If there’s one factor I really like about Valorant, it’s the lore. With new brokers frequently becoming a member of the fray, there’s all the time one thing thrilling occurring in Riot’s FPS recreation. However don’t let the brand new brokers distract you from the truth that Riot remains to be protecting the whereabouts of Agent Eight (A8) a carefully guarded secret. For these unaware, one individual is lacking from Valorant protocol, and for some ridiculous cause, everybody’s okay with it.
It wasn’t earlier than a curious teaser for agent 23 was dropped that gamers paid consideration to the lacking quantity eight within the agent checklist. A8 may very well be the subsequent agent in Valorant, however in case you pay attention carefully to Viper, Cypher, Omen, and Kay/O’s voice strains, you’d additionally fear concerning the security of the lacking agent. Horrible issues have occurred within the Kingdom, and I can’t assist however surprise the place A8 is.
“They’re scared. I don’t want cameras to see that.”
Who’s Valorant agent eight?
Formally, we don’t know who Valorant A8 is, however we do know that they exist, because of Joe Killeen (aka Riot ParmCheesy), who clarified that they’ll be a part of the Protocol as quickly as they “get again.”
On Riot’s official web site, Valorant brokers are listed numerically, with Killjoy buying the eighth spot. However if you transfer to the Valorant Spotify playlist, issues begin to get fishy; you’ll discover that the eighth slot is lacking. Valorant’s official cinematics additional verify that A8 is actual, and it’s probably simply that Legion (the unhealthy guys) are sweeping one thing underneath the rug.
So, we have now two cinematics that trace at A8’s existence: Heat Up and Revelation. Heat-up offers a peek into Protocol’s (Alpha) HQ, the place we will see A8’s locker, although their numeric designation has been scratched out. This doesn’t look good. Nonetheless, issues are even worse in Legion – there isn’t even a locker for A8. As an alternative, the sequence jumps from locker seven straight to 9, suggesting that the lacking agent has been utterly erased from their information.
In case you don’t already know, Legion are the unhealthy guys, at the least from what we all know. So, a lacking locker isn’t omen. Now, Riot refuses to spill the beans, and it’s solely fanning wild theories. Nonetheless, a few of them make a variety of sense.
What occurred to the mysterious Valorant agent eight?
Is A8 Nora, Cypher’s alleged useless spouse? Have they got one thing to do with Reyna’s useless or ailing sister Lucia? Or might they be associated to Brimstone? Gamers are working wild with concepts, however a time-meddler concept makes probably the most sense.
In Valorant EP1 Act 2, Riot rolled out a card dubbed Memento Mori with an hourglass hooked up, pointing on the thought of time. Now, it’s price noting that ‘Memento Mori’ is a Latin phrase meaning ‘keep in mind your mortality.’ Subsequent, in EP2 Act 1, we received an Infinity pores and skin assortment, the place one variant has the quantity 8 stamped on the aspect. It appears Riot has been hinting at A8’s time-traveling shenanigans, so A8 probably has the powers to meddle with time and actuality, not in contrast to Yoru.
On the floor, it seems like A8 is simply chilling in another actuality. Nonetheless, the scratched-out numbers on the locker factors to some stress between the Protocol and the lacking agent. It’s not totally out of left subject to imagine that A8 isn’t on good phrases with the Protocol. Chamber, Viper, Omen, and Breach all appear to have a shared historical past, however what precisely did A8 do this was so horrible as to warrant their exile from the group? In any case, Protocol embraced the corrupt Chamber, who actually destroyed a peace initiative between Alpha and Omega.
So, the one factor that is sensible at this level is that Legion has kidnapped A8 since they’re those pretending that no such agent exists. It’s doable that Protocol despatched out A8 for a vital mission to Earth 2, and when A8 by no means returned, the Protocol squad assumed that A8 had betrayed their belief.
Chamber was welcomed again into the squad after he saved Brimstone and Sage, however A8 by no means returned – there’s no forgiveness for betrayal, in spite of everything. It’s additionally doable that A8’s disappearance is tied to Chamber’s villain arc, encouraging him to destroy the collider for a higher goal. Nobody is aware of what that goal is, however perhaps A8 is someway behind these mysterious machinations.
Regardless of the case, I hope Brimstone and the crew can put their variations with A8 apart and rescue them in time for the subsequent agent’s launch. Who is aware of, the subsequent agent would deliver one thing new to the roster. Riot has beforehand confirmed that plenty of new Valorant characters are coming, however one in every of them could also be very, very completely different, so I’d counsel slotting in top-of-the-line Valorant crosshairs simply in case – you may by no means be too ready, proper?
