Is VALORANT's upcoming Agent 24 from Singapore or China? Here's what we know

VALORANT developer Riot Games has released a teaser for the game's latest agent, which has fuelled speculation among players as to the origin of the upcoming character.

For several months since the end of VCT Masters Tokyo earlier this year, the devs have been building up excitement around the unveiling of Agent 24, with some leaks and deliberate hints about the agent’s abilities.

And just recently, more has been revealed about the agent in the State of the Agents dev blog released on 29 September. The blog talked about the newest agents of the year, Gekko and Deadlock, along with the upcoming Agent 24.

The hint that got everyone talking, though, was a teaser image named “Duckblood,” that was dropped on the same day.

It was an image of someone eating from a hotpot, holding a piece of duck blood, a popular hot pot ingredient in Chinese cuisine, with chopsticks.

With this image, many have speculated that the new agent is Chinese — but some believe that because of the image, and other hints from the dev blog, the agent is actually from Singapore, another country heavily influenced by Chinese culture.

Let's dig deeper into the breadcrumbs left and the arguments others have given, and we'll leave it to you to connect the dots and figure out the agent's origin.

Is Agent 24 from China?

It would make a lot of sense if the upcoming agent would come from China, especially since the image shown is a distinctly popular dish in Chinese cuisine.

The dish in question looks quite a lot like three very popular and similar hotpot dishes, namely 四川火鍋 (Sichuan Huoguo), 成都火鍋 (Chongqing Huoguo) or 成都火鍋 (Chengdu huoguo), which only differ by a few ingredients and spice levels.

All dishes feature a fiery broth, clearly indicated by the reddish hue of the liquid in the picture and the chili peppers visibly adrift on its surface.

The distinctive sizzling hot pot boasts a unique blend of spices, creating a tingling and numbing sensation that permeates the broth. But overall, the pot in the image also looks like something that would normally be used in cooking and serving Chonqing Huoguo in restaurants in China.

On top of this, many speculate that because VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) 2024 would be welcoming China as a new region in the competition, with Shanghai hosting the second Masters tournament next year, it would also make sense to reveal a new Chinese agent, as the cherry on top of the celebration.

There's a strong likelihood that Riot aims to tap into the Chinese market by introducing an agent that embodies the game's latest region.

However, others pointed out that the game already has Sage as a Chinese agent—although she wasn’t available during China’s beta phase.

Could Agent 24 be from Singapore?

Others argue that Agent 24 could be from Singapore instead.

With the country being heavily influenced by Chinese culture, especially with about 74 per cent of the population of Chinese descent, this is quite a possibility too.

Furthermore, X (formerly Twitter) user uberchain tried to establish this theory by sharing a side-by-side comparison of VALORANT's Duckblood image and one of Singapore's premier hot pot joints: Uncle Fong.

With the details of the pot itself, the other dishes around the hot pot, to even the color of the hot pot, Duckblood seems to be exactly like how everything would be served at Uncle Fong.

Uberchain went so far as to suggest that an Uncle Fong photo might have been the peg or reference behind the artwork, given the remarkable likeness of the table setups in both images.

However, uberchain clarified that Uncle Fong’s does exist in Hong Kong and other locations and that “China is still likely”.

But they also claimed that they use the “In-N-Out conspiracy mode, with them “staring at images of food [released VALORANT videos and photos] then geolocating them” to make theories about where the agent comes from.

The X user had proof that their guess about where Gekko, one of VALORANT’s newest agents, comes from was correct.

Still, it should be noted that duck blood (like other animal blood products) is actually banned in Singapore by the country's food authority.

Yet perhaps another important hint that others may have glossed over would come from the dev blog released in September.

While talking about the new duelist’s abilities, Riot name-dropped one of the names of the pros in the VCT scene, Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie.

“For some of you, that means aspiring to plow through enemies like Jinggg and putting hours in clicking those orbs with aim trainers for that clean 5K,” John Goscicki, Character Producer for VALORANT said.

“This next Agent is for you,” he added, saying that there would be a “little twist you never thought would make it into VALORANT...well.. Some of you mayyyy have been dreaming in the right direction.”

In the dev blog video, this was when the now-famous Duckblood hotpot photo was shown.

If you aren’t familiar with the VCT scene, Jinggg is Singaporean and a member of the Singapore team Paper Rex, the runner-up team in the VALORANT Champions 2023.

Singapore’s Paper Rex had a strong showing in VALORANT Champions 2023, making it to the top of Group A in the Group Stage after sweeping EDG 2-0 before sweeping their way through the upper bracket of the playoffs, even defeating VALORANT Champions 2022 winners LOUD to make it to the grand finals.

Unfortunately, they fell short in the Grand Finals, losing to North American opponents Evil Geniuses 1-3. The loss will especially sting for Jingg, who would have to miss VCT 2024 because of mandatory military service.

With all these hints and references in question, where do you think is Agent 24 from?

We can guess all we can, but we’ll only find out when they are released toward the end of the year.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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