You’re kicked back to the desktop. No smoke. No error code. Just a silent crash. Or worse, a pop-up that reads:
Let me paint a picture for you.
Riot decided that the only way to beat the hackers is to lock the door before the game even starts. Here is where most blog posts lie to you. They say "Oh, just go into your BIOS and flip a switch." valorant enable secure boot
If you are playing on a 6-year-old laptop, you might be cooked. Many older motherboards don’t have TPM 2.0, or their Secure Boot implementation is broken. For you, Valorant is now a brick. You’re kicked back to the desktop
But here is the hard truth: In the arms race between developers and hackers, the era of "plug and play" is over. Secure Boot is the new standard for competitive gaming. Call of Duty requires it. Fortnite requires it. Soon, everything will. Just a silent crash
Then, BAM.
You didn’t even know what "Secure Boot" was ten seconds ago. Now, it’s the only thing standing between you and your rank-up game.