League of Legends

League of Legends is the flagship MOBA and, by most measures, the largest competitive PC game in the world for more than a decade. Five players per side, free to play, with a roster of champions that has grown past 160 since launch. Riot GamesPublisherRiot GamesRiot Games is the publisher of Valorant and League of Legends, and the developer of Riot Vanguard, the kernel-mode anti-cheat that backs both titles. Founded 2006, owned by Tencent since 2011.2 games in this family → released it in 2009 and has continued to build on its own custom technology, the Hextech Engine, rather than moving to Unreal or Unity. The competitive scene runs from open ladder to regional leagues to the annual World Championship, which routinely posts the highest concurrent viewership in esports. If a PC has a Riot Client installed at all, it is usually because of League.

If League of Legends is installed, expect Riot VanguardAnti-cheatRiot VanguardRiot Vanguard is Riot's kernel-mode anti-cheat for Valorant and League of Legends. By default it loads at every Windows boot whether or not a Riot game is running, in contrast to most PC anti-cheats, which load only while their protected game is open. Since June 24, 2026, PCs that pass Riot's optional Vanguard Pre-Check (Windows 11 25H2 or newer with Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, IOMMU, VBS, and HVCI) can switch it to an on-demand mode that starts with a Riot game and stops after play. Its firmware asks differ by game, so this guide records them on each title: Valorant requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot on Windows 11, and Riot says League does not require Secure Boot. The user-mode service (vgc.exe) and tray (vgtray.exe) are catalogued in the Field Guide's processes section; the kernel driver, vgk.sys, is not on the public vulnerable-driver list the drivers section folds from. Corrected 2026-10-20: this entry used to say vgk.sys is catalogued in the Field Guide, and listed Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 as Vanguard's own firmware ask. vgk.sys is not catalogued, and that ask is Valorant's, not League's.2 games in this family → to be installed too, expect vgk.sys to load at system boot unless your PC qualifies for on-demand mode and you switch it on, and expect the vgc service and vgtray tray icon to be running. Uninstalling League removes Vanguard only if Valorant is not also installed on the same machine. If both are present, Vanguard stays as long as either game does. Keeping the Riot Client up to date is the practical hygiene step.

In April and May of 2024, Riot extended Riot Vanguard, the kernel-mode anti-cheat already shipping with Valorant, to League of Legends. The global rollout landed in patch 14.9 on April 30, 2024, after a pilot in the Philippines server with patch 14.8. After install, Vanguard's kernel driver (vgk.sys) loads at system boot by default, whether League is open or not. Since June 24, 2026, PCs that pass Riot's optional Vanguard Pre-Check can switch it to an on-demand mode that starts with the game. Riot's anti-cheat lead wrote that "unlike VALORANT, LoL does not require SecureBoot for Windows 11 players," and in September 2026 Riot said TPM 2.0 requirements are coming on an expedited timeline, with the ranks they apply to still to be announced. The companion user-mode service and tray (vgc.exeProcessvgc.exeRiot Vanguard service (Valorant and League of Legends anti-cheat)Open plate → and vgtray.exeProcessvgtray.exeRiot Vanguard tray iconOpen plate →, both curated in the Field Guide's processes section) run alongside it. This was a real change: before 14.9, League had no kernel anti-cheat, and many players had years of habit with that lighter footprint.

Riot Games has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Tencent since December 2015, when Tencent bought the remaining stake on top of the majority position it took in 2011. The 2024 decision to bring Vanguard to League was contentious in the mainstream gaming press and on the LoL subreddit, with coverage in PC Gamer, Dot Esports, Sportskeeda, and others, and a May 2026 Vanguard update for Valorant, which enforced IOMMU on accounts flagged for DMA cheat devices, drew claims of bricked hardware that Riot said it "would not and cannot" do. Riot's Anti-Boost system launched privately on League in September 2025. To Riot's credit, the company has been more open than most about its anti-cheat design, publishing developer blog posts about Vanguard's architecture and goals. The debate over kernel anti-cheat is not Vera's debate to settle.