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Among other things, a good game of Valorant involves solid communication between teammates. Talking to your teammates is a crucial part of playing the game, alongside shooting down enemies and using your abilities.
Communicating where you are and what you can see and/or hear from there, how you plan to use your utility, and so on can greatly boost your team’s overall performance in a match.
Icebox was the fifth map to be introduced into the game, and it was the first to be introduced after the beta trial period. Among other changes, two key features of this map are its ziplines and the extensive differences in elevation.
Icebox is one of the larger maps in the game. Playing efficiently on it requires the use of precise callouts to keep track of your enemies’ movements. This article is a list of the five most common callouts you will need for your Icebox games in Valorant.
Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer
Pipes, Kitchen and other callouts to use when playing Icebox on Valorant
1) Pipes (A-site)
Pipes is one of the elevated angles on A-site Icebox that both attackers and defenders can take strategic advantage of. It is very popular because of how easy it is to bunny hop onto it and how often players don’t expect enemies here.
This aggressive angle is often seen being held by Agents of the Valorant Protocol like Reyna, Chamber, and Jett on the defensive side, who can easily get a pick on less aware players and get back to safety.
Although it is marginally more difficult to get onto Pipes without using abilities on the attackers' side, it provides them with a significant advantage by adding one more place from where they can pop out stealthily, instead of walking or running in from a single choke point, making it very difficult for defenders.
2) Rafters (A-site)
Rafters or the Heaven area of the A-site is a crucial defensive power position. If played effectively, this area can be used to both hold down, and retake the site from.
Players posted here can create multiple angles on this long, elevated area at the back of the site to shoot down enemies from a distance using a rifle or an Operator.
During retakes, rafters can be a good area to hold lines of sight from attackers who are playing pushed far behind cover while a teammate defuses the spike. It can also be an effective place to pounce onto the site during retakes.
For attackers, they can stand on top of or hide under this position to catch defenders off guard as they try to retake.
3) Boiler (Mid)
This elevated area in front of the Defenders Side Spawn is another defensive stronghold on Icebox in Valorant. Holding from this area or even around it, can prove effective both early, as well as during late-round scenarios.
Peeking from Boiler can be used to get a pick early on in the round for attackers trying to explore the middle of the map, thereby providing your team an early advantage.
Holding from or around this region during mid and late game also proves useful because it has sightlines for the entire middle part of the map. Players holding from here will be able to communicate rotations from the middle, if not cut them off completely by killing the enemies.
4) Kitchen (B-site)
Although this area is part of the B-site of the map according to Valorant officially, both attackers and defenders try to take control of this crucial spot in the middle of the map early on in most rounds.
For attackers, this area is accessed most easily through B-tubes and can be a very strong position to lurk inside. Lurking out of Kitchen and neutralizing the enemy from behind after your team has started to execute, can win your team at least a few rounds in the game if you can bring in some variation in timing and positioning.
For players playing Icebox defence in Valorant, it is absolutely essential to have some control over Kitchen because once an attacker gets into this area for free, they can wreak havoc on the defensive side.
Defenders usually place some sort of alerting utility, such as Killjoy Turret or Alarmbot, block off the area completely using a Sage Wall, or have a player watch and control the area.
5) Yellow (B-site)
Yellow on the B-site of Icebox in Valorant is one of the many areas on the site named after the color of the box present in the area.
For defenders, lots of Agents like to play around Yellow, because more often than not, it gets them a free kill, especially if you are one with an escape ability. Players can also use its elevation to their advantage.
In post-plant situations, Yellow is a strategic powerhouse for attackers. It is possible to hold both long and short sightlines into the B-site from here, which makes it very difficult for the retaking defenders to clear this space.
Often it takes so much time and utility to clear Yellow, that one attacker can easily lurk their way from under the tube in middle, and vanquish any remaining attempts at defusing the Spike that the defenders might make after clearing Yellow.
Other important callouts for Icebox in Valorant include Belt, 410, Nest, and Screen on the A-site, Green, Orange, and Snowman on the B-site along with the Attacker and Defender spawn (also known as T and CT Spawn respectively).
Players must keep track of their minimap at all times and know the exact way to refer to spots on maps in order to be able to communicate the same to their teammates most precisely.
