Riot Games Makes Some Valorant Players Update Their BIOS Firmware

Last updated: 2025/12/22 at 11:11 AM

News Room Published 22 December 2025

Riot Games is asking some gamers who want to play Valorant to update their BIOS as part of anti-cheat measures. To help thwart memory exploits cheaters have discovered, Valorant now requires some of the latest PC security fixes for some players.

As reported by Ars Technica, the problem stems from some UEFI/BIOS installs from some manufacturers allowing for the exploitation of a memory bug that can allow cheating in game through memory manipulation. This is a niche bug, so not one that Riot is concerned all users would take advantage of.

Riot Games is only forcing the BIOS update requirement on “Restricted” players, who seem to have PC configurations similar to those of other cheaters. It believes those configurations can often be a deliberate hardware choice for the purpose of cheating.

However, that restriction may not last forever. Riot has said it’s considering making the BIOS update requirement mandatory for all players on all of its games at the highest competitive tiers of Ascendant, Immortal, and Radiant. That would include Valorant as well as League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, and Teamfight Tactics.

The system requirements for Valorant are low making it a popular title. (Credit: Riot)

The tricky part is that some PCs aren’t able to update their BIOS. This is one of the big reasons that Windows 11 adoption has been slower than previous versions of Microsoft’s OS. Many computers aren’t compatible with the requirements. The same could happen with this BIOS update because some of the security features Riot’s Vanguard security software requires aren’t compatible with older PCs.

Considering Riot has made its business from marketing highly competitive games with low system requirements to make them inclusive, it could find that a lot of players aren’t able to play if it puts a hard block on some hardware.

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That said, players using older PCs which aren’t compatible are less likely to be in the higher competitive tiers because they’d take their gaming seriously enough to invest in a more capable system. However, that’s not necessarily the case in emerging markets.

There’s always the slippery slope argument, too. If this measure clears up cheaters at higher ranks, it’d be even more effective in lower ranks.