot accounts have been penalized for rank manipulation? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that the VALORANT Champs 2026 bundle has been revealed, and don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You’ll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
MOBILE APP
Level Up Your Gaming News
Real-time news, exclusive podcasts, push alerts, and a better reading experience.
Available on iOS & Android