The best Valorant agents for Icebox

Being one of the most controversial maps in the game ever since her release in Beta, Icebox has remained a challenge to deal with. New players are often frustrated, not knowing how to deal with the intricate design of the map, while the more experienced ones love it. Regardless of the meta shifts, these are the best Valorant agents Icebox can be conquered with.

Omen

This might surprise a lot of people, but even since he fell out of the meta in act ii, Omen has still performed admirably on Icebox.

Overshadowed by the newer smoke agents and flawed with a predictable gameplay pattern, Icebox is one of the rare maps that allows him to mask these weaknesses as an agent. Ever since the Beta, Omen has always had countless options for his smoke placements, being able to make a site inaccessible all on his own. His Shrouded step remains a valuable piece of mobility, especially on a map with so much elevation in the form of boxes, ropes, and other structures.

Complementing his trickery playstyle is his blind which is harder to avoid on this map because of the tight corridors. With proper placement, it will pass through three to four spots where defenders like to wait for an ambush. And even at this condition, his Ultimate remains one of the most valuable tools for gathering information even if you cancel the teleport.

Sova

It's hard to make a tier list of the best agents for a certain map, and not include Sova in it. Luckily Icebox is not one of those maps, as he's been a staple pick on it ever since the Beta. He has been a must pick agent in the Initiator class for quite some time now, mostly due to his information-gathering capabilities.

That is especially crucial on a map designed like Icebox, with so much verticality, places you can go and angles you can take. Clearing them one by one safely is almost impossible and that's why his abilities hold so much value on this map. His drone is of tremendous value while clearing all of the corners on the A site and even B Long. With knowledge of proper Recon Bolt placement, you can support the rest of your team even while on another site. While his Ultimate is a great tool for retakes considering how the spike sites are designed.

A single arrow can clear up to three angles in a single direction, which can mount up to some noticeable chip damage and flat out force them out of position. As always Sova has amazing utility for a ton of different situations, so drafting him into your team comp is almost a necessity to counter the plans of those pesky Duelists and Sentinels.

Jett

On a map with so many long and tight angles, what is the best duelist recommended other than Jett? She has already proven to be the most proficient Operator user in the game and this map suits her perfectly.

Peeking on B long, Mid or A Site with the Operator and quickly repositioning with the dash is the bread and butter combo for most Jett players. Jett's dash also allows you to take up a lot of space on a site, causing havoc for your opponents and creating tons of opportunities for her team. On a map with so much verticality and angles she can updraft and dash as she wishes, enabling skilled Jett players to put on a show.

Add to that a smoke and one of the most powerful Ultimates in the game, and dealing with a good Jett becomes impossible. She is already one of the best agents in the game, limited only by the skill level of the player piloting her, and this map serves as her playground enabling her to do things that are unimaginable on other maps.

Sage

Before she was overthrown by Viper, Sage used to be the agent around which Icebox compositions were built. Although through various nerfs and the addition of new agents her power level has decreased, she's still a game-changing pick on the map.

Her wall can be easily used to funnel attackers into unfavorable and disadvantageous positions when trying to capture either site. This makes the rest of her kit more effective, namely her slow orb, because the map is composed in such a way that entering a site means walking through a tight corridor. It can also be used offensively, making plants safer by protecting you from wall-banging and limiting access to the spike.

Honestly, just covering all of the spots where a Sage wall can be placed and deciding the round, deserves a whole separate article. Her healing will always hold value and as for her Ultimate, even after the nerfs it's still a game-changing ability that can determine the winner of a crucial round if used properly.

Viper

Back in the early days of Valorant, just after Viper was released the meta on Icebox was all over the place. A large part of the community looked at her as a throw pick but she's come a long way ever since.  As time went on, she got buffed multiple times and the map underwent some changes so here we are now.

It seems funny for her to have come full circle but now even thinking about a team comp without Viper on Icebox is considered griefing. Apart from being a staple pick in every game mode, she has been a must-pick agent at the professional level of play in the Valorant act iii. One of the main things that makes Viper more impactful on Icebox than other controllers is her Toxic Screen. When used correctly the Toxic Screen can effectively split bombsites and other crucial areas of the map into two parts. This ability makes pushes much easier to execute and makes teams think twice before committing to one site.

On the attacking side Viper's ult can easily secure a round when given space to deploy and can make contesting a plant or retaking a site nearly impossible. The final combination that makes Viper the best agent on Icebox are her Snake Bite and Poison Cloud. These two combined are potent in a post-plant situation and you can single-handedly win a round with them without firing a bullet.

The key to dominating on a map as versatile as Icebox has always been clearing angles. While moving around the map you can easily spot all of the places where an enemy can wait to attack you. To have success you must always check these angles and positions because the verticality of this map allows for these kinds of creative positioning.

An integral role here also play Smokes and other forms of utility for a variety of reasons. Protecting you from those angles, funneling enemies into choke points into the waiting arms of Operator users, and countering the mobility some of these agents have. Acquiring and maintaining control over certain areas is the key to winning on a map with as much variability as Icebox, and that’s why we felt like these agents give any Valorant player a fighting chance on it.