Riot questions claim that secondhand CPU component inherited another player's Valorant ban

A Valorant player reported being unable to play the game after purchasing a secondhand CPU that allegedly carried the previous owner's hardware ban, though Riot's anticheat director Phillip Koskinas has disputed key elements of the claim. Koskinas stated that Riot's hardware bans expire after four months and cannot propagate to other system components, contradicting the support response the player reportedly received. While the specific details remain disputed, the incident raises questions about how anticheat systems handle used hardware components.

Riot Games employs hardware bans as part of its anticheat enforcement strategy, automatically preventing banned components from accessing Valorant. According to the anticheat director's statements, these bans remain active for a maximum of four months before expiring. The disputed incident occurred when a player purchased a secondhand processor that had apparently been flagged under the previous owner's account, creating uncertainty about whether the ban would transfer across different system configurations.

The broader context involves the ongoing tension between security measures and user experience in competitive gaming. As developers implement increasingly sophisticated anticheat systems to address cheating, players face potential complications from purchasing used hardware—a common practice in PC gaming communities. This incident highlights potential friction points where legitimate secondhand component markets intersect with enforcement mechanisms designed to punish rule violators.