Recently, a buyer purchased a second-hand Ryzen 7 5800X3D and installed it. While the processor functioned normally, launching VALORANT resulted in interception by Riot Vanguard. Before switching to this processor, their games ran without issue; the buyer claims that the previous owner had received a hardware ban for cheating, and the newly purchased processor may be linked to that ban record.
The buyer stated that they learned about the previous owner's ban status after contacting Riot Support. They also claimed that other components, such as the motherboard, were later restricted; the current status of these components has not yet been confirmed.
Hardware bans target physical computer components, not just game accounts, so simply changing accounts may not resolve the issue. Reinstalling Vanguard, Windows, or the game will also not remove the VAN 152 hardware restriction mentioned in the article.
How this processor was identified in this case remains unconfirmed. Riot's previous explanations regarding Vanguard's hardware identification mechanism mentioned that TPM 2.0 and firmware TPM might be involved in identification, but this does not necessarily mean the same method was used this time. Before purchasing the second-hand processor, the buyer also lacked any practical means to check whether it was on the relevant ban list.