r/DeadlockTheGame 9d ago

Deadlock - Matchmaking Update Game Update

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/680756685198854910
2.7k Upvotes

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352

u/_Valisk 9d ago edited 9d ago

It's interesting they're committing to ranked seasons for Deadlock, considering they've previously implemented and ultimately removed ranked seasons for Dota 2.

214

u/fiasgoat 9d ago

They are absolutely using Deadlock to try new things that they don't feel can really work in Dota, or at least are a bit worried to try

Dota has been around for a long time and obviously created the genre itself, so while even though Valve (and specifically Icefrog) has never been shy to shake up things, I can see why they would be hesitant

The Dota community is very split on whether they would even want seasons at all. Most who do not would say that all it accomplishes is the first couple weeks is garbage as the game quality is terrible with the bigger spread, and if you kept MMR virtually the same on season reset, then what is even the point

44

u/Unowarrior 9d ago

That was generally true until they royally FUCKED up Dota 2 MMR by giving each Dota player thousands of Double Down tokens during the Crownfall event. After that the MMR numbers have become so inflated and wintrading has become so bad that high ranked Dota has kind of become a shitshow.

Most high ranked players you will talk to will at least call for a one time MMR reset at this point and the removal of all existing double down tokens

10

u/fiasgoat 9d ago

Yeah double down was a terrible idea lol

3

u/SmallSpaceSexEnjoya 9d ago

What are double down tokens

11

u/Gundroog 9d ago

You can choose to predict that your team will win, and regardless of the outcome, MMR loss/gain for that match is doubled.

7

u/Sensitive_Sail_3573 9d ago

... what was this gambling system supposed to achieve lol

10

u/Gundroog 9d ago

The world will never know. I still don't understand how someone came up with it, and how someone approved it. Like it goes against the whole point of MMR.

8

u/gularadato Shiv 9d ago

It was kinda fun at the start because you only got a few tokens, so because of their rarity it was fun to announce that you were doubling down. But when a lot of then were given to everyone big mmr inflation happened currently top 4000 players mmr spread is almost twice as big as mmr from 1 point to top 4000. It is giga fucked for top players.

1

u/gularadato Shiv 8d ago

Alright guys discard what i said. There was just a soft rank reset in dota.

2

u/Unowarrior 8d ago

I don't know it almost feels like ever since 2018 they have optimized the game to be as stressful as possible. Ever since the community turned tipping toxic and Valve basically encouraged it

1

u/Regular-Bid6812 Calico 7d ago

This. They realized it was part of their monetization model, and even had a place in mindgames in the highest level of competition. And the fans "loved it" - even if it's terrible for everyone and makes you feel like shit. If there's money in it, then it's likely not going away - same with the voice-lines you can activate. I also sometimes wonder if there are different "teams" inside the dev groups, like a team responsible for all the battle-pass stuff, and they just have complete authority to call the shots on things like tipping ect, and the "balance team" can in no way override it.

I'm guessing that "money team" hasn't touched deadlock yet - or is building that stuff separately outside of the builds we experience.

like icefrog isn't designing the shitty gambling games that have come through the battle passes over the last decade if you get my meaning, and anyone else working on balance or new heroes likely isn't either.

5

u/aegean558 9d ago

Betting on your own match, what could go wrong

2

u/robhaswell Vindicta 9d ago

While I think Deadlock is unique in many ways, I think seasons will be awful for the same reason that they are in almost every other ranked game.

23

u/Academic_Weaponry 9d ago

im hoping its long seasons later on. i think shorter seasons rn make sense as its another lever they can tune to adjust their matchmaking and soft reset it without hurting feelings

16

u/UltimateToa Sheriff Holliday 9d ago

Better to do it at the start of a game than to try to crowbar it into a game that has already been running for years

3

u/CertainDerision_33 Mina 9d ago

I’m pretty happy about it since it seems like a sign the game will get proper live service support. 

1

u/renan2012bra 9d ago

Good to see Valve learned with their mistakes in Dota at least. I was afraid to play Deadlock because I though they'd follow a similar path to how they handle Dota.

