In mid-October, patch 1.10 for Riot Games’ free-to-play multiplayer game Valorant was released, and with it arrived Icebox, a new map for Valorant that put the emphasis on skirmishes with plenty of verticality, areas for cover, and even ziplines.
The Icebox map was released ahead of schedule and was intended to remain in a beta state for at least two weeks. Set in a former Arctic excavation site and veiled in a cover of ice and snow, the change in environment appealed to players. For a while.
Recently, Riot Games announced that Valorant Patch 1.11 was being rolled back in several regions due to glitches like Sova’s Drone being able to fly underground and through walls. An official Twitter post announced that the patch would be redeployed within a week, and the new Agent Skye as well as the Icebox map would become available for esports events after November 11.
An unexpected response to the Twitter announcement revealed the sentiment that Icebox should be removed altogether. According to SingularityCS, the Valorant player behind the tweet, adding the map “just isn’t the right move for the scene. Too many angles to clear and it has too many vertical vantage points.” The post then went on to recall that there had already been a patch specifically to remove the need to hard clear corners, and “this map just made it 10x worse.”
This opinion was echoed in the the game’s subreddit, where a poll asked players to share their opinions about the Valorant Icebox map. “I’ve been hearing a lot of things about the new map and I’m wondering how this subreddit feels about it,” stated player jonweck. The options were “Love it,” “Meh,” and “Hate it.” A thousand users voted “Meh.” In the comments, a number of players shared SingularityCS’s opinion that the map should be removed from the game entirely.
On the other hand, despite the negative responses on the subreddit and the likes on SingularityCS’s Twitter post, some Valorant players have expressed that they enjoy the map. These positive voices are somewhat overshadowed by the naysayers, but Riot Games will hopefully take their opinions into consideration if the company begins to contemplate overhauling Icebox.
In the meantime, for those who aren’t thrilled with the change in gameplay style required by the Icebox map, Riot Games has recently announced that two new maps may be coming to Valorant soon. Currently, the game features five maps, one of which is apparently not a fan favorite, and the devs have responded to this lack by accelerating their plans to develop and release new maps. “We feel like getting to seven is a good starting point,” stated Game Director Joe Ziegler in a recent interview.
Valorant is available now for PC.
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