The Initiatior: Bombshell Incoming!
By Cameron Bray
Executive Producer Donlon outlines next steps for Valorant, teases new Agents, Episodes and Acts; what we know about our next Agent — Bombshell; Riot Games announces new Valorant SEA Invitational and more
Executive Producer Donlon outlines next steps for Valorant, promises up to 6 new Agents per year
Valorant Executive Producer Anna Donlon outlined Riot Games’ future plans for the game Monday, June 29, in a five-minute video posted to Twitter. Most importantly, she promised up to six new Agents per year (a number that could be subject to change, she said) as part of the game’s future new content, with the newest Agent becoming available to play likely next month.
During the announcement video, Donlon described the structure and schedule of the game’s upcoming content releases, known as Episodes and Acts:
“Episodes are meant to last about six months, with Acts lasting about two months each, so three Acts per Episode,” Donlon said in the video. “We’re gonna ask for a little flexibility here because we need to navigate around things like holidays and such, but that’s pretty much the cadence we’re targeting.”
“Agents will release at the beginning of an Act,” she added. “So if your math skills are awesome, you’ve figured out that we’re targeting about six Agents a year.”
Episode 1, Act 1 of Valorant began during the game’s launch Tuesday, June 2, with the release of Reyna — the game’s newest Agent, the aggressive vampiress from Mexico.
And given the timeline Donlon provided, Act 2 will likely come out sometime in August or early September, with the game’s next Agent being released then as well.
“Episodes and Acts are also where we’ll start telling some of the game’s story,” she said. “Now, some of you are like, “Story. Who cares.” And others of you are like, “Why the heck is there a giant island floating in the sky and what are all these glowy boxes doing all over the place?” We’ll start peeling back the layers of the game’s story over the course of the year, with significantly more to come around Episode 2. Some of you are already starting to piece it together, which has been really cool to watch.”
Lastly, Donlon promised to release new game modes — besides the standard and Spike Rush game modes — over the course of these next Episodes and Acts, although she said she didn’t know when yet.
“As for game modes, this is a place where we’re accelerating development,” Donlon said. “And we’re not really sure yet exactly when we’re gonna release modes, whether that’s at the Act level or the Episode level, but what I can say is that you’re likely to see a new one before the beginning of Episode 2.”
What we know about our next Valorant Agent: German? robotics? engineer? A German robotics engineer perhaps??
Valorant fans and internet sleuths have had a busy week trying to figure out what they can about the game’s next Agent, in what is likely its most-anticipated update.
Riot Games has been tight-lipped about its newest playable character, with the studio releasing only a silhouette of him or her during Executive Producer Anna Donlon’s recent announcement video.
But some data-mining and in-game sleuthing have given us a compelling theory of what our next Agent may look like and what his or her name might be.
From what fans have discovered, our unknown Agent is named Bombshell. Valorant players learned his name by data-mining some of our current Agents’ voicelines:
For example, in one data-mined interaction, Sage says, “Ignite this place, Bombshell.”
In another, Breach says, “You and me, Bombshell. Let’s knock ’em out.”
So we’ve learned our Agent’s name: Bombshell. But what do we know about him specifically?
To give fans a hint of what lies ahead, Riot Games may have left a clue in the Act 1 Battle Pass. One of the final unlockable items in the Battle Pass is a player card called Vetraulich (meaning “confidential” in German), which seems to depict a bipedal robot and additional gadgets to its left and right.
If this card matches with our unknown next Agent, Bombshell is plausibly a German engineer or robotics specialist, to boot.
Some fans have gone further in their sleuthing and have suggested that Bombshell is of short stature and that he drives the bipedal mech to reach the same height and hitbox as the other, previous Agents.
They base this theory on a data-mined interaction from Jett, who says, “Alright, I take back what I said about those bots, and your height and those dumb pants.”
While they’ve given us a fun, compelling theory about Bombshell, this description of him as a short, mech-riding Agent doesn’t seem to match the silhouette of our current unknown Agent, who seems about as tall as Reyna.
Bombshell’s bipedal mech also could be a part of his Ultimate Ability, if we were to venture another guess.
Either way, we’ll learn all there is to know about our next Agent — and how much of these theories are true — when Act 2 comes out, in August or early September.
Riot Games announces new Valorant SEA Invitational, second tournament to be based in Southeast Asia
Riot Games announced Tuesday, June 30, that it would host the new Valorant SEA Invitational with event organizer IO Esports later this month.
The second Valorant tournament to be based in Southeast Asia — after the Pacific Open, which was announced last week — the one-day Invitational will begin Saturday, July 11, and will feature six teams of five prominent players, from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
The prize pool is set at $10,000. Various awards will also be up for grabs, thanks to official sponsors Intel, Secretlab and GIGABYTE.
Besides money, competitors will also battle it out for the honor and pride of being the best Valorant team in Southeast Asia, their home region.
Competing teams will fight not only for money and glory, but also for a nobly important cause, as Riot Games will match the prize and donate $10,000 to GlobalGiving’s Coronavirus Relief Fund.
The Invitational will be broadcast live in English, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch.
Additional information about the Invitational can be found on its website.
Happy Independence Day!
Have a great Fourth of July, everyone! I’m wishing you all the best, and I hope you have a happy and healthy holiday. Stay home, stay well — but celebrate! I’ll be launching fireworks and grilling hamburgers from the comfort and safety of my yard.
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Cameron Bray is the lead writer for The Initiator, a recently created newsletter about Valorant produced by Numlock News. He also contributes to No Bid Nation, a new sports blog about William and Mary basketball. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @spike_cameron or send him an email at cameron@numlock.news.