VALORANT Patch 1.14 brings a ton of changes to the Icebox map and also confirmed a Snowball fight (5v5) Team Deathmatch with powerups coming soon.
VALORANT patch 1.14 just dropped recently and Riot has finally listened to the players. Some quality of life changes have been made to the Icebox map and also we saw an announcement of the Snowball fight game mode coming for Christmas.
Icebox Map Changes:
Since the release of the map, VALORANT players have been trying to avoid the Icebox map in ranked games. According to players, the map has too many line of sight to cover in a game like VALORANT where defenders have the upper hand. Riot Games has recently made some changes to the Icebox map that focuses on simplifying the A site and reducing some of the verticality of the map. The map changes made to Icebox are given below-
“Reduced the height of the A Belt area and connected it via a ramp to the platform below
- This puts the upper A Belt area more in line with the rest of the verticality in the site
- Acquiring targets up top also requires less vertical movement of the crosshair.”
The A belt height has been reduced and it is now connected to the platform below via a ramp.
“Added a see-through gate here that can’t be passed from the ground level
- Pathing should hopefully be more predictable from attackers approaching the site and defenders retaking the site”
A see- through gate has been added that stays closed and players need to go over it.
“Sloped the wall (first image) and replaced the double stack of Radianite crates in the site with a smaller object (second image)
- This should allow attackers to approach the site more safely, and a quicker retake of the site for defenders”
The wall in the first image used to be a corner but now it has been sloped and the double stack of radianite boxes has been turned into a small object.
“Reduced the height of the yellow container.
- This allows the top of the container to be fully cleared from several angles as well as reduces the amount of crosshair displacement required when aiming at targets on top of the container”
The yellow container has been reduced in height and can now be cleared from multiple angles and required less crosshair displacement than before.
Read More: FPX drops Meddo from its active VALORANT roster
Snowball Fight Team Deathmatch:
A new Snowball fight (5v5) team deathmatch mode has also been announced in the 1.14 patch notes. This will be a limited mode and will go live on December 15th, 2020. It will last for 2 weeks until December 29th. The patch notes for the Snowball fight game mode is given below-
- “5v5: Team Deathmatch
- The first team to 50 kills wins
- Respawns are enabled, so get back in there
- The snowball launcher is your weapon of choice
- Killjoy has rigged a custom version of Brimstone’s molotov launcher
- Projectile based snowballs have travel time and an arc (make sure to lead that shot!)
- Infinite snowballs—don’t stop shooting!
- The gift that keeps on giving: Power ups!
- Gifts spawn around the map, sometimes a portal appears and gifts come pouring out
- Each gift contains a power up when opened (shoot to open)
- You can only have one of each power up at a time, so make sure to share with your teammates
- If you die, you drop your power ups and someone else can snag them
- Gift types
- Rapid Fire: fire even faster
- Growball: grows over time while traveling in the air
- Ricochet: for all those snowball trick shots off the ground and walls
- Skates: skate around quickly and in style. Jump higher!
- Maps
- Week 1: Check out the festivities on the newly updated holiday version of Icebox (Snowball Fight only!)
- Week 2: Snowball Fight can be played on all current maps
- Progression
- Get 750 XP for each game completed, and 150 bonus XP for a win
- Snowball mode does not progress missions”
The Snowball fight will be a 5v5 team deathmatch with respawns enabled. The first team to reach 50 kills will win. A modified Brimstone molly that can launch snowballs will be the weapons used in this limited-time mode. The snowball shot from this custom weapon has travel time and an arc. There will be infinite amounts of snowballs so you can shoot to your heart’s content.
Gifts will spawn around the map and picking these up will give players certain powerups. The gift types are rapid Fire, Growball, Richochet, and skates. The first week of Snowball Fight will be played on the updated version of Icebox but from the 2nd-week players can play on all maps.
Each completed snowball match will reward players with 750 XP an additional 150 XP for getting a win. Missions will not be completed in this mode as per the patch notes.
SnowBall Mode Free Gun Buddy:
Completing a match of Snowball Fight will rewards players with a themed gun buddy that will be delivered at a later date.
Read More: VALORANT: SEA players are worried about issues related to toxicity
