Need tips on how to improve and win more games on Icebox? We’ve got you covered. Here is our Valorant Icebox map guide.
Valorant is home to tons of beautiful and unique maps. One of those maps is none other than Icebox. You can probably already tell from the name itself that Icebox will be covered in snow. However, Icebox isn’t as simple as it seems.
We all have our best Valorant maps that we like playing on. But we still have to understand all of them since you can get queued on any map. Make sure to check out our Ascent map guide among our other map guides to understand the different maps in the game better.
For today, we will focus on Icebox along with different callouts, tips, tricks, best agents, and more. These tips and tricks can help you play better in Icebox and win more games to finally get that Valorant rank you’ve been grinding for.
Valorant: Icebox Map Guide
As we’ve already mentioned above, Icebox is a map covered in snow. It’s located on Bennett Island, Sakha, Far Eastern Federal District, in Russia on Alpha Earth. It features two main sites and a middle area directly connected to the B site with access to the A site as well.
Icebox was introduced as Valorant’s 5th map on October 13, 2020, as part of the Episode 1 Act III update. Along with Icebox, a new Valorant agent, Skye was also introduced.
Icebox is a secret Kingdom excavation site that has been covered in snow. There are tons of boxes and machines on the map that add a ton of vertical layers to it. It also has a general theme of shipping containers, especially towards the middle part and the B site area.
Aside from the verticality and high angles, Icebox was also the first map that introduced horizontal zip lines. Before Icebox, Split was the only map that had zip lines. These can be used to quickly climb from lower ground to high ground.
Icebox had a more unique combination of horizontal and vertical zip lines, adding new angles and strategies to the game. This is one of the reasons why Icebox became a relatively popular map in Valorant.
Aside from the Competitive queue, Icebox is also a widely played map in the pro scene. It has the third highest play rate out of all maps at 17.53% over the past year. Only Haven and Ascent are more popular in professional play.
Valorant Icebox Map Guide: Callouts and Strategies
This next section of our Icebox map guide is dedicated to the different callouts and strategies you can use. You should learn these essential things if you want to play better on Icebox and win more games.
Icebox is an attacker-sided map. Attackers have a 51.72% win rate, while defenders only have a 48.28% win rate across all professional Valorant tournaments.
Professional Valorant teams like Fnatic, Cloud9, The Guard, and Acend all have 71% or higher win rates on Icebox. These should definitely be on the top of your watchlist if you’re looking for excellent Icebox gameplay to watch during tournaments.
Most players prefer attacking the A site on Icebox. You can easily clear angles and corners using different skills, and you have access to the site using the zipline or simply charging to the site. It’s also easier to smoke off angles and plant in a safe area on A site. You don’t even need to push through mid; you need some good anti-flank, and you’re good to go.
B site is a different story, though. It’s a lot easier to attack now, ever since the changes in Patch 4.04. Generally, you’ll want to take control of mid and tube while pushing from B. This allows you to clear most angles and safely plant on site.
The middle area is great for Operator players and flanks. It gives you a clear path into the B site, or you can take a sneakier route through tube. Either way, it’s going to be annoying to deal with flanks through mid.
A Site Callouts, Strategies, and Positions on Icebox
Next up on your Icebox map guide are the A site callouts, best strategies, and the perfect positions to play. These are the common callouts you should learn if you want to communicate effectively with your team on Icebox.
A site on Icebox offers a lot of verticality and high ground. You’ll want to clear these angles using your skills. Usually, Sova’s drone, Fade’s Haunt, or Skye’s dog will do wonders. Just be careful of early operator peeks from defenders.
As an attacker, you can challenge early peeks through belt. This is most commonly done as an Op-er. Otherwise, use your utility to clear out opponents and safely enter the site. Sage walls can provide great protection from rafters and spammers from screens.
If you have a traditional smoker agent, you’ll want to smoke out rafters and screens. But, it’s best to have a Viper on your team and cut the site in half. She’s very powerful on Icebox, and you can utilize her abilities to their fullest extent.
For defenders, you can easily counter belt players by playing on heaven, top site, or generator. This can also result in quick kills and an early numbers advantage. You can play on pipes, maze, or behind generator if you want some cheeky kills.
Another common strategy is to jump on top of the box on screens and gain a high ground advantage. If you have a KAY/O, Sova, or Fade on your team, you can use their knife, recon, or Haunt abilities to check for early pushes or rushes on A site.
Sentinels aren’t that useful on A site, aside from maybe a Sage. So you can reserve the Sentinels on your team for other areas on the map.
B Site Callouts, Strategies, and Positions on Icebox
The B site on Icebox is an interesting one. During the initial release of Icebox, the B site didn’t get much love from the community. Most people thought it wasn’t a good site and preferred playing on A instead. Luckily, the changes to the B site on Patch 4.04 made it a way better area than ever.
