They flat out mention that they have an anti-cheat, but not that it's a kernel driver (most likely because the vast majority of users don't know what it is). They said you need to reboot. So, to me, I assumed it was a kernel driver of some sort.

EDIT: Official comments from Riot: https://www.reddit.com/r/VALORANT/comments/fzxdl7/anticheat_...

They mention they've had multiple external audits of the driver code.

I agree, as a competitive fps player, I welcome this. Cheating was so bad in CSGO that people made a whole business running custom servers and private anti-cheat. They took the advanced steps that Valve wouldn't.

I agree that they should definitely inform you of the extent of the anti-cheat system. I have never been able to take online gaming seriously due to how easy it is to cheat and how many people there are in the world that simply don't care about ruining others experience.

Until it is impossible to cheat it will always be a casual experience only. Maybe this is what it takes to actually prevent cheaters, but I doubt it. It's an arms race and they will always find a way around it.