Deadlock matchmaking issues are so severe that even Valve developers find themselves in mismatched lobbies: “Imagine playing and having no one to blame but yourself.”

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Valve’s upcoming shooter, Deadlock, is currently in a limited playtesting phase, and its matchmaking system is facing some serious issues. Even the developers involved are feeling the pain.

In the official Deadlock Discord server, accessible only through the game, a player reached out to Valve developer Yoshi (via Reddit screenshots), saying, “The matchmaking is still messed up, I’m ascendant 3 and I got put into an oracle lobby.” Yoshi replied, “same here.” Not a great sign.

Ascendant is the second-highest rank in Deadlock, while Oracle sits in the upper-middle tier. Many players have reported that the game frequently mismatches them in lobbies that are either far too challenging or way too easy.

“Please, I’d even take a full rank reset at this point,” pleaded one frustrated player on Reddit. “I’m in Oracle 4 and I don’t belong here. I’m not a good player and should be down in like Ritualist. To reach a more fitting rank, I have to essentially throw games for my team. It’s a waste of tens of hours.”

Another player shared their experience, saying, “I’m an Asia player and yesterday, I was placed in a Chicago server. I thought having new players on my team was bad, but wow.”

This situation is far from ideal. If even Yoshi is getting mismatched, it seems players might need to brace themselves for the same fate. Valve hasn’t made any recent public comments about the state of Deadlock’s matchmaking, but in 2024, Valve engineer Fletcher Dunn expressed excitement about using ChatGPT to develop a new matchmaking algorithm for Deadlock, which was then implemented in the game.

“Can you imagine playing a game and having no one to blame but yourself? Couldn’t be me,” quipped another player on Reddit. You could point the finger at yourself, or perhaps at the algorithms.

Weekly digests, stories from the gaming communities you cherish, and more.

The creator of Risk of Rain intentionally leaked Deadlock news months ago, but no one believed the Valve developer because he referred to a guy as Chickenwing.