After much anticipation, Valve has finally given Deadlock a proper ranked mode, and with it comes a major overhaul to how the game balances each match—a substantial enough change that might make playing it a little chaotic for the next few weeks.
Before today's update, Deadlock's ranked mode was pretty straightforward as it was the only standard way to play it (as opposed to the over-the-top Brawl mode). You picked your favorite heroes, queued up, and climbed up the ranks.
The basic structure remains the same in the new system, but there are a lot more rules in place to help keep the quality of matches more balanced than before—which is something that started to become a problem as the game's popularity has fluctuated.
First of all, the new ranked mode isn't the only way to play a normal match now. Standard mode is for anyone who wants to practice or avoid the stress of ranked. It's also where you'll need to earn the right to queue up for ranked by winning 15 matches on at least three heroes.
Once you qualify for ranked, you can queue up to see how the system thinks you measure up against other players. The old ranks have been thrown out for 11 new ones, each with subranks to work through before you've earned a promotion. Every match will update you on your progress toward the next rank up until you reach the highest echelons where the thresholds you have to meet will change daily due to the relatively small number of players up there.
Valve says the new matchmaking system underneath all of this will do its best to create balanced matches while also letting you play your desired hero. It won't always work out perfectly, which is why it's also introduced a way to swap heroes before the match begins.
The new ranked mode is available to play now, but Valve warns players that they should "expect the next week or so to be very rocky as the ranked matchmaking pool will start off very thin with most players not having the unlock requirements done yet." Queue times will be longer and match quality might take a nosedive as the system works itself out. "Given the large rewrite involved with this update, we are also expecting that it will take a couple of days to iron out bugs," it added.
This is another big step toward the presumed, eventual launch of an open beta for Valve's not-so-secret MOBA. The last few major updates have started to polish parts of the game that have been stagnant for quite some time. Some things are still being reworked on a weekly basis, but it's starting to feel like this thing might be ready to go public instead of invite-only soon.
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