Riot Games dropped the details on the Pride 2025 VALORANT rewards, eliciting… let’s call it a fairly colorful range of reactions. A tweet from the VALORANTLeaksEN account exposed the new Pride Month in-game goodies: eight player cards, a gun buddy called “Flyby Hug,” and the title “Ate” that fits right into the branding. Then came the announcement-well, part of the player base got very excited and quite a few got confused and others simply got angry: the usual internet debates.
First up: what is actually included in that wonderful bundle? Pride 2025 includes eight (CC-VAL25-PLAYR-CARDS) player cards, a gun buddy called Flyby Hug (CC-VAL25-FLYBY-BUDDY), and the Ate title (CC-VAL25-ATE25-TITLE). A ton of jokes have come up for the title “Ate”: apparently, in some groups, “ate” means “slayed” or “devoured,” so it’s pretty much queer slang. One player, @villane77e, even replied to say “arrasou/divou,” basically Portuguese for “ate it up.” So Riot is actually behind the joke.
Some were not amused about that, though. The backlash aired immediately. For instance, @Nazeef_Saraf was just asking for “a straight reward for ppl who are not in pride” and the idea went south–the replies ranged from “no one cares about you, really” from @villane77e to some that were oh-so-poetic, “privilege is your reward” from @sirencelysorry. And for icing on the cake, @I27V threw in the classic “it’s just a video game who gaf about gender just shoot ur gun bro,” seriously if you claim to have meant headshots, that was sick.
More of the representation thing came into the fold for debate. @Pandouxette noted the intersex omission: “another year without intersex representation.” Some agreed; some, including @joshybearrr, countered that intersex isn’t a gender or sexuality, so it doesn’t fit within Pride. Then there were people who just basically went off to dismiss the whole thing-there was @Muhrizzkyy who went on a full-tilt rant condemning “sweet baby inc” to be “losers in the real world.” Way too harsh, dearie.
There were, of course, good reactions. Some players were seriously hyped-up-@teapxe joked about holding onto their “habibi” title while seriously enthusing over the new penguin gun buddy more than last year’s bear. Then there was the chaotic-neutral sort, with replies such as @Snahccy’s classic “Nah I’m good,” and @VAI712006’s dramatic “RIP VALO SOON.” Twitter, never change.
And so, what are we supposed to take away from this? In classic style, the VALORANT Pride rewards have been a the mix of appreciation, critique, and trolling. Some players dig the nods to queer culture (shout out to “Ate”), some want more of it, while a few don’t want to think about it at all—they just wanna log in and frag out. But hey, that is gaming in 2025: with everyone having an opinion, Riot just tries to make something for (almost) everybody. It’s always a vibe, sometimes just gameplay. One thing is sure: the replies will certainly never be boring.
