Riot Games just dropped a new crate for League of Legends but instead of loot, this crate has a rootkit inside. Riot Games’ anti-cheat tool, Vanguard, has entered the game to fight those pesky cheaters. But here’s the thing: to use it on Windows, you basically have to let Riot install a rootkit on your computer, which gives them some seriously deep access. Yikes! On the bright side, at least Linux gamers don’t have to deal with that… oh wait, they just broke the game entirely. Talk about a lose-lose situation!
### Chapters
00:00 Broken for Linux but worse on Windows
00:19 Solution . . . Dota 2
00:29 Vanguard anti-cheat rootkit added to League of Legends
00:42 Rootkit term explained
01:30 Reports of Vanguard bricking gamers’ PCs
01:43 What is Vanguard?
02:11 Kernel term explained
02:24 Anti-cheats do not need kernel level access
02:45 Answers to Vanguard FAQs are lame
03:02 Q: “Isn’t Vanguard Spyware?”
04:46 Is it a Rootkit?
05:27 Other anti-cheat rootkits
05:40 Differences between BatttlEye and EAC vs Vanguard
05:57 BattlEye and EAC work on Linux
06:15 Proton on Linux and why it’s AWESOME
06:30 How Proton works
07:11 Microsoft, why are these even possible in Windows?
07:26 Q: “What if I am personally incompatible with Vanguard?”
09:42 “Q: What about Linux?”
11:40 Linux is MUCH bigger than you think
12:42 Lutris is dope!
13:45 Linux is not “dangerous” for companies
13:57 Linux is better protection for these games
15:03 Vanguard can already be bypassed
15:30 Monitors made to help gamers cheat
16:12 MSI makes AI-powered monitor that cheats at League of Legends
17:22 Other ways to fight cheating
18:29 Q: “What about OSX?”
19:06 Linux without cheats is “dangerous” & Mac is okay without Vanguard?
19:26 Just play Dota 2
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### Links:
https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-vanguard-x-lol/
https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/vanguard-just-went-live-and-lol-players-are-already-claiming-its-bricking-their-pcs
https://levvvel.com/what-is-kernel-level-anti-cheat-software/
https://www.battleye.com/
https://www.easy.ac/en-US
https://lutris.net/games/league-of-legends/
https://lutris.net/
https://www.tomshardware.com/monitors/msis-ai-powered-gaming-monitor-helps-you-cheat-at-league-of-legends-looks-great-doing-it
https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/jason-shane-duffy-league-of-legends-hacks-464
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/04/riot-games-talk-vanguard-anti-cheat-for-league-of-legends-and-why-its-a-no-for-linux/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quf9_94W5QQ [bitwit]
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Thanks For Watching!
#Linux
What has riot EVER Done to earn trust after they started with diversity hiring and supporting degeneracy?
The thing is it would be justifiable if its doesnt need to always be on. But it does need kernel level permissions from startup. Which makes it way more suspicious.
There is absolutely NO reason to install a kernal level anti cheat. Its literally legal spyware.
Ye I played League on Linux for years, all was good. Guess is fine to quit this addictive game.
Rito: "Nobody plays League on Loonix it's not worth it!!!"
Also Rito: makes sure that nobody can actually play League on Loonix.
What a bunch of clowns, really.
Well, this argument may not have much traction here since a lot of viewers are using Linux, at least I am guessing so. But Windows itself is the (potentially malicious) rootkit, at least it could be argued like that or am I mistaken? Hypothetically, if I trusted the USA as much as I trust China or any other country for that matter and I am an ambitious gamer, then someone could argue that there is not really much point in preventing actions like Riot took in the name of less cheaters. Please tell me if this argument is absurd.
Edit: Of course, running this anti-cheat software all the time is not a good look and rightfully deemed suspicious.
Question: "Isn't Vanguard spyware?"
Smart answer: "No, Vanguard is not spyware".
Accurate answer: "With root permissions, Vanguard can do anything we want it to, now or in the future, including but not limited to spying on your computer activity '"
Riot Games answer: "You're a total a$$hole for asking."
Hmm… Cant you Put MacOS in a VM on Linux and Cheat away using the backdoor they implemented? What was the acronym of that Game again?
Roblox is doing similar
Roblox and LOL out, I hope no more Game Giants hop on the bandwagon lol.
Beautifully done Michael!! 😂
Vanguard is spyware rootkit, I wouldh't run it on windows, and I wouldn't run it on Linux either. I don't play League anymore, but if I would still playing I would probably stop, since nowadays I care a lot more about those things as compared to 10 years ago when I still played League of Legends.
There is no reason for such an invasive tool, aside their own incompetence in the case they can't make anything better, or straight up malicious since they have full access to your windows machine and what it's running ALL THE TIME.
About the spyware in faq, they should've been honest to built trust.
Like: "It does have the capabilities to be declared as spyware, but those will only be used if you were caught cheating to ensure that we do not false ban"
Bro LOL stands for League of legends 😂😂😂😂.
Huh i was positive EAC and battleeye has both user level and kernel level anti cheat, where only the former is supported on linux
why is audio so low ?
P.S. I am not a gamer, I just came here because I love your shows . Once in a while I play 0ad and get whacked silly within 15 minutes (max).
But honestly, don't you think its kinda stupid for folks who are still playing this game ? Lets be honest, so much addiction to play a specific game is ridiculous to say the least!
I liked the show, never the game, well I do prefer playing offline casual games like one of my new favorites is OpenTTD, something about perfect train track layouts scratches an itch
Great script. Loved it!
You talked and talked and proved nothing… I want to see you reversing the Vanguard driver, etc.
They are allowed to say that 800 people a day isn’t worth it for them. This rant is misguided.
They can make vangurad only for ranked(some kind of faceit like), I only play aram and cant even play more because of vangurad
I hope that this video reach Riot.
I have some points that I want to talk about:
1. The most important feature of Vanguard is the obfuscation of memory. Vanguard utlizes it's own memory space that is hidden from the user space memory. this make it impossible for apps to read the game's memory values. that's why emulators and virtual machines are banned by riot and this understandable.
2. Despite all of the data privacy stuff and rootkit. Riot simply trying to kill a mosquito with an AK47. the issues that they discussed in their blog talks about scripters and bots but vanguard is used to detect various advanced hacks that are made mostly to FPS games and league will not benefit that much.
3. It's sad to see that Mac is favored. Even thought the game doesn't support M series which means the players base is very few yet they choose Mac over Linux.
you could also try smite/smite 2. it's a way different experience and the devs actively try to incorporate every os into their support system.
“If Riot hasn’t earned your trust, don’t run our software” 😂😂
😂😂😂😂
But are Vanguard assholes? Yes, they totally are.
No matter what it takes, anti-cheat is going to have to move server-side. Sever-side would mean it would be (1) in complete control of the game dev, (2) platform agnostic, (3) safe and privacy-friendly.
There needs to be an arms race among all the big gaming companies, as well as third-party and open-source, to develop good server-side solutions that actually work.
4:45 It isn't spyware, but I would still call it malware.
Thank you for bringing this in such a detailed video, I have been saying it all the time. Even if kernel anti cheats are a controversial topic vanguard is the worst, it does unnecessary things that other anti cheats don´t.
There is not a single valid reason for that shit to stay on all the time.
Boycott gaming companies who are actively hostile to Linux users.
This game is the only reason why my main pc is still on windows, even though im using linux on my laptop for 6+ years. Even when it was working through lutris, it still was a pain to play it this way, lots of problems with cursor, insanely long loading times, etc. As a high elo league player, i must say Dota 2 is not a good alternative for a league player, dead game with obsolete mechanics.