VALORANT’s lore is all about Radianite’s mysterious powers and the cutthroat feud between worlds to grab every last bit of the potent compound. While it offers a gripping storyline for fans to follow, one of the game’s core mechanics still remains unexplained: Why do agents respawn after every round? Luckily, a fan theory may satisfy your curiosity for now.
In a Reddit post on July 19, a VALORANT player named murtiverse highlighted how the game’s respawn mechanic might be connected to KAY/O’s artificial intelligence. According to their theory, all the matches we play are just KAY/O simulating multiple rounds to evaluate all possible outcomes, just to be ready for a real fight where a win is essential.
KAY/O’s reveal trailer, which was launched on June 17, 2021, supports murtiverse’s theory as well. In the trailer, KAY/O was shown rerunning multiple rounds to counter the enemy Yoru, Cypher, and Sage. Similarly, the rounds we go through in our VALORANT matches are probably driven by him and his perseverance to find the best possible way to defeat foes.
While Riot Games is yet to confirm it, the idea is definitely plausible. In fact, murtiverse’s theory received many approvals, with other players adding in their own takes to solidify it.
Besides siding with the theory, a player named farguc added how the recently launched Team Deathmatch game mode is also connected to artificial intelligence, being driven by Max Bot—a training bot created by Killjoy and Raze. Max Bot went rogue after being dismantled, ignored, and mocked by Protocol’s agents and plotted to trap them in a game of killing, being killed, and respawning until the kill target is met.
Another player highlighted how a particular Phoenix voice line supports the idea of repeating rounds. It’s a dialogue that plays during the start of a round and goes, “This is crazy, it feels like we’ve been doing this forever. Anyone else feel like that? Just me? Okay.” While it might not prove KAY/O’s hand in this, the conclusion is pretty obvious: Someone or something may be causing the scenarios to repeat multiple times until a goal (13 rounds or two consecutive rounds in overtime) is established.
Related: What we know about VALORANT’s lore so far: A crash-course after the 2022 season
All this makes even more sense when we bring KAY/O’s background into the discussion. KAY/O is from the future, where he was created to fight alongside humans in the infamous Radiant War, which led to extensive destruction. He may be a robot, but he was overwhelmed with grief by the war’s consequence (Brimstone’s death) and traveled back in time to keep the peace between humans and radiants intact.
If he can be here to manipulate the present for the future, simulating rounds to try and test strategies shouldn’t be an outrageous idea either.
While it’s just a theory for now, considering the absence of Riot’s nod, KAY/O in the driving seat of VALORANT’s fast-paced competitive experience is definitely an exciting lore element.
