Riot Games has explained how Vanguard’s Anti-Boost system is being used in VALORANT ranked play. In a September 17 technical update, anti-cheat lead Phillip Koskinas described a system aimed at accounts whose rank was raised by a stronger player logging in for the owner. A September 18 report brought the figures into VALORANT coverage. The central distinction for players is simple: Riot is targeting manipulated access and purchased accounts, not declaring every second account a punishable smurf.
Anti-Boost first operated privately in League of Legends in September 2025 and has since been adopted by VALORANT, according to Riot. It looks for a substantial portion of an account’s ranked progress being earned by someone other than its usual player. That changes the competitive question from ‘does this account exist?’ to ‘who actually earned this rating?’ An alternate that its owner created and plays without sharing is different from a low-ranked account bought or borrowed so a stronger player can dominate easier matches.
Riot disclosed 296,416 account actions for rank manipulation since late 2025. That figure covers VALORANT and League of Legends together, not VALORANT alone, and it is not a count of bans issued on one day. Presenting it as a single-game ban wave would inflate the scale of the VALORANT-specific claim. The studio’s update is still significant: it explains both an active detection approach and the penalties it says can follow from using another person’s account to gain rank.
How the system treats boosted accounts
When Vanguard determines that a stronger player earned rating on someone else’s account, Riot says the undeserved ranked points or rewards can be removed. The boosted account can receive a temporary suspension, with escalating consequences for repeated behavior. A purchased account with no legitimate player behind it is treated differently and may be banned rather than simply returned to a prior rating. The company also describes escalating suspensions for known boosters on their main accounts, if those accounts can be identified. These measures address several participants in a boosting transaction, not just the profile used for the match.
Riot separately warns about ‘hitchhikers’: players who repeatedly queue alongside smurfs or boosters to benefit from manipulated matchmaking. The studio says they can lose rank they did not fairly earn, even when the boost was indirect. That does not mean every player who happens to meet a suspicious account will automatically be punished. The policy description emphasizes repeated participation and rank manipulation. As with any enforcement report, the public explanation does not reveal the private detection threshold for a specific account, so claims about individual cases require evidence beyond a general article.
The update is also careful about legitimate alternatives. Riot estimates that around 9% of daily ranked accounts across its games are secondary accounts, and it says many are ordinary alternates used by their owners. Practicing a new strategy or maintaining a similarly rated account is not the same as sharing credentials with a boosting service. Riot states that its Anti-Boost effort is not designed simply to ban every unshared alternate. For readers, that distinction is more practical than a broad warning that all smurf-like behavior is identical.
The system’s purpose is to protect match quality when ratings no longer represent the person controlling an account. A high-ranked player on a borrowed low-ranked profile can make matchmaking less fair for opponents and teammates alike. Removing unearned progress is Riot’s proposed correction after that activity is detected. Whether a particular match or account qualifies for action is an enforcement decision, not something a reader can infer solely from one surprising scoreboard. Avoiding that leap is important when discussing anti-cheat tools with a competitive community.
What players can take from Riot’s update
The clearest immediate guidance is to play ranked on accounts you own and do not share, and to avoid paying someone else to change your rating. Riot lists account sharing, purchased low-rated profiles and organized boosting as behaviors that can trigger action. It also discusses possible additional identity and hardware checks in the future, but the September update does not set a universal date for those measures. They should not be described as a new requirement that already applies to everyone.
The figures deserve the same precision as the policy. The 296,416 actions span both VALORANT and League of Legends; the approximate secondary-account rate is not itself a smurfing rate. Keeping those two qualifications attached prevents a headline number from misleading players about their own risk. Riot’s position is that fair ranked play depends on accounts representing the people who actually use them. Anti-Boost is the latest tool it says it is using toward that end, while the details of future restrictions remain to be announced.
Vanguard Anti-Boost now applies in VALORANT to counter ranked progress earned through shared or purchased accounts. Riot’s published account-action total spans two games, and its explanation explicitly separates manipulated accounts from ordinary unshared alternates. Those boundaries are the essential facts for players assessing the September update.
