Does Deadlock Have Ranked? – What We Know & Potential Release Date
Does Deadlock have ranked? – Ever since being revealed, this question has run rampant across the community as players are hungry for the competitive experience.
Deadlock has limited Ranked Play
At the time of writing, Valve is yet to confirm all the details on the ranked mode for Deadlock or any Deadlock ranks. Specifically, there is a small system in place and a limited test to Deadlock MMR.
The ranked queue will first open next Tuesday, October 15th at 8PM GMT, with the first medals granted on Tuesday, October 22nd 8PM GMT. The queue will only allow solo play and open between 1PM – 4PM and 7PM – 10PM daily. Servers will be assigned servers automatically to achieve best ping and latency parity.
During this test phase, all players will be able to earn medals, and will only be matched with players that have the same medal. There are 11 medals in total with 6 levels in each. Medals and levels will be displayed in ranked games.
Remember, Deadlock has a “hidden” Deadlock matchmaking rank or MMR. Moreover, it has been confirmed that an MMR system impacts how players are seeded into lobbies to have equally skilled players. While Deadlock may not have a full ranked experience yet, the Deadlock MMR system demonstrates that Valve already has a system in place they can implement when they need to.
Valve takes all lessons learned from CS & Dota
Overall, Deadlock ranked is unavailable on release, which is not a surprise. For example, titles such as CoD which are released each year tend to allow up to a couple of months for the game to be balanced and tweaked before releasing a ranked system.
Valve has significant experience in developing ranked systems considering their work on CS and Dota. Yet, Valve’s previous systems have come under scrutiny such as CS2’s controversial map-based ranking which remains in the title’s Premier competitive playlist.
This time around, the company is taking it’s time tweaking and adjusting things before fully releasing any sort of competitive ladder.
The full patch notes are below:
We are experimenting with a different approach to Ranked during early development, we expect to iterate on it in the future. The focus of this mode will be on concentrating players into specific time windows where they can opt into games where the primary focus is on game quality.
You must have 50 games played in order to enter this mode. If you have any behavior related restrictions (voice/text bans, report misuse, etc), you will be unable to queue into this mode.
Every Tuesday at 8PM GMT, Valve will re-calculate everyone’s rank at the same time, and medals will be awarded. Before you start queueing, learn how to play Deadlock like a pro and get the best to make sure you get the best rank possible.
Expected challenges for Deadlock Ranked Queue
Here are the challenges Valve needs to consider for Deadlock when answering the question ‘does Deadlock have ranked?’:
- Team-based and individual-based ranks – Deadlock matches consist of twelve characters with different roles in different lanes, Valve needs to figure out a way to reward both team-play and individual achievements respectively. This could be done through separate Team and Solo MMR scores.
- Cheaters – since releasing, Deadlock is already being flooded with cheaters, abusers and griefers. Valve will need to come up with a clever means of targeting unwanted players.
- Stacks vs Solos – consideration needs to be provided for those queuing solo and those stacking, either limiting matches to mirror situations (stack vs stack, solo vs solo, etc).
- Poor Hero Pool – with only 21 heroes at launch, the meta would be incredibly stale should Valve release ranked in this early state. Indeed, especially if a pick & ban system is targetted.
Will Deadlock have Ranked Ladder soon?
Although there are several challenges before addressing the question ‘Does Deadlock have ranked?‘, that shouldn’t stop Valve from experimenting with full premier ladders or tiers akin to CS and Dota. Ahead of a fully-fledged Deadlock ranked system, Valve will experiment with a limited-time ranked mode to test the game, test new ranked systems and keep pushing the game to the limit.
Without appropriate testing, Valve would be risking learning things the hard way early on for Deadlock ranked. We’d rather Valve takes its time to plan it well as opposed to fumbling it from the get-go.
Considering Deadlock is destined for esports, it’s only a matter of time until it has a ranked mode – but will it meet expectations?
