Valorant players are reporting PC crashes after trying to boot up the game on March 22. It comes after Riot deployed a small patch to the game, but what’s causing the issue is still unknown.
Valorant players aren’t just getting locked out of game, but their entire PCs, after the newest update.
A small patch to Vanguard, the controversial Valorant anti-cheat system, was deployed on March 22. This has been isolated by the community as a potential reason for the crashes.
Players have reported not being able to launch the game, with their PCs freezing up entirely. Restarting their PC has proven fruitless, as well as uninstalling and reinstalling the game.
The issues have affected players far and wide, from former T1 pro Tyler ‘Skadoodle’ Latham to Daniel ‘ddk’ Kapadia.
Beware new valorant patch may or may not brick your pc ..
— Tyler Latham (@Ska) March 23, 2021
Same issue
— Daniel Kapadia (@ddkesports) March 23, 2021
new Valorant update isn't just having problems with people starting the game, it's also crashing pcs. probably not good Riot
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) March 23, 2021
Riot rolls back Valorant Vanguard update to fix issue
Riot has responded to the issues with Vanguard, deciding to roll back the March 22 update.
“We paused the update for those who haven’t downloaded it yet. You should be OK until we find a fix,” they said.
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If you have updated your Valorant client, uninstalling and reinstalling Vanguard will roll you back to the old patch and stop the crashes.
We're aware that the recent VALORANT update is causing some PC systems to freeze. We paused the update for those who haven't downloaded it yet – you should be OK until we find a fix. For those who updated, uninstalling/ reinstalling Vanguard will put you on the old patch for now.
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) March 23, 2021
After a bit of testing, Riot has managed to nail down the primary problem. The Vanguard update was clashing with FACEIT, a popular third-party client for CS:GO.
Uninstalling FACEIT, or updating it to the latest version, should also help fix the problem.
Turns out an older version of the FACEIT app and the latest Vanguard version were not playing nice. If you are still experiencing issues, please update your FACEIT app. https://t.co/fmcwByjaYw
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) March 23, 2021
Valorant patch 2.05 has been full of problems since its launch. On patch day, certain players were blocked out of launching the game due to their anti-virus software.
While Riot has deployed numerous fixes across the week to try and tackle the issue, there are still some lingering problems. This new issue is likely unrelated to the anti-virus one though.
We will let you know when more information arises.
