I think it's probably time for all us to accept that Deadlock is the future

At 3 a.m., I did something you should never do: queue up for one more game after a losing streak.

That night, I’d lost four Deadlock matches in a row – my worst losing streak yet since coming back to the game. On that fifth and final “one more game” match, I was handed Victor, a character I’d already lost on twice that very night. But for the first time in human history, the “one more game” match ended up being my best ever. 16 kills, zero deaths, and an assload of assists. I carried the team to victory.

I was on top of the world, and suddenly the last 4 matches didn’t matter anymore.

I haven’t really had that feeling — that intense dopamine reaction from a win that erases all the bad — from a game since I was playing League of Legends for multiple hours a day in college. But that’s not really surprising. Deadlock is trying to marry the old-school MOBA with the newer, sexier hero shooter. And despite being in an invite-only early access period, it’s already truly exceptional.

As much as I want to say “if you’ve been living under a rock” before I explain what this game is, it must be acknowledged that it’s not even out yet. It’s technically been a real game that people have been playing for years, but Valve has kept it entirely under invite lock-and-key since at least 2024 when I first played the game.

Back then Deadlock was intense, interesting, and filled with potential. I knew that one day it would call to me again, but I wasn’t ready to fully dive in and get my MOBA legs back. But just a few weeks ago, in January of 2026, Valve launched a major update that overhauled numerous systems, added some powerful items, and added six new characters — rolling them out two a week, which will conclude the second week of February. And I decided to see what all the fuss was about.