Riot Vanguard is Riot Games’ custom game security and anti-cheat software. The idea behind it is to uphold the competitive integrity of Riot Games titles. It was initially rolled out for Valorant and the publisher is now bringing Vanguard to League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics (TFT).
Initially Vanguard for League of Legends was slated to have a common global rollout and it is no longer the case. In the recent LoL Patch 14.4 notes, Riot Games mentioned that it has chosen to change the Vanguard rollout plan. Instead of a Global rollout, Riot will be releasing it in a single region, the Philippines, first starting with LoL Patch 14.5.
In the LoL Patch 14.4 patch notes, Riot Games said that after testing the Vanguard diagnostics on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) for some time, it has elected to change the rollout plan. It said, "Instead of a Global rollout, we’re going to be releasing in a single region first, the Philippines, with patch 14.5. This allows us time on live servers to evaluate how Vanguard is functioning and being experienced before making adjustments if required."
As a result, the Philippines server will be the first one to get Vanguard in the next patch. After evaluating how it works, Riot Games and its developers will choose an appropriate plan of action to roll it out for the other servers spaced across the globe.
LoL Patch 14.5 is scheduled to go live on 6th March.
Players should know that Riot Vanguard should be kept running and active during League of Legends and TFT gameplay or any time the League client is open and running. Any attempt to uninstall, exit or interact with Vanguard in an "unsanctioned" way will prevent players from playing the game.
It should also be kept in mind that uninstalling League of Legends will not uninstall Riot Vanguard if a player also has Valorant installed. Vanguard will only be automatically removed if the user uninstalls all software that requires it.
Riot Games stated that it prioritized making Vanguard's integration with players' computer transparent and controllable while still keeping in tact all of its security features. This is why we can see the Vanguard icon in the System Tray when it is running. Likewise, players can also turn it off by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Exit Vanguard" if it interferes with other processes.