Viper age valorant3/17/2024 ![]() ![]() Obviously, that’s when Phoenix got his Curveball. It was that other ability slot where we weren’t really sure what to do.”īlaze (top) and Hot Hands (bottom) deployed on the map in an early playtest. So we had the wall and the molly right away. Or throwing a molly in a close corner and running into it. ![]() Putting up a flame wall, blocking sight lines, and healing while he’s running through it. So out of the gate, we had the duality that this character can hurt with fire but can also heal with fire,” excal explains. “Even though we didn’t have this notion of a Duelist yet, I thought it would be important for this character to be self-sufficient. Duelists didn’t really exist yet, but the team knew they wanted Phoenix to be a self-reliant top-fragger. From Dashy to FlashyĪt this point in VALORANT's development, roles weren't strongly defined. And I thought, ‘you know what? This kind of works!’ So we embraced that and the kit started to fall into place around that idea,” excal said.īut even with this gas pedal, semi-Duelist idea in place, Phoenix’s abilities still looked pretty different from the ones we know today. ![]() “In early tests it became apparent that this is actually an aggressive, gas pedal kind of character who wants to go in first. His job was now to use his ult, know that he’d likely die entering a site, get some entry frags, and revive back at his starting location on death. But it didn’t take long for the Character Team to get a feel for his playstyle and make some adjustments to change him from team-martyr to fight-starter.Ī final concept of Phoenix’s ultimate ability, Run it Back.Īfter the first playtest, Phoenix’s ult was redesigned to be used proactively. On paper, Phoenix acting as his team’s last hope really fits his theme-rising from the ashes, putting up a last-stand, giving his team one more chance at a round win. This version naturally led to some weird footsies where Phoenix players would try to evade enemies around corners while keeping much of the territory they’d gained. Basically, he could push forward and die, react by popping his ult, revive over 3 seconds, and still be able to move back behind cover. When Phoenix died in this version of his ultimate, he’d go into a state of invulnerability as he was resurrecting, while also still being able to move. So you can imagine a 1v5 where you’re at 1hp and you’re dodging all the bullets and getting those 1-taps.’ So I kinda scraped a kit together around that, thinking we were going for this last-man-standing fantasy,” excal continues. “We imagined if you popped it, he would revive and it would tick down to 1 hp, but he wouldn’t physically go back to where he started the ult. “We sort of pictured the ultimate ability where you’d have a second life in some form.” And the ability we were thinking about was his ultimate,” excal shares. We were trying to capture that essence of what we now call the VALORANT moment. “Phoenix started with this idea of a back-against-the-wall, last-man-standing character who could fight against all odds. While Phoenix was always meant to be a character who made his own luck to overcome the numbers against him, his initial seed of an idea morphed quite a bit from on-paper to in-practice. Like hey, let’s take a single seed, a single nugget and see where it takes us.” “Back then, it was really very exploratory. He’s from 2017 or 2018 and predates any concepts of roles,” says Technical Game Designer Bobby “excal” Prochnow. When most people think of Phoenix, they think of a hyper-aggressive Duelist/Initiator whose sole purpose is to clear sites with style… and a bit of ego. This is the story of Phoenix, VALORANT’s original Duelist. mad lad turn into the stylish entry-fragger of today? A lot of friggin’ work. Back in 2017, Phoenix (and VALORANT) looked pretty different. ![]() No defined roles, no flashbang, a forward dash, and a self-res with a period of invulnerability. ![]()
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