Valorant experienced a surge in cheating activity during the 2024 holiday season and early 2025, raising concerns within the player community. Riot Games acknowledged the issue, with Phillip Koskinas, the head of anti-cheat, explaining that reduced staffing during the holiday break contributed to the increase. With fewer employees available to actively combat and patch against new cheating methods, malicious actors took advantage.
The problem was particularly pronounced in regions like Brazil, where a staggering 10% of ranked matches were plagued by cheaters. Koskinas confirmed the community’s suspicions in a post on X (formerly Twitter), acknowledging the heightened level of cheating during the holiday period. In some regions like Brazil, the “pixelbot” or “colourbot” cheat was particularly widespread.
This relatively simple exploit works by analyzing screen frames, identifying enemy outlines, and automatically aiming at them. Koskinas also highlighted issues in the Asia Pacific region, where some Chinese cheaters used VPNs to circumvent identity verification and play on servers outside their region.
Fortunately, Riot Games has since addressed the problem. Koskinas stated that the situation is now under control, with the global percentage of ranked games containing cheaters dropping back down to around 1%. To prevent similar spikes in the future, Riot plans to implement “surprise” anti-cheat updates during holiday periods.
The intensity of Riot’s response is evident in the numbers. From January 10th to 13th, their Vanguard anti-cheat system issued bans at a rate of nearly seven accounts per minute, marking the highest sustained ban rate they’ve ever recorded. Impressively, cheaters were being banned after an average of just six games, the quickest turnaround currently achievable.
Beyond the anti-cheat efforts, Valorant has also seen recent content updates. Patch 10.00, released in early January, introduced Tejo, a new Initiator agent hailing from Colombia. The update also shuffled the Competitive and Deathmatch map pools, adding Fracture and Lotus while removing Ascent and Sunset.
