Summary
- Icebox is a playground for Omen due to its verticality, offering ample outplay opportunities.
- Play conservatively; take advantage of rechargeable smokes to secure rounds for your team.
- Icebox underwent layout changes, enhancing effective smoke setups for attacking to secure sites.
Icebox is a Valorant map that heavily plays with verticality, making it a playground for Omen. The mysterious Controller agent thrives in this frigid facility, with his potential for easily creating one-way smokes to take advantage of the varying battlefield height. This, combined with an ability to teleport up and down the map, will give you more outplay opportunities than a Viper waiting for her lineups to land.
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With all the potential angles your team needs to worry about, you must play conservatively with your life. Take advantage of your ability to recharge smokes over time, and stay flexible with their placement to ensure the best chances for your team to take the round.
Updated on January 17, 2025 by Daniyal Sultan Malik: Since launch, Riot gave Icebox a major overhaul to its layout, including several changes to A Site and B Site. While some old lineups remain just as useful transitioning into the update, there are a few new variations and techniques that might be more effective. These new smokes are significantly easier to deploy, reducing chances of any mishaps that might confuse you or your team.
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Attacking A Site Variation 1
- Place the first smoke at the opening near the Screens.
- Place the second smoke at Top Site, covering the right-hand window.
Without some coordination, attacking A Site can feel like a daunting task. There are several angles and corners that need to be cleared in order to effectively secure the site. Fortunately, you can place a smoke on the right edge of Top Site that accomplishes three tasks in one. The Backsite angle will be caught in one-way smoke that will make them easy pickings if they decide to peek. Rafters will also be obstructed by the same smoke, and anybody who holds the right side of Top Site will be unable to see a thing.
Your second smoke will be used to cover any potential rotations from Screens. Remember to smoke deep enough in Screens to avoid defenders using the inside of your smoke to gain space on the site.
10
Attacking A Site Variation 2
- Place the first smoke at the opening near the Screens.
- Place the second smoke atop the Rafters, making sure there’s a tight slit on the smoke’s right-hand side.
Similar to the first variation, you’ll be covering Screens with your first smoke to restrict effective enemy rotations. The second smoke, however, covers the Rafters almost entirely instead of engulfing Top Site, too. This is generally a better smoke route when you’re absolutely sure there’s no hidden threat on Top Site, letting you control heaven much more freely.
While the first variation is better for entering, this one is better when you’re rotating either solo or alongside your team. When you lure the enemy onto B site, there’s a good chance Top Site is free, and thus, ready for capture. Furthermore, attacking Rafters directly is a stronger way to repel rotations through spawn, since your enemies will know you’re utilizing Top Site.
9
Attacking B Site Variation 1
- Place the first smoke on Nest, covering the outer window.
- Place the second smoke in the gap connecting Nest to Backsite.
B Site has four important angles that need to be covered before your team can plant the Spike: Snowman, Backsite, Nest, and Orange. This smoke setup is geared towards site control, and is great if your team also has a Sage or another Controller who can help block off additional angles with their utility.
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Your first smoke will be sent to completely block off the Snowman entrance onto the site. Your second smoke will be sent to cover the angle from Nest. Similarly to A Site, this smoke serves as both a one-way against defenders holding the back of the site and a traditional smoke that blocks off Nest.
8
Attacking B Site Variation 2
- Place the first smoke farther up to cover Backsite and Snowman.
- Place the second smoke close to Default, covering deep into B site for Orange
If your team does not have access to another agent who can help you contest sight angles, then you will do a slight variation with your B site smokes. With both obvious rotation angles covered, you can safely control the site for either planting the Spike or buying time in a post-plant scenario.
This setup focuses on a more defensive Spike plant and is more effective when you are working with guns that demand closer-range engagements, such as a Spectre.
7
Attacking B Site Post-Plant
- Place the smoke atop the yellow box, making sure there’s an unobstructed opening on the Spike-facing edge.
