Valorant Patch 1.14 official notes reveal massive changes to Icebox, Sage buffs, and the new Snowball game mode

Valorant’s last patch for 2020 is finally here, and Riot will round out the shooter’s update by bringing a new game mode and making some changes to the existing map Icebox.

Icebox will be getting quite a lot of quality of life changes in Valorant patch 1.14, and Riot is looking to make it more balanced for both the attacking and the defending sides.

In terms of champion changes, Sage will be getting a huge boost to her kit, and this will once again seek to make her viable in both professional play and standard matchmaking.

A new Snowball Fight game mode is also on the cards in this patch, and it will be representing the festive nature of the upcoming holiday season.

To see a detailed description of Valorant patch 1.14 and to see why Riot decided to make the change that they did, players can log onto their official website.

For a brief overview, here are some of the major highlights of today’s updates.

Valorant Patch 1.14 official notes

Valorant Agent Updates

Sage

Barrier Orb

Barrier Orb can’t be placed during Buy Phase.
Once fortified, Barrier no longer loses health over time—Barrier only starts to deteriorate a few seconds before it expires.
Riot wanted to make some changes to prevent the mitigation of the fortifying counterplay while rewarding Sage players that successfully fortify their walls.

Valorant Map Updates

Icebox

The changes to Icebox in this update are centered around simplifying the A Site and reducing the height of some of the most vertical areas on the map.

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

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

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
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

More Valorant Updates

Ready to have a Snowball Fight with your friends (and likely your foes)? The limited mode goes live on Dec.15 and will last for two weeks, on Dec. 29. Play a match of Snowball Fight and you’ll also nab a themed Gun Buddy, delivered at a later date.

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

Valorant Competitive Updates

Act Rank Badge display has been re-enabled on in-game player cards.
Performance issues, such as hitches, have been fixed along with on death performance optimizations
Career page: Match History and Act Ranks have been split out into their own specific sections.
You can still view both your friends Match History and Act Rank progress

Valorant Store Updates

Check out our newest feature with the introduction of the Night.Market
Each player will get 6 chances to receive a random Select, Deluxe, or Premium weapon skin at a discount
Opens December 10th

Social Updates

Requirements to unlock Competitive play have been changed from Play 20 Unrated matches >>> Win 10 Unrated matches (Riot hopes this will lessen the amount of AFKs and INTing that they have see in Unrated games caused by smurfs just trying to unlock Competitive mode.)
A text field has been added to VALORANT in-game reports so players can provide more information and the reason for their report, if they choose to.
Players can now add friends via the in-game escape menu.
Go forth adding teammates and opposing players to your friends list for future games if you enjoyed playing with/against them!
Changes to the social panel sorting logic when in parties so you are always sorted at the top of your own group

Valorant System Updates

Manual Game State Recovery

In cases where tournament organizers need to roll back or replay from a given round, they can now remake any tournament match from that point with our manual recovery tool.

Cinematic Cameras

Riot have added cinematic camera locations across all maps for observers to use.
Observers can press Shift + player number to jump to the best cinematic camera to capture the action.
Observers can immediately leave a Cinematic Camera to move to Free camera
Riot have a lot more ideas for additional functionality, so stay tuned for that in the future.

Projectile Follow

Observers can now follow a projectile fired by a player character (Default keybind is F).
Observer camera will remain at the destination of the projectile and will transition to a free camera from this point.

Minimal Broadcast HUD

Observer perspectives that are meant to be used for broadcasting can turn on Minimal Broadcast HUD from the custom game lobby to retain as clean of a HUD experience as possible for custom overlays

Observer Follower

Observers can now lock their view to match another observer (Be the passenger instead of the driver)
Default keybinds for following previous / next observer: ‘[‘ and ‘]’
Observers can use player numbers on the minimap to jump directly to a specific player

Valorant Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where Killjoy’s turret could be placed underneath the ground in some maps
Fixed an issue where Omen could teleport past the Buy phase barrier
Fixed a bug where pressing a push-to-talk key while typing in chat would trigger voice chat
Fixed a bug where queue restrictions would keep resetting for some players

About the author

Armed with his Master's degree in English Literature, Abhishek Mallick ventured into journalism propelled by his simple love for video games. Over four years, Abhishek has made significant contributions to Sportskeeda Esports & Gaming as a content manager and writer and holds particular expertise and influence within the competitive gaming landscape. Inspired by gaming legends like T1 Faker, Abhishek closely follows the professional League of Legends scene, finding fascination in the strategic depth and skillful plays showcased by top players and teams.

After his first childhood favorite, the 1997 platformer Claw, Abhishek's gaming pursuits evolved to encompass titles like Monster Hunter World, where he finds thrill in the exhilarating hunt for formidable monsters. These days, Abhishek's genre of choice is JRPG, where he enjoys confronting deities in epic battles.

In his reporting endeavors, Abhishek stays up-to-date with current news and trends to ensure his articles provide readers with accurate and timely information. Beyond gaming, Abhishek dives into fiction through his love for reading.

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Edited by Shaheen Banu