Valorant fans and players all around responded with mixed feelings when a rumor, stemming out from a piece of leaked news, suggested the inclusion of two new agents in the game. The character design lead of Riot Games, Ryan “Morello” Scott, had earlier said in one of his Twitch streams that Valorant will be getting new agents soon. As far as adding new agents is concerned, Riot plans to release one new agent after the completion of each ‘act’ (spanning roughly two months).
Further reading: Valorant: “Please Don’t Cheat Next Time” – Riot Employee to Banned Pro
But back to the topic about Crusader and Shatter, they are certainly not the new agents that we are hoping for. Morello recently confirmed on Twitter that Crusader and Shatter were “Super old cancelled characters”.
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Super old cancelled characters. I've talked a bunch on my stream about Crusader getting the axe. Y'all reading too much into files – lots of stuff cut from the game over time https://t.co/goz3I3hiwJ
— Morello (@RiotMorello) July 20, 2020
Shatter and Crusader were meant to be an attacker and a tank respectively
The rumors began when popular Valorant leaker, Valorant Express found audio files hinting at the aforementioned agents. Data miners keep digging into these files to sniff out the upcoming changes in a game. However, these files did not hint at the upcoming agents. Rather, the files pertained to two agents the devs scrapped. Crusader was to be a melee attacker as well as serve the role of the tank, as we gather from the info. On the other hand, Shatter seems more like a steady attacker.
Crusader info:
– Shield Ability: Crusader would have a shield that would block damage, block damage when he is planting the bomb, and even be throw-able. This shield would eventually break.
– Crusader would have a throw-able grenade as well. The properties are unknown.
— Valorant Express – Valorant Leaks And News (@ValorantExpress) July 20, 2020
Shatter Clone Ability Audio:
Shatter is another one of the agents that has possibly been scrapped, but unlike others, this has not been confirmed.
After digging through dev audio files for hours, I have been able to match up some sounds to his clone ability. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/8jRcupYQ76
— Valorant Express – Valorant Leaks And News (@ValorantExpress) July 20, 2020
How come the files still remained in Valorant?
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On the reply thread of the above tweet, Morello replies to this question.
References (where files refer to other files) are a big thing in development. Old things like this got some art built that we use (materials, or shaders, etc) on other things, and if you just yank them out you get a lot of weird bugs.. Untangling it is was something we punted on
— Morello (@RiotMorello) July 21, 2020
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So, removing all the files about a scrapped agent or in-game content may give rise to certain bugs in the game. Moreover, devs can further use the content on the new elements they wish to include. A fan replied to Morello’s tweet citing the possible problems regarding Crusader, to which he agreed.
These two agents are not making the game, at least anytime soon. Will the upcoming new agent have certain abilities scrapped from these 2 agents? What do you think?
