The new Valorant agents for 2023 sound promising, as Riot outlines a new initiator and sentinel coming to the FPS game this year. Most intriguing, however, is a hint that an entire new class of Valorant characters might be on its way, hopefully introducing totally fresh mechanics, gameplay, and niches alongside the rest of Valorant’s already stellar lineup. The news comes as we fill up on goodies and skins at the latest Valorant Night Market, so it’s already looking like a good year.
The latest Valorant agent, Harbor, arrived in October, joining Astra, Omen, and Viper as one of the multiplayer game’s best controllers. We still don’t know when agent 22 will arrive, but Riot has offered some fascinating teases about what’s to come throughout 2023. Looking back over Valorant’s short history, Riot Games’ character producer John ‘Mememememe’ Goscicki describes the process of introducing a new fighter.
“After two and a half years of Valorant being a live game, we’ve found a good groove between creating new agents and maintaining the live game,” Goscicki explains. “Creating new agents keeps the game feeling fresh. There’s new gameplay introduced, new ways to learn the game, as well as new thematic spaces to explore and fall in love with.
“That said, it takes a long time to make a new agent, so we’re always thinking about the current state of the game and the future of the game when introducing one.”
Goscicki then outlines what to expect in terms of Valorant classes in 2023, offering a cryptic tease right at the end.
“In 2023, we’ll be releasing three new agents, an initiator, a sentinel, and then, finally… we’re not going to quite give that one away yet. You’ll have to wait until later in the year to find out.”
I mean, come on. It’s not too tin-foil hat to think there’s a whole-new Valorant class on the way, right? That sounds pretty definitive. As to what that class might be, we can only speculate. We’ve got controllers to dominate the map, duelists to run offence, initiators to do the heavy support, and sentinels to play defence.
Maybe we could get a stealth-based, sneaking class, someone who can disguise themselves as the enemy to infiltrate the backlines. That could certainly add some interesting dynamics. But we’ll let Riot figure it out.
In the meantime, grab the best Valorant crosshairs if you want to stay on top of the competitive Valorant ranks. You’ll also want to check your current main against the Valorant tier list, to make sure you’re choosing the right agent for the job.