Vanguard for League of Legends is LIVE

Riot Releases Vanguard for League of Legends Along With Lee Sin's ASU

Riot Games has released the 14.9 patch notes for League of Legends, highlighting the introduction of the controversial anti-cheat system, Vanguard, and the highly anticipated Lee Sin ASU.

Before we get to the patch, we need to address the elephant in the room, the Vanguard anti-cheat software. The patch will prompt you to install a separate Riot Games product and reboot your system, activating Vanguard and boosting Riot's ability to detect cheats. This solution tackles the common problem of cheaters infiltrating one in 15 games.

Despite its noble purpose, Vanguard's extensive access to players' PCs has drawn heavy criticism, with some players even threatening to boycott League of Legends now that it's in place. Riot Games will have full access to your machine through Vanguard's kernel-level operation, which could potentially allow hackers to infiltrate your computer for malicious purposes. This system also increases the minimum requirements for running League of Legends.

Valorant players always had Vanguard, which makes sense since an FPS game requires an extremely fast anti-cheat system, but players are arguing that this is overkill for a MOBA game. Now that you can no longer run LoL without Vanguard, thousands of players have uninstalled the game. The LoL community is very divided over the anti-cheat system’s deep access on whatever system it’s running on, and hundreds of players have even started selling their League of Legends accounts, either due to not trusting Vanguard or because their hardware isn’t strong enough to run the game anymore.

League of Legends Patch 14.9

On a more positively received note, the long-awaited Lee Sin ASU will debut on public servers following a brief testing phase on the PBE. This update not only revamps Lee Sin's appearance but also boosts the aesthetics of his available skins, matching his looks and model with the feel of more recent champions. This ASU is tending to one of League of Legends most beloved champions, and the player community appreciates it.

In terms of gameplay adjustments, a few tweaks are being made to specific items, particularly those tailored for fighters. Maw of Malmortius is getting the most substantial overhaul, changing into a lighter fighter item by replacing lifesteal with Omnivamp and reducing its magic resistance to promote a more aggressive approach.

As for the champion changes, there’s a huge list of tiny changes in the official patch notes on League of Legends’ website, but the most notable changes include a huge buff to Sejuani's passive and another nerf to the recently reworked Skarner, who has been overly dominant in recent matches, despite already getting nerfed in the last patch.

Furthermore, the 14.9 patch introduces a potentially game-changing adjustment to champion hitbox sizes. A comprehensive overhaul of champion radius values aims to boost consistency, ensure more accurate mouse targeting, and mitigate frustrations associated with missed clicks during battle.

With the 14.9 patch reaching live servers, attention shifts to the Mid-Season Invitational tournament in Chengdu, China. Over the next few weeks, the world's top 12 teams will vie for a slice of the $250,000 prize pool and, crucially, a guaranteed spot in the World Championship later this year. Notably, the tournament will be played on the preceding 14.8 patch, where Skarner was absolutely unstoppable, so you can expect a 100% pick/ban rate for the scorpion-lobster.

This patch has brought us some of the best and most controversial changes in League of Legends history, and we can’t help but wonder if Riot peppered the Vanguard release with all these great updates to try and smooth its integration into LoL. Hopefully, in time, everyone will feel safe enough to return to League of Legends, regardless of Vanguard.

 

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