Fnatic Valorant star devasted as Icebox is cut from map rotation

Fnatic Valorant player Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev has lamented that Icebox is the map making way for Bind at the start of Act III.

Riot Games announced on April 6 that Icebox will be leaving the competitive and unrated queue map rotation at the start of Act III (Patch 6.08). It will be replaced by Bind, which was overhauled after leaving the active map pool in January with the release of Lotus.

The news of Icebox’s imminent removal has been received with great enthusiasm in the Valorant community as many players, both casual and professional, had publicly expressed their dislike for the map. Only recently, Sentinels star Zachary ‘zekken’ Patrone had called for Icebox’s removal, saying that it is a map that lacks strategic diversity. “You go A or you go B, and that’s it,” he said.

But not everyone is happy with the news. Derke, one of the best Valorant players in the world, has expressed his unhappiness that Icebox is about to be removed from the map pool.

“F***, NOT THE ICEBOX,” he wrote in all caps.

Fnatic played Icebox twice at VCT LOCK//IN, winning both games. In the thrilling grand final against LOUD, it was even the decisive fifth map, which Fnatic won in overtime.

After the semi-final victory against 100 Thieves, Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett went as far as to call Derke “the god of Icebox.”

Despite the general sentiment about Icebox, the news still came as a surprise to many in the Valorant community. Only two weeks, Riot Games announced Heineken 0.0 as the presenting sponsor of the Icebox map for all VCT Americas streams. The famous brewing company has even launched a temporary pop-up Icebox-themed bar in São Paulo.