I was in the middle of a ranked clutch on Pearl when my teammate vanished. Not a disconnect—Poof. Gone. Then the Discord exploded: "Dude, check Twitter, Vanguard just nuked half the ladder." I tabbed out to see a tweet climbing to 10K likes: another massive ban wave had just rolled through, vaporizing 40,000 bot accounts in minutes.
My friend who'd been complaining about "sus" opponents all week? His queue suddenly looked like a ghost town. If you've ever watched the ranked leaderboard shrink in real-time or seen your recent matches evaporate from match history, you've witnessed the phenomenon that defines Valorant's anti-cheat strategy: the ban wave.
What Are Ban Waves (And Why Riot Loves Them)
Unlike instant bans that tip off cheat developers immediately, ban waves are delayed, coordinated purges where Riot bans thousands—or hundreds of thousands—of accounts simultaneously after silently detecting them over days or weeks. It's a strategic choice: let cheaters think they're safe, gather evidence on the entire cheat ecosystem, then detonate everything at once.
This approach prevents cheat makers from quickly patching their software. By the time the wave hits, Riot has already logged how the cheat works, tracked its users, and identified distribution networks. The developers scramble to fix something that's already been reverse-engineered, while the players who paid $50 for that "undetected" aimbot watch their accounts turn to dust alongside the free users.
Major Ban Waves: The Numbers
Since the closed beta in April 2020, Riot has unleashed dozens of documented waves. Here's the devastation by the numbers:
| Date | Wave Name | Bans | Primary Targets | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2020 | Beta Purge | 8,873 | Aimbot/Wallhack Users | Largest beta ban; manually reviewed |
| May 2020 | Follow-up Strike | 1,600 | Residual Cheaters | Secondary batch post-beta |
| Jun 2020 | Launch Cleanup | Thousands | Exploit Users | First full-release purge |
| Dec 2023 | Bot Hunt | Undisclosed | Purchased/Auto-leveled Accounts | Hit account sellers hard |
| Jan 2025 | Velocity Record | ~7/min | All Cheat Types | Peak rate; part of 120-day initiative |
| Feb 2025 | The Big Purge | 500,000 | Bot Networks | Global; largest single wave |
| Mar-Sep 2025 | Sustained Campaign | 40,000 | Persistent Bots | Cumulative over 6 months |
| Jan 2026 | Patch 12.00 | Ongoing | Voice/Text Abuse + Cheats | Auto-escalation enabled |
What Gets You Caught in a Wave
Riot doesn't just ban aimbotters. Recent waves have targeted increasingly sophisticated behavior:
Bots and Purchased Accounts: Auto-leveled accounts sold online are Riot's current obsession. The December 2023 and February 2025 waves specifically hunted these down. If you bought a "ready for ranked" account instead of leveling it yourself, there's a good margin it's already dust—Riot tracks playtime patterns, and bots move differently than humans.
Boosting and Smurfing: The "hitchhiker" bans target players who queue with obvious cheators to get boosted. These started at 90 days in 2020 but escalated to 180+ days by June 2022. If you're duoing with a sketchy Jett who hits every Op shot through walls, you're getting swept up too.
DMA Hardware Cheats: The latest frontier. Cheaters using external DMA (Direct Memory Access) hardware—basically secondary computers reading Valorant's memory—were hit hard throughout 2025. These $1,000+ setups were supposed to be "undetectable," but Riot's timing checks and geofencing caught them anyway.
February 2026: Patch 12.00 and Auto-Escalation
The most recent update to Riot's enforcement strategy came with Patch 12.00 in January 2026, introducing auto-escalation for voice and text abuse bans. While previous waves focused on software cheats, the new system integrates behavioral strikes into the wave system. Extreme toxicity now feeds into the same delayed-ban algorithms, meaning you could rage in voice chat today and find yourself hardware-banned in next month's wave.
Additionally, ranked rollbacks have become standard. If you lost RR to a cheater who got caught in a wave, Riot now automatically restores that rank progression—sometimes weeks after the match occurred. Check your career tab after major waves; you might find yourself suddenly promoted.
The Regional Arms Race
Ban waves aren't global uniform. Riot adapts to regional cheating metas:
Korea: Uses government ID verification ("Soul Level" bans) making account creation harder, resulting in fewer but more devastating waves when they hit.
Brazil: Heavy targeting of pixelbots (screen-reading cheats) through certificate revocations and specialized waves.
North America: Focus on DMA hardware and private cheat subscriptions, often with slower, more evidence-gathering waves to catch the developers, not just users.
Pro Tip: If you're planning to buy an account "after the wave passes," don't. Riot often runs follow-up waves 48-72 hours later targeting the evasion attempts. The February 2025 bot purge had three distinct waves over a week.
The False Positive Fear
With millions banned, inevitably some innocents get caught. However, Riot's appeals process for waves is notoriously slow—you might wait weeks for a review while the wave finishes its cycle. If you were banned during a major wave and you're actually innocent (bought account, shared PC with a cheater, or rare software conflicts), document everything immediately. But know that "my cousin installed cheats" isn't the excuse Riot wants to hear.
Caught in a Wave?
If the February 2026 purge hit you with VAN 152, waiting for the next wave isn't an option. Saturn gets you back online before your friends finish their placement matches.
Bypass the WaveFinal Word: The Never-Ending Cycle
Ban waves aren't events—they're ecosystem management. As of February 2026, Riot maintains their sub-1% cheater game rate through this rhythmic purge system. Cheat developers code new bypasses, Riot detects them over weeks, then the wave hits and resets the board. It's a war of attrition where your ranked experience depends on Vanguard staying one step ahead.
Updated February 2026: Added Patch 12.00 auto-escalation details, February 2025 bot purge statistics, and regional targeting strategies. Historical data verified via Riot Developer Blogs and @ItsGamerDoc reports.