Hi folks! We’ve been getting a lot of questions about Vanguard coming to League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics and what this means for third party applications. We’ve done our best to summarize your concerns and answer as much as we can below. 

  1. When is PBE?

    1. Vanguard is currently available in PBE. If you don’t already have access, you can get it here. Testing your app on the PBE server will be the most efficient way to figure out if you’ll be impacted by Vanguard. 
       

  2. When will Vanguard be live?

    1. Vanguard is now live in the Philippines as of Patch 14.8 (April 16, 2024).  Vanguard is currently planned to be live for all regions other than China with patch 14.9 on April 30, 2024. Please follow the patch notes for the most recent information.
       

  3. What happens to existing apps that use memory reading? 

    1. Overlays and internal tools using the API, game client, and in-game APIs should continue to function. External tools reading memory will no longer work, and you’ll need to change methods. 
       

  4. Is it possible to get on an allow list?

    1. No - There is absolutely no allow list for Vanguard. If you expect your tool will be impacted, it is up to you to redevelop it to account for Vanguard’s restrictions. If this isn’t possible, this means the tool is unfortunately not something that will be allowed. 
       

  5. Will the LCU be impacted by Vanguard?

    1. ​Apps developed using the LCU and in-game APIs are still expected to work. Please note the LCU and in-game APIs are not owned by Developer Relations and we cannot offer support or guarantee updates when using these methods.
       

  6. Will replays/spectating be impacted by Vanguard?

    1. ​Apps developed using the spectator and replay services should still work.
       

  7. Can I talk to someone about how this impacts my specific application?

    1. Unfortunately not. We have thousands of active developers in our ecosystem and we just don’t have the bandwidth to address Vanguard questions at the individual level. 
      However, if during testing, you find Vanguard behaves in an unexpected way that contradicts what we've explained here, feel free to send us a message at https://support-developer.riotgames.com so we can take a look.
       

  8. Will everyone be expected to follow the same guidelines, or are certain developers getting an exception?

    1. As mentioned above, no one is exempt from these changes, and everyone must adapt to Vanguard in League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics. This means Developer Relations can make no exceptions, carve out any loopholes, or perform any secret handshakes to invite anyone to a mythical allow list - that’s right, not even that developer. If you see a tool continuing to function after Vanguard is live, this means that they have restructured their tool to meet the new guidelines.
      That being said, we’re unable to comment on relationships that may exist between specific creators and other teams at Riot, as these are managed outside of Developer Relations’ purview.
       

While we aren’t able to address every single question we receive, we hope this covers the major concerns we’ve seen. For more information about all things Vanguard, be sure to check out this article from the Dev team.