—software that injects directly into the game's process memory. Developing or using such code is a direct violation of Riot Games' Terms of Service
Access to the internal source code changes the game completely:
The fallout was immediate and severe. Riot was forced to delay game updates across its titles, including the much-anticipated Patch 13.2 for League of Legends , while it worked to secure its systems. A few days later, the full scope of the theft became clear. The attackers had successfully stolen the source code for League of Legends , Teamfight Tactics (TFT) , and a "legacy anti-cheat platform".
Because Riot Games keeps its source code strictly proprietary, malicious actors frequently attempt to reverse-engineer the game binaries using tools like IDA Pro, Ghidra, and x64dbg. The Risk of Source Code Leaks
Without the source, cheat developers play a perpetual game of "guess the CRC check." They use disassemblers (IDA Pro, Ghidra) to reverse-engineer the binary. It takes weeks of work, and Riot patches the game every two weeks—rendering that work obsolete.
While Valorant uses Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 as its foundation, the development team stripped down and rewrote vast portions of the stock engine framework. The standard rendering pipeline and physics systems were heavily modified to allow the game to run at 144+ FPS on a wide spectrum of consumer hardware, including older configurations. 128-Tick Server Infrastructure
The game’s network layer code forces every game server to operate at a strict 128-tick rate. To facilitate this, the internal source code features an aggressive user-input processing loop. The server instantiates player movement commands and simulates accurate hit registration rather than relying on client-side confirmation, heavily mitigating asynchronous network lag. The Fog of War System
Are you looking at this from a perspective or a game development/reverse-engineering angle?
Having access to internal source code allows developers to see exactly how the game handles hit registration, player positioning, and wall visibility. This makes creating "undetectable" aimbots and wallhacks significantly easier.
How the code was actually stolen from the Riot servers.
The kernel-mode driver that initializes at system boot (Ring 0).
You cannot discuss Valorant's internal source code without examining , its custom-built, anti-cheat platform. Vanguard operates via two primary components: a standard user-mode client application and a ring-0 kernel-mode driver known as vgk.sys . Why Kernel-Level Privileges?
The absolute core of any discussion surrounding Valorant's internal code is its custom anti-cheat solution, . Driven by a low-level system driver designated as vgk.sys , Vanguard operates at Ring 0 (Kernel Mode) . This gives the software the deepest possible administrative permissions within the Windows operating system.