Summary
Responding to aDeadlockfan question on the game’s Discord, one developer confirms that the Matchmaking Rating is set for a planned rewrite as the feature currently doesn’t work as expected. For a game that has been being developed in relative silence over the past year or two,Deadlockhas quickly become one of Valve’s worst kept secrets. Having been in playtesting since 2023, leaks began surfacing earlier this year, eventually leading to an official confirmation from Valve in August.
WhileDeadlockis still in a closed alpha phase of development, the game’s official announcement seems to have had a massive impact on the title. In fact, Valve’s official confirmation has seenDeadlockquickly become one of the most popular games on Steam, which is impressive considering it isn’t even close to launching or isn’t even available to everyone. Considering its early development stages, Valve continues to rely on playtesting and feedback to continue improving the game, even as certain functions and features are not quite up to the usual standards yet.
One such feature isDeadlock’s matchmaking, which many players have found to be frustrating at times, as the skill gap in certain games can be quite wide, leading to very inconsistent matches. Thankfully, the matchmaking issues are not intentional, as one Valve developer, who goes by “Yoshi” onDeadlock’s Discord channel, has confirmed that the Matchmaking Ranking system isn’t working as expected. Essentially, this is a system that assigns all players a number behind the scenes based on playstyle, using it to place similarly numbered players within the same matches to keep similar players together.Matchmaking continues to be a hot topic in multiplayer gameslike Call of Duty, with fans constantly debating the best way to match players together.
Deadlock’s Matchmaking Ranking Getting a Full Rewrite Soon
Yoshi went on to confirm that Valve’s hero-based MMR doesn’t work very well currently and the team is currently working on a full rewrite of the system, which should alleviate many of the issues players are having. Currently,Deadlockutilizes a hero and lane-based system that matches a High and Medium skill player with a new and low MMR player, though what exactly is broken and changing within the rewrite wasn’t detailed. Regardless,Deadlockis still deep in development with plenty of temporary assetsand features which will likely change before the game is ready for launch, so issues like this should be expected.
Even withDeadlocklikely still a long ways off from releasing, dataminers and leakers have attempted to glean more information on Valve’s latest title. One Valve insider known as Gabe Follower highlighted some new details they came across, claiming thatDeadlockwas originally set within the Half-Life universe. They went on to indicate that it took place during the seven-hour war, an event within Half-Life that saw the Combine faction defeat Earth’s own UN forces, though over time, it seemsDeadlockwas eventually spun off into its own thing entirely. It’s still not known if there are any ties between the franchises, though that should become clearer onceDeadlockgets closer to being released in full
Deadlock
WHERE TO PLAY
Deadlock is an upcoming game from Valve which seemingly combines elements of the MOBA and hero shooter genres. As it is still in early development, gameplay and assets may be incomplete. Access is granted via friend invites.
