Juniata High School

The new Valorant season has finally arrived and will be out for approximately three months. The new season includes a new competitive season, a new battle pass, a map, and a limited-edition skin bundle. The new map we have received is called “Lotus,” and it is ancient temple themed. It is now the second map in Valorant to have three planting sites, and everyone is excited about it. With the addition of the new map, an old map called “Split” is returning. Since two new maps were added to the rotation, the maps Bind and Breeze were removed from unrated and competitive queues. Since it’s a new season, the competitive ranks have been completely reset, and everyone will have to redo their five placement games. Because of the reset, everybody should be placed in a lower rank than they were last season. We have three new skin lines in the new battle pass, which is about $10. The 9 Lives skin line includes skins for the phantom, classic, ares, and guardian. The skin line includes cat versions of some of the characters and has four themed variants. These variants include cat Jett, Viper, Reyna, and Raze. There is also a 9 Lives card and spray. The Venturi skin line includes skins for the frenzy, marshal, specter, vandal, and melee. It also includes a Venturi-themed buddy and card. The last skin line is the Gridcrash skin line with a spray and a card. This also includes a skin for the ghost, judge, stinger, and bulldog. The rest of the player cards in the battle pass are the Late Night Snack, Duo// Field Command, Playzilla Dan, Ultimate Collector, Moonlit Chase, Scars That Bond, Cat, and Mouse, Rift Rider, Tight Knit, and the Golden Ultimate Collector Cards. The other sprays are called the Oh No, Oh Yes, Definitely Not It, Good Fortune, Network Error, Last Person Standing, No Worries Neon, No Bullets, Drop Skin Please, Shock Heart, Dream Team, Who’s That Blind, and Perfectly Roasted Sprays. The rest of the buddies include the Big Announcement, New Year's Knot, Folded Wish, Ep6//1 Coin, Peace and Love, Electric Love, Frozen Solid, and the Golden Folded Wish buddy. The two titles included in the battle pass are the operator-only and rez bait titles. There is also 140 Radianite and an XP boost in the battle pass. The new shop bundle was also released, and it is called “Araxys.” This bundle is $50 and includes a melee, operator, bulldog, marshal, vandal, buddy, card, and spray. The skin comes in four different color variants, which include red/black, purple/silver, blue/gold, and silver/white. It has three other upgrades that include sound effects, animations, and a finisher. Before the season got released, we saw a trailer and additional scenes for the lore. Valorant agents Skye, Harbor, and Astra went looking for “The City of Flowers,” the new Lotus map, and ended up running into Sage, Omen, Killjoy, Jett, and Raze from other Earth. We don’t know what happens after that, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon. I’m honestly really happy about the bits of lore we got. I’m glad they showed us more of Killjoy and Raze after they officially announced that they’re a couple. There have already been a few minor bugs found in Split, even though it was taken out for that reason, and Lotus. Hopefully, we will get these bugs fixed quickly and get a few agent reworks and buffs. Nobody was very happy about the major Sage and Chamber reworks. Everyone can agree the Chamber rework was needed, but Sage’s heal getting demolished but buffed at the same time seemed unnecessary to a large majority of players. The Valorant community loves the new skin bundle and battle pass. I won’t be buying the skin bundle, but I definitely will be getting the battle pass. I love the 9 Lives skin line but dislike the others. I love how the Valorant devs incorporated memes into the sprays once again, and I love how funny and stupid they look. Also, they pay attention to their players by making titles match their player’s personalities and play styles. I also love how we got player cards from some scenes of the season trailer. For right now, Valorant is only available to play on pc, but I recommend checking the game out through Google or YouTube, so you can see all the amazing things I’m talking about.