These are the updated callouts for Icebox’s B site. They are similar to the previous ones, so you shouldn’t have much trouble remembering the callouts if you’ve already memorized them before the changes.
The orb on the B site is a little in favor of the attacker’s side, so make sure to farm it up every time you go B. There might be enemies playing close angles or trying out cheeky plays, so make sure to clear the area with utility.
Smoking off snowman and top site is essential on B. You can also place a Sage wall before planting for extra safety from spammers coming from mid. A good idea for attackers is to have 1-2 people pushing mid from tube or under tube and the rest moving from B main. This allows your team to have a ton of pressure on B site while also controlling quick rotates from mid or A.
Defenders usually peek from yellow using an Operator. You can also commit to cheeky shotgun plays from cubby. Other players also like playing on top site, close default, or snowman so that you can quickly back away from danger.
You can also play near orange to stop flanks from mid while preventing exposed plants from default. This also provides you with an easy way to rotate towards A if ever they don’t commit to pushing B.
Middle Area Callouts, Strategies, and Positions on Icebox
The final area we will discuss in our Icebox map guide is the middle part. The middle area in Icebox is a great place to control for both sides because it gives you a ton of control over the map. There aren’t too many locations in mid, resulting in very few callouts you must memorize.
The common smokes you use as attackers should generally cover under tube and boiler. You’ll often want to crawl through tube when attacking mid to wait for rotates or put pressure on B site defenders.
When pushing mid, you’ll usually want to attack B site simultaneously. Sometimes 5 man pushes through mid can still work, but it’ll be hard to pull off if your whole team isn’t on the same page. Alternatively, you can also attack A site and have a flanker mid try to enter screens.
Generally, most Sentinels hold the middle area. Sage can wall off the tube, while Chamber, Killjoy, or Cypher can lay down their traps. After placing utility near tube or kitchen, you can then proceed to boiler and hold off mid pushes. This protects your B site players from attacks under tube and through kitchen. It’s also a great way to prevent flanks.
The middle part of Icebox is an excellent avenue for flankers for both defenders and attackers. It gives you easy access to both sites and can help pinch the enemy team. This is why it’s essential to leave a look out for flanks, or at the very least leave some traps for watching flanks.
Icebox Map Guide: Best Smoke Spots
The next part of our Icebox map guide will tackle some of the best default smoke spots that you can use on Icebox. These smokes will cover crucial areas on the map and allow your team to either push through sites or hold areas better.
Even though not everyone will play Controller, studying these different smoke spots is still a great idea. Knowing the smoke spots on Icebox can allow you to tell your smoker where to smoke or predict what the enemies will smoke.
The smoke spots and the ways you throw them will mostly depend on the specific Controller agent you are using. We’ll try to include lineups and spots for the different smoke types in the game so that you can use them, no matter which agent you use.
Best Smoke Spots on A Site
These are some of the best default smoke spots that you can use on A site. The most common play is smoking rafters together with screens and sometimes near default. With these smokes, you can isolate the back site and plant safely. The only downside is that enemies can hide in cheesy locations like generator or screens and surprise you once the smokes fade away.
If enemies like playing on top of generator or on top site, you can also place a smoke there. For wall-based agents like Viper or Harbor, you need to follow the same idea and cut the site in half.
You can either cut the site in half by blocking off maze, screens, and all the way through rafters. This leaves you with having to check the right side of the site. You can also cut the site diagonally, completely ignoring the left part. This gives you less space to work with but also fewer angles to check.
The primary smoke will always be right on top of the orb for defenders. You can also pair this with a molly or a blind to delay pushes even further. If there are Operator players on the enemy team, you can also smoke off belt and nest if you want to be safe.
You can wall off half the site from the left side of generator going directly to screens. This is one of the best walls because it forces enemies to push through your wall and get decayed or slowed. It also covers most Op angles and keeps your team safe.
Always remember to ask your team first before laying down smokes, especially if you have an Operator on the same site. Allow them to peek first before dropping your smokes to help them escape.
Best Smoke Spots on B Site
Over on Icebox’s B site, things are a little bit simpler. The smokes you need to use here are pretty straightforward and block off the long-range angles. Usually, a smoke on top site and another one to cover snowman is enough to help you control the site. Just make sure to check yellow, back site, and the other angles near default to make sure you’re safe.
When you’re playing the Controller role in Valorant, you sometimes need to get creative with your smokes to remain unpredictable. Another smoke setup you can use for a quick default execute is smoking deep default, blocking the gap from default to danger, and top site. This gives you a little less space to work with but will get you to the site safely.
