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While previously you've been able to play League of Legends on Linux, and there's some pretty die-hard fans using Wine to play it, that's set to end soon with Vanguard being introduced.

Cheating in online games is a constant battle for game developers, so I certainly appreciate it's a difficult subject to approach. Developers want players to have the easiest time getting into the game, that's obvious, but with so many cheats out there it's a difficult balancing act. They stated that "as many as 1 in 15 games globally has had a scripter or botter in it, but in some regions, this number is as high as 1 in 5" which is pretty problematic.

For those curious on their thoughts about Linux, and people playing LoL on Linux going forward they said this:

Q: What about Linux?

We've never officially supported Linux, and it's true that the current Lutris-based implementation for League (that uses wine) will not be able to satisfy the Vanguard driver requirements. Linux does not currently afford us sufficient ability to attest boot state or kernel modules, and the difficulty in securing it is only compounded by all the frustrating differences between distributions. Even allowing emulation is an exceptionally dangerous game, as many cheats could then just run on the host, manipulating or analyzing the VM in a way that would be invisible to Vanguard within it.

Half of anti-cheat is making sure the environment hasn't been tampered with, and this is extremely hard on Linux by design. Any backdoors we leave open for it are ones developers will immediately leverage for cheats, and yesterday, there were just over 800 Linux users on League. We have evaluated this risk to not be worth the payoff.

And about having it be open source:

Q: Why not open source the driver?

Anti-cheat is an iterative, indefinite battle. Many of the preventative checks that Vanguard makes to ensure system integrity are deliberately stealthy, bleeding-edge, and in some cases, built on total pillars of sand. We benefit extensively from the confusion that the system inflicts on cheaters, and letting them simply browse the detection methods would exhaust our supply faster than we could invent new ones. An open source anti-cheat application would be totally useless (April Fools 2021).

So there you have it, you simply won't be able to play it on Linux with the introduction of Vanguard. We already knew this but at least they're trying to give more detailed explanations.

See their full blog post on the LoL website which goes into plenty more detail on their struggle against cheaters.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Anti-Cheat, Misc, Wine
15 Likes
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dpanter Apr 11
Bleh.

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sonic2kk Apr 11
This kind of Anti-Cheat is just another reason to avoid online multiplayer games. I didn't play games with them on Windows, and I'm certainly not going to play them on Linux.
Soulprayer Apr 11
And just as i got interested, because the lore is great and Arcane series 2 on Netflix will soon™ be available.
Well, then I'm just playing Elden Ring or enjoy some X4Foundation.
massatt212 Apr 11
Quoting: SoulprayerAnd just as i got interested, because the lore is great and Arcane series 2 on Netflix will soon™ be available.
Well, then I'm just playing Elden Ring or enjoy some X4Foundation.

Whats wrong with DOTA
HyperLoser Apr 11
View PC info
  • Supporter
As long as they don't introduce something preventing to watch Arcane season 2 on Linux i will be fine
Shmerl Apr 11
Lol. Let them get lost with these excuses about why their invasive anti-cheat is contradictory to the open nature of Linux. The problem is with invasive, not with Linux.


Last edited by Shmerl on 11 April 2024 at 8:03 pm UTC
Tharvas Apr 11
From the "big" 4 MOBAs, I am glad I enjoy Heroes of the Storm the most running excellently on Linux. I feel sorry for those peeps though that will be affected. Maybe give HotS a try :)
Dennis Apr 11
At least mac systems are anti cheat free, now - right?

I have read some posts where people start a hackintosh installation with gpu passtrough for LoL and can enjoy it better as there was a nativ mac version of the game which vanguard doesnt support but hey - it seems like this isn`t an attack sector they need to defend - hooray!
hengecobdig Apr 11
It's at least nice that their anti-cheat will now block all cheaters. If putting a rootkit or whatever into the windows kernel is what it takes, then that's what it takes. No cheater will ever be able to play league ever again. This is definitely the right path for anti-cheats, because it will definitely work, and not be a dead end.
Sanidin Apr 11
Riot can't deny that Valve makes the superior MOBA for Linux
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