'Where did he go?': Blade has gone missing in Marvel Rivals, which has the rumour mill theorising that he'll finally be added to the roster in Season 3

Oh to be left alone, to sleep for three months, it's something I've only ever dreamed of, but it's a feat that Marvel Rivals' mysterious character Blade has managed to pull off. But now, a couple of weeks before Season 3, the sleepy vampire has disappeared—suspicious.

"Mrrrr! Mrrr! Mrr! (Where did he go this time?!)," Marvel Rivals' social media says. Blade's no longer in his resting place, he's nowhere to be found. Now general sentiment is that this means he's one of the two new heroes coming in Season 3, but he could've also just wanted to get up and stretch his legs: he's been asleep for an awfully long time.

Blade was first introduced in Marvel Rivals back at the start of Season 1.5. Thematically, his appearance made sense as the bad guy for that season was Dracula—the biggest and baddest of vampires—and Blade is a vampire hunter. But instead of adding him to the roster, something that was already carved out for the Fantastic Four, NetEase chained him up in a spawn room instead.

But Blade wasn't a part of the next batch of heroes either. Emma Frost and Ultron joined in Season 2 and it seemed that NetEase had kind of forgotten about the vampire hunter hauled up in some random corner of the map.

The real issue here isn't actually a bad thing, it's simply that NetEase is spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding who gets added to Marvel Rivals and when. There are thousands of heroes to choose from but there's more at play than just adding a new hero every month, starting from Season 3.

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MCU films, like the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot affect which heroes get bumped up the list, with cosmetic movie tie-ins being a significant part of Marvel Rivals' shop. I wouldn't be surprised if Blade was planned to be released during Dracula's season but got pushed back due to a marketing feat for the Fantastic Four film.

It's a difficult tightrope to walk. On one hand, you'd want to add all the coolest heroes as quickly as possible and when it makes the most sense in the game's story progression, but on the other hand that could create an overcrowding issue. I have no idea how NetEase will manage and balance a rapidly growing roster when there are already issues with the heroes at hand. Still, that's not to say I think Blade doesn't deserve to be added as soon as possible; he's waited far too long if you ask me.