[fermenflo]

The way I understand it (which isn't that well either tbh) is that most modern anti-cheat softwares run off of some Hardware ID (HWID). An amalgam of ids from your GPU, CPU, OS, Mac adress, and so on... that are somehow combined or hashed into some uniquely identifying ID. This is a bit harder to spoof than an IP address ban. And most are robust to gradual changes. Like Theseus' ship, if you change your GPU one day, OS the next, and so on... is it the same computer you should ban? Most HWIDs generated by games won't change until a certain number of those variables are messed around with.

Once again, I'm no expert but I think that's at least helpful.

[penagwin]

This is called hardware banning and is not "super" common in the PC world, usually they just ban accounts. I know overwatch does this HW bans, but no VAC protected game does.

Consoles generally ban by HW I believe.