THE STYLISH reveal video of Neon, the new playable character coming to Valorant, was absolutely packed with Pinoy references, from her picture of her beach picture with a bangka and an aspin, to the Ylona Garcia song playing in the background.
It seems like Neon is also a big basketball fan, as she has a framed Pilipinas No. 5 jersey.
Whoever put that little detail in there rightly picked an ambiguous jersey number that has been worn by many in the Gilas era of the Philippine national team. Number 5 has been famously rocked by LA Tenorio and Gabe Norwood.
In the current roster of Gilas Pilipinas, Isaac Go has also occasionally suited up with the Number 5 jersey.
If Neon’s basketball fandom reaches that far back, you could even say that her jersey is also a nod to legend Abet Guidaben, who also played for the national team.
The design team leaned pretty hard on her Filipino provenance. She speaks Filipino throughout the video, saying, “Hay buhay!” as she reviews battlefield vids sent by Sage, and repeating “Kontrolado ko ‘to!” as she unleashes her power.
When Neon will arrive in Valorant
The video, which showed Neon settling into Valorant Protocol, also previewed electricity-powered abilities in the arena. Riot Games has not officially listed down her abilities at the moment, but from what we can see, she can throw grenades, sprint and slide, generate dual walls of electricity (similar to Phoenix’s fire walls), and shoot beams of electricity at foes.
Neon is the 18th playable character in the popular first-person hero shooter, following in the heels of Chamber, who was released last November.
Valorant’s next update, Episode 4: Disruption, and new battle pass will arrive next week.
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