This is arguably one of the most straightforward smokes at B Site in a post-plant scenario. Upon planting at the site’s hell (or underneath Nest), you can hide in the smoke and peek out shortly after hearing the defusal. Alternatively, you can use the smoke as bait and hide elsewhere, forcing your enemy to shift focus constantly.
What makes this strategy so successful is its prevalence — planting in hell is a common move because you can watch it from different angles. As such, you don’t have to forcefully plant the Spike in impractical spots that could make it tougher to defend.
6
Attacking Middle
- Place the first smoke atop the boiler.
- Place the second smoke underneath Tube.
Middle is a crucial area of Icebox that holds the key to dividing up the defenders. Depending on your team’s strategy, you can use one or both of your smokes. The first smoke allows your team to advance forward since you’re essentially blocking the enemy’s easiest sniping area. The second smoke can vary. If you choose to attack B Site, then you will smoke off the elbow-shaped pathway that leads into A Site.
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If you’re attacking A Site instead, you will smoke off under Tube to prevent the opportunity of getting shot in the back. Remember that regardless of the site, it is usually worth sending one to two people up Tube to contest Kitchen. It sits in a central part of the map, and holding it effectively splits the rotation potential of the defenders in half.
5
Defending A Site Rafters and Nest
- Place the smoke on the left edge inside Nest when the round starts.
It’s common for attackers to push through A Main and Belt at the same time, so placing this smoke will serve the double purpose of obstructing Belt and cutting off the angle of Nest. Depending on where you stand on A, this smoke can either be used to hold the angle against attackers pushing Belt or as a way to hide and prepare an ambush.
If you wish to hold the Belt angle, remain in Top Site and watch the edge of the smoke. Any peeking attackers will be forced to run wide to get past it and will leave their movement predictable.
4
Defending A Site Orb
- Place the smoke on the left edge of Pipes that overlook the area under Nest.
Ultimate Orbs are a finite resource that generate once per round and give a free ultimate point to anyone that collects them. Contesting these orbs as a defender is an important way to deny map space and have access to more ultimates throughout the match.
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With the smoke, your enemies will be much more hesitant about going after the orb, since they’ll suspect you might pop out of Pipes at any moment. Any attackers who rush for the orb will find out the hard way that their legs and body position are exposed to your crosshair. Due to the angle of the smoke, this also has a bonus of protecting any teammate on Top Site from an attacker peeking from Nest.
3
Defending B Main
- Place the smoke on the edge of Green.
This one-way smoke is an ideal round-start strategy to obstruct a blindspot if you’re playing as a defender. Attackers will be blocked off from the Upper Green angle and Main itself. This smoke helps defenders from any area of B Site that overlooks Main, including Yellow.
If you hold from Yellow, the round shape of the smoke will still create a one-way for use against any careless attacker. With the combination of your Paranoia ability, this smoke can become devastating and cut off an attack before it begins.
2
Defending B With Tube
- Place the smoke on Tube while leaving a slit at the top.
Once the opposing team’s down to a few members, placing a smoke atop Tube is a solid tatic. You can periodically peek out of the smoke to spot enemies, and since they can’t immediately track you while covered, you can even bait them out by forcing them to shoot first.
The best way to plant the smoke is to leave a small opening near the tube’s upper edge for peeking. If you don’t want to risk getting accidentally shot, you can use it to detect rotations — simply place the smoke and wait for enemies to shoot it, and once they do, you’ll know where they are.
1
Defending Middle
- Place the smoke near the entrance of Middle.
Defending Middle is as important for a defender as it is for an attacker. The last thing you want is an enemy lurking through the map and knifing you in the back for free. After placing the smoke, you can work with a teammate to contest the area from under Tube.
Attackers will be forced to spend utility to clear the smoke safely. If they manage to push past the first smoke, use your second smoke a little farther back to block off the entrance to Tube and the bottom of Boiler.
- Released
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June 2, 2020
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 4
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Language, Violence
- OpenCritic Rating
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Strong
- Cross Save
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Yes
- Cross-Platform Play
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PS5 & Xbox Series X/S