League of Legends: Update 14.9 brings controversial copy protection

Cheating in online games has always been a problem and will probably never be a thing of the past. There are always scammers in Riot Games’ hit MOBA League of Legends. Accordingly, the studio is now implementing new copy protection, but this is only partially well received.

If you’ve ever played Riot’s competitive shooter Valorant, then you’re probably familiar with Vanguard. With the update to version 14.9, it will also become mandatory for League of Legends, like TPM 2.0. First of all, this means bad news for Linux gamers, because this step will lock them out of the MOBA.

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This is due to the fact that Vanguard does not work under the Linux tool Wine. This basically translates Windows software for the Unix operating system, and Valve’s Proton system also uses the technology. Riot explains this step by saying that League of Legends was never officially released for Linux, and the risk of cheaters is far too great. In addition, only around 800 players would have chosen the Linux route to the Rift every day anyway.

If you do not have TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) activated, you will now only see the error code VAN9001. In this case, Riot Games offers a corresponding help article that explains how to activate the system. Ultimately, this is a chip that adds security and licensing functions to your PC.

TPM 2.0 should actually be activated on every PC with Windows 11, as Microsoft also made this a requirement in 2021. However, this step could be circumvented, so if your League of Legends fails, it’s worth checking here again.

Of course, this step is not only met with approval in the community. According to some users, it can happen that your PC no longer starts if you have installed the client but deactivated TPM. The game apparently no longer runs at all with GeForce Now. Apparently Riot Games still has a lot to improve.