As Viper or Harbor, you need to use your wall from B main to cover the top site and snowman using one wall. This cuts the site in half, giving your team a lot of space to play with. You’ll still have to check danger and cheesy spots near default.
The only problem with this is that OP players like holding B main from yellow, making it a risky wall to place unless you use utility to check for enemies. However, it’s pretty much a guaranteed plant if you can get to B main without problems.
For defenders, the only reliable smokes you can do is smoking off B main and forcing enemies to swing out of it. You can also smoke both sides of yellow for the same effect, but this does give the attackers a bit more space to work with. These smokes work great if you have an Operator player holding from top site or snowman.
Best Smoke Spots for Mid
Finally, we have the middle area. Icebox has a pretty small middle area that is usually defended by OP players or Sentinels like Killjoy or Sage. This makes it rather easy to use smokes that can help you push mid or defend it.
For attackers, you can smoke off boiler to counter Operator players. This leaves you with a few options to push. You can go through tube, under tube, or through screens. You can also choose to place your smoke a little bit closer, right under the tube, to block off two angles with one smoke. This only leaves you with pushing tube, though.
For Viper and Harbor, I highly recommend saving your walls for site executes. However, you can always use your Poison Cloud or Cove to block off the same angles we’ve mentioned before.
You can reverse things on the defender’s side and smoke their mid. You can also follow up with some damaging utility like a molly or a grenade. This can slow things down and force them to wait for the smoke to go away or rotate to a different area. If they choose to push through your smoke, an Operator player holding boiler would do wonders and can even get multiple kills.
Viper and Harbor can use their walls to cut off the entirety of mid. A vertical wall would do wonders and scare most people off. If they do decide to still push through, enemies that pass should either be slowed or decayed, making your life way easier and allowing you to finish them off.
Like Breeze, the middle area in Icebox is a crucial part of any split-pushing strategy. However, how you play and smoke on them is entirely different. So check out our Breeze map guide to help you prepare.
Best Team Compositions to Use for Icebox
Here are some of the best team compositions and lineups that are used in professional play. Copying these teams can help you and your team win more games on Icebox.
- Chamber, KAY/O, Sova, Sage, Viper
- Brimstone, Chamber, Fade, KAY/O, Viper
- Chamber, Fade, KAY/O, Sage, Viper
- Jett, Sova, Sage, Viper, Killjoy
- Jett, Raze, Sova, Viper, Sage
- Raze, Chamber, Fade, Sage, Viper
Remember that these team compositions work best when playing 5 man squads with a group of friends. Your teamwork and communication are going to be on point with a premade rather than a group of randoms.
Hop in a Discord server with your friends to maximize your communication when trying out these team comps. Plus, you can always chill and listen to the best Discord music bots when queueing for the next game.
Icebox Map Guide: Best Agents to Use
Now, if you’re more of a solo gamer and like racking up those Valorant hours alone, we’ve still got something for you. Here are the best agents that you can use on Icebox to help your team win.
Viper
The first on our list is none other than Viper. Viper is a pretty solid and essential agent on Icebox. She’s hands down the most effective Controller on the map and can properly utilize her skills when used correctly.
Most pro teams use Viper consistently on Icebox because her Toxic Screen wall can easily cut A site or B site in half. This blocks a lot of the enemy team’s vision and requires them to push with a decay applied.
She becomes OP on Icebox when you’ve got a Snake Bite post-plant lineup up your sleeve. When matched with Poison Cloud, Snake Bite can seriously damage enemy defusers. It can delay the defuse for a relatively long time and can sometimes result in free kills.
Viper’s ultimate is also very deadly in Icebox. It covers almost the entire plant site, and there are even sneaky ways to throw it for some cheeky one-way plays.
Harbor
A great Controller substitute for Viper, especially on Icebox, is Harbor. Harbor brings a lot to the table and can be used in the same ways Viper can while still being a unique agent. He has a great wall in High Tide that he can use to cut the small sites on Icebox in half for his team to enter. He can create chokepoints and block off vision from Opers, giving your team space to attack.
Harbor can also use his Cascade ability to discourage rushes or pushes once you’re on the defending side. However, it can also be a powerful attacking tool since it can create divisions within sites and allow you or your team to take isolated fights. Cove can also be used when defusing or planting the spike to ensure safety for at least a few seconds.
Finally, Harbor’s Reckoning ultimate isn’t that powerful, but it can be a great tool for retakes. Icebox has small plant sites on both sides of the map. This works in favor of Reckoning because it has a huge area of effect that can easily expose enemies hiding somewhere on the sites.
Chamber
Chamber is another solid pick because of the versatility he adds to the team. He is one of the very few Operator agents in the game and can even help guard different areas, thanks to his Trademark ability.
