'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The new Valorant episode will bring with it not just a new Act and a new Agent, but a whole new map as well. The latter is something that the Valorant community has been requesting the devs for some time now.
And Riot Games’ latest tease, the River King tweet, has sparked a lot of theories among Valorant players. While some are thinking that it might be a new Agent, others believe that it could indeed be a new map.
In one of her Dev Diaries, Valorant lead Anna Donlon had said that the shooter would be getting a new Act every two weeks, along with a new Agent in every Act. However, episodes will take six months to complete, and each one would feature a new map.
So, technically, the six-month period for Valorant’s official release ends with the beginning of Act 4, and the chances of a new map coming then are much higher than with Act 3.
That being said, it’s Riot, and it might just find a way to “shock and awe” the Valorant community by introducing both a map and an Agent in Act 3, which is all set to go live on 13th October.
Valorant might get a new snow map
A fascinating fan theory has been trending in a Valorant subreddit, where a Reddit user, PiggyBroke, suggested that the new map would have the snow and ice-theme built into its visual aesthetic.
The post headlined “New Map Theory” says that there’s a new tease that just came. It’s an image with a foreign language in it, saying something like “Don’t forget to bring a coat, it’s cold there.”
PiggyBroke wrote:
“Okay, so here’s what I think about this. Many people are saying it’s a new map, and I agree. And I feel that this map is closely related to the Player Banner in the last tier of the Battle Pass.”
PiggyBroke has suggested that the new map will have a direct connection with Viper and Omen. The Redditor wrote:
“If you look closely at the banner, there are two people. The one on the right has something green in his/her hands. Green, aka Viper’s color. Also, when Omen kills the enemy Viper, he said: ‘Experiment complete.’ The name of the banner is Experiment X011. This can mean that the person on the left, or beside the apparent Viper, is Omen in his human form. This makes sense since Omen has a lot of dialogues that show that he’s known Viper for quite some time. All of this summing up, Omen, when he was human, could have been Viper’s partner in scientific experiments.”
PiggyBroke gave more weight to this theory by talking about some of the dialogues that Viper and Omen had in the game.
“There is a big chunk of Radianite in the banner. So, possibly, this can mean that Omen and Viper experimented on Radianite in an experiment called Experiment X011. I think they were looking for a power in Radianite, which could be beneficial to normal people or non-Radiante people. This assumption comes from the dialogue when Omen says: ‘You used to heal people with your skill. Funny.’ to Viper. This means that Viper was sane at some point in her life, a good person. So, maybe, something went wrong in this experiment, resulting in Omen to turn into a shadow entity and Viper to go insane and bloodlust.”
A new map will definitely mean new or additional content for lore building. And as Riot is historically known to keep the story and backdrop behind its games open-ended, like that in League of Legends, and leave most of the narrative to the community, then this Valorant theory by PiggyBroke indeed seems plausible.
“Possibly, the new map that’s about to come out will be related to this player banner, directly connected to Viper and Omen. If that’s the case, a lot of lore about Viper and Omen will be revealed in this map, and there will surely be dialogues from either Viper, Omen, or both when they are spawned in this map. Also, if you look closely on their uniforms, there’s a logo on it... the same logo which Brimstone has on his body shield. So, if this theory is true, this can also mean that Brimstone, Omen, and Viper are all related. Is it possible that they know something that the other characters don’t know? Something about this organization containing scientists and soldiers? If that’s the case, this organization is huge, and they might have an intention... possibly something related to Radianite."
"We don’t know if they’re good or bad... but it’s possible they’re trying to harness the power of Radianite to its maximum potential... and the characters in this game, both Radiants and normal people, are part of an experiment. Think about it... they’ve added both people with powers and skilled people who have used them, onto a battlefield. Maybe these games are an experiment in the Valorant world.”
PiggyBroke does indeed paint the Valorant world to be cold, brutal, and twisted.
Riot teasing the “It is cold bring a coat” mystery might indeed be the tease for a new map, but will it be coming in Act 3?
If we consider the first two months of the Valorant closed beta as part of the first episode, then we are comfortably covering the six months per episode routine. Otherwise, it just feels highly unlikely that Act 3 gets a new map.