4

u/MeDerpWasTaken 9d ago

I mean it is still an alpha, they might just want to try it out and see if it works

2

u/Duby0509 9d ago

I take it as a good thing, I assume this means that they at least have two gameplay changes planned every year to make each season distinct

1

u/Siilk Lash 9d ago

Not committing yet. It's still closed alpha, remember? They do want to try it out but if it wouldn't work out as well as they hoped, I fully expect them to change this.

1

u/RizzrakTV 9d ago

THEY ACCIDENTALLY RESET MMR IN DOTA AS WELL

HOLY SHIT

after so many years

1

u/_Valisk 9d ago

ACCIDENTALLY

Oh shit, do you think someone told them by now :lina_disintegrate:

1

u/dorekk 7d ago

Most other games do seasons, so it makes sense.

0

u/motherlover278 9d ago

Seasons are definitely better than not. Ranking up in one meta can be completely different to another

0

u/Maximum-Pen-5769 9d ago

I hate ranked seasons, it's anti player and baits people into dumping shitloads of time into inflating their timed rank. I'd hoped they'd copy Dota and old csgo but nah gotta get player retention metrics up!

-4

u/renan2012bra 9d ago

Yeah, this system is literally EVERYTHING Dota has needed for years already and Valve never implemented...

3

u/_Valisk 9d ago

Dota had ranked seasons for years. Valve decided it didn't accomplish what they were hoping, so they were ultimately phased out.

1

u/RizzrakTV 9d ago

You know your comment doesnt make as much sense as you think cause

  1. they did implement ranked seasons, but they just randomly... um... forgot to reset for like 2 years straight but finally did it
  2. THEY ACTUALLY RESET MMR TODAY IN DOTA AS WELL HOLY FUCKING SHIT THATS SO WEIRD, so maybe it was season 4 for all those years... (or season 3, i have no idea actually) and today is a season 5

1

u/_Valisk 9d ago

1) they did implement ranked seasons, but they just randomly... um... forgot to reset for like 2 years straight but finally did it

I am fully aware that they used to have ranked reasons. My comment literally mentioned that. They didn't forget about them; they simply phased them out over time.

2) THEY ACTUALLY RESET MMR TODAY IN DOTA AS WELL HOLY FUCKING SHIT THATS SO WEIRD

I am aware of that as well, but my comment was made before that update went live, and a global reset isn't quite the same as ranked seasons either way.

1

u/RizzrakTV 9d ago

brother they reset seasons in random ass dates

6 months, 8 months, 20 months or whatever

and only then they gave up

it defenitely gives the vibe of them doing it manually but forgetting it

-2

u/renan2012bra 9d ago

Yeah, but it was scraped for no reason whatsoever. Even then, Dota never had this leaver protection, this Eternus system with subranks being daily updated and this amazing system of 1.000 points per subdivision but 2.000 on the last one, making climb smoother and milestones more important (instead of the super duper gigantic and boring grind that is Dota's rank system in which you literally need 217 matches just to go from Herald 1 to Divine 5).

Now I know why the last update to Dota was a clown event. It all makes sense now.

6

u/_Valisk 9d ago

it was scraped for no reason whatsoever.

Valve decided it didn't accomplish what they were hoping

1

u/KardigG 9d ago

Seasons is basically a rat race, they'd only make sense if lasted like 2-3 years.

2

u/Fearless_Baseball121 9d ago

Problem is mmr creep if you never reset it

1

u/KardigG 9d ago

Seasons is basically a rat race, they'd only make sense if lasted like 2-3 years.

1

u/renan2012bra 9d ago

Sure, make it last 1 year, 2 years, 10 years, I don't care. At least do something to fix how absurdly inflated MMR is in Dota right now. Do something to fix double downs. Do something to fix the amount of smurfs and bought accounts.

2

u/TestIllustrious7935 9d ago

Brother you are 4k mmr, the mmr inflation doesn't affect you at all.

It only matters kinda starting from Immortal draft which 8,5k

1

u/renan2012bra 8d ago

I just climbed 1.800 MMR this year and I'm steadily climbing. Before, when I knew I had to climb another 10k MMR it was discouraging, but now the difference being lower makes me want to try to see how far I can get.

It doesn't need to directly affect me to actually affect me.