So I tried launching League of Legends yesterday and got hit with an error. No big deal, right? Restart the computer, try some basic troubleshooting. Standard stuff.
After going through the usual dance with their AI support and then getting escalated to a human agent, I was given a laundry list of steps that would make any IT person wince. Delete folders, install third-party uninstallers, clean registries with CCleaner, do a clean boot... fine, whatever. Annoying, but I get it.
But then came this gem: "Before you launch the game for the first time, disable your antivirus."
Wait, what?
When I pushed back on how sketchy that sounds, the agent doubled down with: "You see antiviruses are not all that useful anyway, I would suggest you just use Windows Firewall as it's good enough."
Let me get this straight. Riot already runs Vanguard - a kernel-level anti-cheat that has complete access to your system. This thing starts when Windows boots, before anything else, with the highest level of privileges possible. It can see everything, do anything, and you just have to trust it's not going to be exploited.
And now their official support is telling people to disable their antivirus on top of that?
Here's the thing: kernel-level anti-cheat is already a massive attack vector. If someone finds an exploit in Vanguard, they don't just compromise the game - they compromise your entire system at the deepest level possible. Having an antivirus running is one of the few layers of defense that might catch something if things go wrong.
But sure, just disable it. What could go wrong?
And here's the kicker: kernel-level anti-cheat isn't even necessary. There are detection methods that work just as well without requiring root access to your entire system. Valve's been doing it with DOTA 2 and CS2 for years - effective anti-cheat without living in your kernel. It's completely possible to catch and ban cheaters without turning your anti-cheat into a potential security nightmare.
But Riot chose the nuclear option anyway, and now their support is telling people to disable their antivirus to make it work.
I'm not saying Vanguard is malicious. I'm saying it's a juicy target for anyone looking to exploit it, and asking users to remove one of their security layers to play a video game is irresponsible at best.
The dismissive "antiviruses are not all that useful anyway" comment really got me. Yeah, tell that to the people who get hit with ransomware because they followed bad advice from a support agent who just wants to close the ticket.
Look, I get it. League is having issues. Vanguard is probably conflicting with something. But the solution isn't to tell users to compromise their system security. The solution is to fix your software so it doesn't require users to lower their defenses just to launch a game.
This is what happens when you prioritize anti-cheat over everything else, including basic user security. You end up with kernel-level software that's so invasive and poorly implemented that your own support team has to tell people to disable their protection just to make it work.
I didn't disable my antivirus. I fired up DOTA 2 instead.
Maybe that's the real solution here.