Summary
- Deadlock dev confirms that the Matchmaking Rating system isn't currently working well.
- In responding to a fan on Discord, the MMR system is currently being worked on with a full rewrite planned.
- Deadlock uses a hero and lane-based MMR system that matches a High and Medium skill player with a new and low MMR player.
Responding to a Deadlock fan 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, Deadlock has 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.
While Deadlock is 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 seen Deadlock quickly 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.
Steam User Emails Gabe Newell, Gets Access to Deadlock
A Steam user hoping to play the Deadlock alpha playtest reaches out to Gabe Newell and gets exactly what they were hoping for.
One such feature is Deadlock'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" on Deadlock'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 games like 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, Deadlock utilizes 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, Deadlock is still deep in development with plenty of temporary assets and features which will likely change before the game is ready for launch, so issues like this should be expected.
Even with Deadlock likely 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 that Deadlock was 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 seems Deadlock was 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 once Deadlock gets closer to being released in full
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.
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, MOBA
