New CS:GO Agent Released With Operation Riptide Based on French Martyr
Valve dedicates an agent to a real life hero.
The newly released Operation Riptide is full of surprises as Valve has made some huge changes to CS:GO's gameplay while also introducing a lot of new skins. However, the most interesting discovery was Valve dedicating one of the new agent's to a real life French martyr, Arnaud Beltrame.
Gendarmerie Nationale Officer Jacques Beltram is the CS:GO agent that is based on the French martyr, who was a lieutenant colonel in the French Nationale Gendarmerie. The description of the game's character has been inspired from that of Beltrame's, following the incident of 24th March 2018 when he was murdered by a terrorist during an attack on a supermarket in the southern town of Trèbes, France.
Valve creates new CS:GO agent in memory of a French martyr
The character of Gendarmerie Nationale Officer Jacques Beltram who was recently added to CS:GO along with Operation Riptide is actually based on a real French martyr.
Arnaud Beltrame, during the March 2018 terrorist attack on a supermarket, had negotiated the release of all the hostages, switching places with the last one. The in-game character's part of the description matches the real life heroics of Beltrame.
Arnaud Beltrame, after a three hour standoff with the terrorist was stabbed and shot by him. Beltrame had sustained four bullet shots but died because of the stab wounds to his throat.
There is also the uncanny similarity between the surname of the martyr and the CS:GO character, along with the fact that he is a highly decorated soldier like Beltrame who was posthumously awarded the Legion of Honour, which is the highest French order or merit.
This is not the first time that Valve has secretively paid tribute to someone. In its tenth operation, Operation Broken Fang, the developers had paid their respect to the following people in their own way.
Valve paid tribute to the late legendary basketball player Kobe Bryant by creating a weapon loadout called 'Kobe!' within the Retake game mode.
Valve paid tribute to late CS:GO streamer Trevor "McSkillet" Heitmann who had died in a wrong-way road crash. Valve showcased McSkillet's logo across the map - Engage.
Valve has previously dedicated another one of their agents named SWAT | Cmdr. Mae ‘Dead Cold’ Jamison to Mae C. Jemison, who was the first African American female astronaut to be admitted into NASA’s astronaut training program. Mae C. Jemison also went to space.
In its own way Valve takes an effort to pay tribute to people they admire or respect. Valve does not outright say anything about it or mention it anywhere specifically but the community however always tends to find out what the developers wanted to convey and their tribute tends to get acknowledged.