With Episode Seven inching close to a release on June 27, Riot Games is gearing up to pull the curtains off a new Protocol member and an alternate game mode in VALORANT. Stirring the crowd’s anticipation, Riot, on June 14, revealed a catchy teaser featuring the adorable couple—Killjoy and Raze—and some thrilling hints for what’s about to come.
Besides being a pleasant reminder of the ongoing Pride Month, the teaser showcased Killjoy and Raze engrossed in fixing the Boom Bot, while Killjoy’s diagnostics tablet turned into an eerie, possibly hacked state. But that’s not all—the cautious intruder had much to show off before the teaser ended.
As the tablet’s display turned red, indicating a takeover by an unidentified entity, it put blueprints of a few existing VALORANT maps on view. What’s thought-provoking is as the maps showed up on the screen, each of their names transitioned into a new title—almost as if the “hacker” renamed them.
Related: Ranking all of VALORANT’s maps
While Ascent became “Plazza,” Split became “District,” and Bind became “Kasbah,” the lovebirds weren’t completely aloof. Killjoy did smell something fishy, but as she turned to look toward her tablet, the hacked state quickly dissipated to reflect a normal state.
The hacker is definitely sneaky and looking for revenge—as Killjoy went back to working with Raze, the compromised program sprung back into action and displayed an interesting message: Execute R.V.N.G. Program // (Y/N)?
While the teaser ended too quickly and had no confirming data, some things can be clearly deciphered from it. For starters, the changes to map names indicated the features of the upcoming Team Deathmatch (TDM) mode, speculatively named “HURM.”
If you missed out on VALORANT’s “What’s next in 2023” announcement on June 5, Riot’s Andy Ho’s confirmed that TDM will feature “maps built specifically for the mode.” Piecing the puzzle, it’s likely that Plazza, District, and Kasbah are three of the new maps curated specially for TDM.
Whether the mode will launch with just these three maps only remains unknown, but considering that the teaser’s out, you can expect the full trailer to drop soon.
In fact, prominent VALORANT leaker Mike has indicated that the full trailer, named “LET THE GAMES BEGIN” will drop in the next 36 hours and will focus on TDM. It may also drop a few for the new agent, so don’t miss out.
That being said, today’s teaser may have indicated that the upcoming agent is revengeful (like Fade) and possibly a cyber expert (like Cypher). The unknown entity behind the compromise on Killjoy’s tablet may be the agent’s Omega Earth counterpart, but it’s all just speculation at this point—take it with a pinch of salt.
The creation of Team Deathmatch’s world may have a compelling story behind it, as the latest teaser indicated, with the lore’s driving force being our newest protector of Alpha Earth.
