Cheating in VALORANT Spiked During Riot’s Holiday Break

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During the weeks preceding and following the start of 2025, when Riot Games staff were on their annual vacation, reported cases of cheating in VALORANT nearly doubled worldwide. Although the increase in cheating has been addressed, this surge demonstrates that the struggle between developer and cheater is an ongoing one.

However, it seems that dishonest play in VALORANT escalated significantly during the recent vacation period. Yesterday, the leader of VALORANT’s anti-cheat provided an extensive explanation on this matter.

Cheating in VALORANT Reached Historic Levels in Brazil

As stated by Philip “mirageofpenguins” Koskinas, head of VALORANT anti-cheat, Riot’s holiday break created an opportunity for cheaters to exploit the situation. With fewer resources and personnel available during this period to detect cheats and implement fixes, the number of undetected cheaters began to grow rapidly.

During the time period encompassing just before Christmas and the first week of January, the proportion of matches containing a cheater significantly increased across all areas, yet no region saw an increase as substantial as Brazil. In Brazil, which already led all regions in cheaters’ percentage, this figure jumped from nearly 5% to approximately 12%. According to Riot, Brazilian cheaters frequently employ a “pixelbot” that scans the screen, outlines and identifies enemy figures, and then sends mouse commands to the operating system directing the cheater toward those enemies.

Cheating strategies for pixelbots, commonly used among cheaters in Brazil, are said to be affordable and simple to set up. However, Riot Games claims they can also be easily detected. After the holiday break, regular anti-cheat monitoring resumed, leading to a significant decrease in the percentage of cheaters not only in Brazil but also in other regions. This drop was lower than the rate prior to the break. Riot further reported that during the weekend of January 10-13, they achieved their highest sustained ban velocity ever, with approximately seven suspensions happening every minute.

In yesterday’s update, Riot Games acknowledged that their ongoing battle against cheating will persist indefinitely. Given that VALORANT is free and has minimal entry barriers, it proves challenging to permanently ban all cheaters. However, the Riot team remains resolute in their efforts to disrupt cheating activities. They also intend to introduce ranked rollback in the upcoming act, which aims to restore rank ratings for players who lost to cheaters.

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2025-01-28 20:19