The latest Valorant map Icebox was added to the competitive mode of Valorant on October 27th alongside the new agent Skye. While a few players are complaining about Skye being overpowered, the vast majority seem to hold the opinion that the new map is way too difficult for them.
After a post surfaced on Reddit asking players about their opinions on the newly introduced map, it was clear that the community wasn’t a big fan of it.
With the exception of one or two people, everybody spoke in unison about the map being “trash”.
Other than the map being too large, the aspect that players seem to hate the most is the increased verticality of the map, which means that players have to clear an awfully high number of vertical angles (alongside horizontal angles) when trying to enter a site or take vital choke points.
Redditor u/BlaqRain seems to have put together an interesting list of reasons why players are hating the map. The following are some of the reasons why he feels the map should be removed from ranked:
- The map contains way too many corners & vertical angles to clear for an attacker (or a defender retaking a site.)
- Smokes are not very useful on A with attackers’ high ground advantage
- Mid control is incredibly hard to gain as an attacker.
- The map is tough to play without proper and precise communication.
- The map relies on taking aim duels rather than strategic gameplay.
Agents possessing one or two mobility skills like Raze, Jett, or Omen who can easily get on top of crates and structure seem to have an unfair advantage in this map compared to non-mobile agents like Sova or Killjoy.
Another Reddit user u/pinki97 also spots an interesting issue with the map, “Every peek is a gamble, in order to check one spot you have to expose yourself to like 4 other possible spots where enemies might be.”
Due to the map still being in its initial stages, it’s likely that the map will undergo revamps at some point in the future. It’s unclear if the revamps can minimize the issues listed above, but fans can only hope for Icebox to get ready for competitive play soon.
