It's a terrible time to be a cheater in League of Legends, as Riot is finally bringing out the big guns and imposing its "first-ever Hardware ID bans" to crack down on the rising number of cheaters in high-Elo games.

“Now that Vanguard has had some time to roll out, we’re starting to target more cheats that we weren’t able to take action on in the past,” League developers said today on X (formerly known as Twitter), reflecting on the developers’ intention to address the game’s cheating problem. “These new waves will also come with League’s first-ever Hardware ID bans, increasing the power of action against cheaters.” Riot further emphasized their ongoing efforts to ban cheaters’ hardware, which should prevent offending parties from playing the game on the same computer.

Riot’s current data indicates that the developer began rolling out hardware bans as early as May 15, which is the second highest form of ban after the game’s Vanguard bans. This severe measure comes after developer data revealed on April 11 that 10 percent of the game’s Elo games had cheaters. These are primarily higher ranks such as Master, Grandmaster, and many more, highlighting the massive increase in cheating in competitive play.

Vanguard is Riot Games’ kernel-level anti-cheat program, which runs in the background while you play your favorite Riot titles. VALORANT has been using the system to ban cheaters since 2020, with great success.