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Did Valorant copy CSGO patterns for the Black Market knife?

Fariha Bhatti
Fariha Bhatti Published 13/04/2023
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Black Market Fade variant

Valorant Black Market Bundle has a one-of-a-kind melee that confirms Riot took inspiration from CSGO to put this collection together. 

Riot Games recently introduced the Black Market bundle in Valorant, featuring skins that change appearance on each side. One of the skins in the bundle, the Attacker Vandal, received criticism for its mahogany wood exterior that some players felt resembled CSGO’s AK-47, leading to players labeling the bundle as “CSGO skins. Despite the initial backlash, the bundle is popular among players due to its overall attractiveness.

But players have now uncovered a feature in the Black Market knife that confirms their suspicions of Riot drawing inspiration from CSGO. It’s unknown if it’s a bug, coincidence, or a troll, but the Black Market knife appears to have different patterns based on CSGO’s own knife skins. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7PbVSxU4pU

Black Market knife can change patterns each round

Owners of the Black Market knife noticed that their knives would randomly change color to a red and orange pattern, which is now dubbed the “Fade.” Additionally, multiple players, including popular content creator Flexinja, have confirmed that the melee displays wear in the form of colors. 

https://twitter.com/flexinja/status/1646489081830952960

Not just that, apparently, there are two more variants of the so-called pattern. According to Flexinja, the Black Market knife also has a blue gem and Tiger Tooth-colored variants, like CSGO. Now, it’s currently unknown how exactly these exteriors get triggered, but players believe it’s random and wholly based on luck. 

One of the Valorant players entered the range with the melee and restarted the round until he landed on the Fade variant. According to another player, the effect lasted for one round only. Other fans believe that the chances of getting one of these variants in a real game are one in a million. If all of this is true, then the Black Market knife could be Valorant’s most valuable knife to date. 

It’s unknown if this is a bug or an intended feature. In any case, players are joking that this knife would cost as much as a house in CSGO. In Valve’s FPS, skins can massively increase in cost based on their pattern. The skins that Valorant took inspiration from, like the Fade and Case-Hardened, can be worth several thousand dollars on the right knives.

It seems Valorant also has a similar knife with a changing pattern. Unfortunately, players can’t trade these skins for big money due to Valorant’s simple market design. Whatever the case, this bug-like feature confirms CSGO was certainly the main inspiration behind the Black Market bundle in Valorant. 

Fariha Bhatti Fariha Bhatti
About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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