He can also take advantage of the different vertical angles on Icebox. This is because of his TP abilities that you can use before rounds or quickly escape danger. Chamber can also save your team’s economy because of his ultimate and Headhunter, which are basically just improved versions of the Operator and Sheriff, respectively.
Sage
Sage is another essential agent when it comes to Icebox. Her walls are very useful on both sides, making her a very valuable pick. You can use Sage’s wall to prevent rushes on A site, or you can also wall off tube so that you don’t have to worry about flanks.
Her walls can also be used to protect yourself while planting the spike. It’s also a great way to reach unique angles and heights around the map. Sage’s ultimate heals will always be a valuable tool on any map. She’s the only agent in the game who can revive a teammate and easily turn the battle in your favor.
Killjoy
Killjoy is another great Sentinel that you can use on Icebox. Her utility allows her to become a defensive anchor and hold down sites until her team can rotate. She’s also great at watching flanks using her Turret, which can be hard to avoid, unlike Chamber’s Trademark.
Another popular strategy is using Killjoy’s Turret to hold down mid and her Alarmbot and Nanoswarm combo on either of the two sites. This allows her to effectively watch multiple areas without leaving any open routes for flankers. This is a great strategy to use, especially since many players like splitting through mid on Icebox.
Killjoys Lockdown ultimate can also be a game changer since it forces enemies away from the site. You can either use it to hold down the site you are defending and push enemies away or use it as an excellent retake tool. Either way, it has a large AOE that covers either site, allowing you and your team to move forward and take control of some space.
Jett
Jett can fully take advantage of the map’s vertical angles thanks to her Updrafts. She can create unique plays using her Updraft and ultimate and can come from unorthodox angles that the enemy will never expect.
She’s also one of the very few viable Operator agents in Valorant because of her dash. Although OPs aren’t that necessary in Icebox, it’s still a nice thing to have. She can also enter and clear angles for her team while providing some extra cover using her smoke.
Jett’s smokes are pretty good on Icebox because you can use it to cover Sova’s recon darts instead of destroying them.
Raze
Raze is another good option if you’re looking for a duelist to play on Icebox. Her satchels make for a great way to reach high angles, or you can also use them to entry for your team. Raze’s Boom Bot provides some extra utility that you can use to clear angles and is perfect for clearing those close angles on Icebox.
Her ultimate is also great to use on Icebox, especially on A site where most areas are cramped, and your enemies will have trouble running away from you. Raze’s Paint Shells are also a great way to clear angles like backsite on A, generator, maze, screens, or rafters.
KAY/O
The first Initiator that we can recommend for Icebox is KAY/O. KAY/O is a great agent to use if you have an aggressive playstyle, but your team needs an Initiator. He can flash to set up teammates or enter the site himself. His ultimate is also an excellent tool for retakes and rushes.
KAY/O’s Zero/Point ability is a great way to gather information and counter rushes. It also disables skills like Viper’s wall, Sova’s drone, Jett’s knives, and Chamber’s ultimate, all popular picks on Icebox.
KAY/O provides a great mix of information gathering, setting up your team, and aggressive play. This makes him a great agent on Icebox, where rushing with his ultimate is hard to stop, especially on A site.
Sova
Sova is one of the best Initiator picks for Icebox. He’s one of those agents that provide a little bit of everything. He has one of the best kits for information gathering. Sova can use his recon to clear the backsite of A and then use his drone to clear close corners. He can do the same thing for B. Use his drone to clear green and yellow, then use his recon to check the site or snowman.
He also has a few options to delay defuses. You can use your ultimate to bring a defuser to half hp. If you have lineups for Shock Darts, your post-plant delaying ability becomes way better. Even if you don’t have lineups, most default plants for Icebox can be visible from different angles allowing you to wing your Shock Darts.
Fade
The final agent recommendation for our Icebox map guide is none other than Fade. The introduction of Fade gave the community a new agent who could rival Sova’s scanning skills. A lot of professional teams are starting to pick up Fade and include them in their Icebox lineups.
Fade’s Haunt can cover a wide area and clear several angles on both sites. Throwing it on top of yellow can allow you to clear close angles before pushing onto the B site. You can also make it land on top of generator to easily scan a majority of A site.
Fade’s ultimate also covers the entire A site while covering most of the B site as well. This makes it a great pushing or retaking tool, depending on the situation.
Conclusion
Those were all our tips and tricks for our Valorant Icebox map guide. Hopefully, you were able to learn a few things that you can use to take your game to the net level when playing Icebox. You can also check out our Haven map guide if you’re looking to learn more maps.
Learning the best ways to play on each map is important if you’re looking to climb the ranks in Valorant.
