Jan. 10, 2022

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Riot Games announced the new Valorant duelist, Neon, a week ago, and fans cannot wait. Leaking her lightning abilities and Filipino origin, her release date will fall on Jan. 11 globally. This has given Riot Games a spotlight in the gaming community because of her disruptive in-game talents, in addition to her memorable personality. 

The most recent popular FPS (first person shooter) game Valorant created by Riot Games, has promised in their latest Act, or update, for their 18th newest agent, Neon, as well as a new map that is rumored to be very compact based on her hometown Manila, Philippines. Neon is shown to have lightning fast abilities similar to the Korean agent Jett, who is known to be “as fast as wind.” Many have said both of these agents will be rivals due to their related skill sets. 

Not only do Riot Games enthusiasts appreciate Neon’s powers, but they also enjoy the strong cultural representation as a Filipino agent. In her trailer, it was revealed that Riot Games had chosen Filipino voice actress Vanille Velasquez for Neon, which emphasizes a more authentic outlook on her character. Many beta testers of this new agent like Melissa Nguyen, a freshman attending Silver Creek, have said Neon’s voice lines consist of snarky remarks similar to another agent, Yoru, and a great amount of Tagalog based voice lines that include fun slang and curses towards her opponents.

What also stands out in her current trailer is that she’s illustrated to be one of the most in depth agents charisma-wise. The trailer shows clips of her singing, dancing, and decorating her new room; indicating she is a very apprehensive, flexible individual. As it is highlighted in her cinematic, Neon holds great value towards a stuffed animal named “Squish Squish” since she had brought it in when entering her new home in the agency and had even called her mom about it, thinking she had forgotten to take it with her. I can already tell she will bring a brighter atmosphere to Valorant’s lore. 

Although I do personally enjoy Neon’s set and especially her lore, there are some details about her that will definitely be nerfed as more players select her. To lay out Neon’s abilities, she can out-pace her enemies, throw an energy bolt that concusses and electrifies players and creates an electrifying static wall that blocks vision and damages opponents. Her ultimate unleashes her full potential in power and speed, firing deadly beams of lightning with high accuracy movement. Seeing these abilities be demonstrated through watching streamers and youtubers try her out in the beta testing, there is no doubt players playing against her won’t be upset and demand her to be nerfed (to make someone or something less powerful.) Why? Because her set is extremely disruptive as I have said before. In game, players usually have some sort of space between their enemy while trying to damage them. However, with Neon, she can break past this boundary and instantly sneak up on you, creating a huge disadvantage on whoever is a part of the other team. Regardless if Neon is nerfed, I for one would still enjoy selecting and playing her.