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Valorant's Act 3 update, released by Epic Games on 13th October, brought a bunch of new additions to the game apart from the new map. These changes include:
- Map fixes for the already present maps
- Update to the Competitive Act 2 along with the introduction of the Act Rank
- Increased player count in DeathMatch from 10 to 14 players
- Quality of life changes
Apart from these changes, Epic Games have also announced the arrival of their new Agent, Skye, who is set to be available in-game on 27 October.
Meanwhile, Epic Games' description of the Icebox map in the official patch notes reads:
"Each Icebox site is a complex combat space that features plenty of cover and verticality. This map emphasizes skirmishes, sharp aim, and adaptive play. There’s also a zipline that amplifies the feeling of quick action and verticality."
"...the map will be available to play in Unrated, Spike Rush, and Deathmatch modes. We’re going to continue to optimize the performance on the map as well as continue to fix any bugs that might appear. If all goes well, Icebox will then become available for play in the Competitive queue on October 27th."
Here are some of the features of the new map in Valorant, as per Epic Games:
- Early in the patch, players queuing for Unrated will more often get placed on Icebox.
- Ascenders (Ropes) / Ziplines.
- Acceleration adjusted to prevent sudden shifts in direction (this was added the last patch but wasn’t in the patch notes because well, you might start asking about ziplines).
- Added weapon tagging when shot while on Ascenders. (These changes are intended to make players that are using Ascenders and Ziplines less evasive during combat)
The addition of the aforementioned ziplines to Valorant has caused players to have some fun of their own as they turned the zipline into a face-off point between two teams.
Players invent new game mode from ziplines in Valorant's Icebox
Some players on Valorant took the ziplines a little too seriously as they invented a hilarious game on Icebox. The player-discovered game mode takes place on the ziplines in A site. The opponents face off against each other in a knife fight to the death, reminding us of medieval jousting.
Icebox, otherwise covered in snow, boasts a horizontal zipline unlike the vertical zipline already present in Valorant. This horizontal zipline gave the players the idea to create a medieval jousting affair with knives.
According to the clips available on Reddit, the players used either a Breach Flash or an arrow from Sova signal at the beginning of each round.
The game mode became so popular that even the Valorant News Twitter account posted a tweet, acknowledging the new game discovered by players.
With that being said, it's gonna be interesting to see if the developers choose to make any changes to the ziplines before the map is introduced in the competitive scene, along with the introduction of Skye, on 27th October.
