Used Ryzen 7 5800X3D Buyer Says Previous Owner's Valorant Ban Followed the CPU

A German gamer says he only discovered something was wrong with a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D after installing it in his PC: the chip apparently triggered a Valorant hardware ban that had belonged to its previous owner. He bought the processor on September 21, but Riot support reportedly told him its identifier had been blacklisted on August 12 after the former owner was banned for cheating.

When he launched Valorant with the chip installed, the game immediately kicked him out, even though it had worked normally with his old CPU. He contacted Riot support and was told the processor had been included in the earlier hardware ban. The buyer also said his motherboard and storage drive were added to Vanguard's blacklist after he installed the CPU. Riot reportedly refused to manually lift the restriction.

The buyer says the ban affects access to Riot's PC games, including Valorant, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra and 2XKO; trying to sign in with another account would result in that account being banned as well.

Riot has not publicly explained how Vanguard identified this specific Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The company says the anti-cheat system can restrict a computer's access to Riot games when it appears to facilitate cheating. Riot has previously said Vanguard can use a TPM 2.0 module identifier; AMD processors have this module built into the chip, which can tie a hardware ban to the processor itself.

There is no way for a buyer to check in advance whether a used processor is on Riot's blacklist, and the company does not disclose how long hardware bans last. Reddit users have said that early Valorant hardware bans typically lasted around 120 days. Should Riot review hardware bans when restricted components are sold to new owners?