Riot places $100,000 bounty on Valorant anti-cheat system bugs

(Image credit: Riot Games)

Riot is offering big money to Valorant players who find flaws in the game's anti-cheat system, Vanguard.

"To reinforce our commitment to our players' security, we are offering special bounties for up to $100,000 for high quality reports that demonstrate practical exploits leveraging the Vanguard kernel driver," the studio wrote in a detailed break-down of Vanguard and the new "bug bounty policy."

The new policy designed to scope out cheaters offers six different categories of rewards to anti-cheat bounty hunters, ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. Naturally, the not-so-fine-print is that those numbers are the maximum bounty for each category, and that "the actual bounty paid out depends on the impact and practicality of the exploit presented."

Riot breaks down the requirements for each reward precisely, as well as a comprehensive list of tips to score one. For the lowdown, essentially you need to find a vulnerability in Valorant's anti-cheat system that hasn't been shared elsewhere and give replicable proof to Riot.

Valorant's focus on fairness at all costs (quite literally) extends to its gameplay as well, which Riot describes as precise, consequential, and highly-lethal," prioritizing "skill and strategy alone."

The new 5v5 shooter has seen extraordinary success since it launched in closed beta this month - GamesRadar recently reported on Valorant breaking a Twich streaming record for "single day hours watched."

If you're looking to check out Valorant while it's still in closed testing, here's how to get a Valorant beta key.

Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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