{
  "id": 11787497,
  "title": "Valorant player claims to have inherited hardware ban through secondhand CPU, Riot anticheat boss disputes parts of story",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/valorant-player-claims-to-have-inherited-hardware-ban-through",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-03T22:41:35.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PC Gamer",
    "slug": "pc-gamer",
    "url": "https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/valorant-player-claims-to-have-inherited-hardware-ban-through-secondhand-cpu-riot-anticheat-boss-disputes-parts-of-story/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Valiant competitor suggests they acquired a CPU from a previous owner who had a Valorant ban. Riot's representative in charge of anticheat systems dismissed this claim in part. The company's anticheat chief Phillip Koskinas stated that hardware bans last for four months and do not infect other components when installed in a new system. The original post from After-Cartoonist-196 was covered by PC World and shared on social media. The ban in question would expire in mid-December if it began on August 12. Koskinas specifically denied that other hardware becomes blacklisted when associated with a banned component. The tale of inheriting a hardware ban remains plausible, despite being less severe than initially portrayed. This incident highlights the stringent security measures employed by competitive gaming developers today.",
  "summary": "Unlikely, but not impossible?",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "GamesIndustry",
        "title": "2XKO would have needed an MAU base \"in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions\" to succeed",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/2xko-would-have-needed-an-mau-base-in-the-high-hundreds-of-thousands",
        "published": "2026-10-02T10:10:00.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "PC Gamer",
        "title": "Riot needed absurd player counts 'in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions' for 2XKO, dooming it from launch",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/riot-needed-absurd-player-counts-in-the-high-hundreds-of-thousands-if",
        "published": "2026-10-02T11:16:39.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}