Valorant fans have spotted a rather unfortunate coincidence with newcomer Harbor and one of the most recent maps introduced by Riot Games. The newest Valorant Agent Harbor has been unveiled, and the bearded Indian controller’s water-based abilities give him plenty of potential in the fast-paced multiplayer game. While long-time pro player Shroud doesn’t think Harbor is OP so far, plenty of players are likely to be eager to work out the best strategies for him to succeed.
Finding the right combination between your chosen Agent from the selection of Valorant characters on offer and the particular map that you’re on can make the difference between victory and defeat. As such, you’ll often find players looking for the best lineups for a given Agent on a specific map.
However, players quickly realised that the newest addition to the roster has a rather unfortunate pairing with the most recent Valorant map, Pearl. A thread posted to the Valorant Reddit and numerous Twitter posts point out that players are going to be left searching for ‘Pearl Harbor lineups’ as a result of this most recent addition. Of course, this immedately calls to mind the Japanese military attack on American naval base Pearl Harbor in December 1941, which lead to the formal entry of the United States into World War II.
Many players in the comments are making light-hearted jokes about the presumably coincidental naming scheme, with one user’s upvoted comment wondering if it will spawn a series of articles and videos with titles such as “Pearl Harbor tips and tricks” or “How to attack Pearl Harbor.” Another comments, “Half the Valorant community is gonna be on the FBI watchlist.”
Others take a more optimistic approach, suggesting that perhaps it could “make a lot of people accidentally study history.” Some even suggest that there’s no way this could have been an oversight. “Riot knew what they were doing,” remarks the original Reddit poster, “it’s all been planned out.” The attack on Pearl Harbor is certainly a pivotal moment in both US and World history, so perhaps a cheeky nudge in that direction wouldn’t go amiss.
If all this military history is a bit much, perhaps our guide to the best Valorant crosshairs and codes should help you set up for success. Meanwhile, an upcoming Valorant UI overhaul plans to make the game cleaner and easier to read. We’ll also keep you up to speed on the next Valorant Night Market dates, so you know when you can spruce up your Valorant guns with some new skins at discount rates.