Deadlock’s ranked play has improved significantly since his introduction, but due to a small oddity, only 75 people were left in the lower rankings to fight him.
When Valve first introduced ranked play in Deadlock, the player distribution was a little strange. Given that Deadlock was and is still in closed beta, this was to be expected, but instead of the usual bell curve, players were scattered across all ranks. Things were a little chaotic at first, but over time things seem to have calmed down, at least for most of us.
If you look at TrackLock, you’ll see a clearer bell-shaped curve that matches the more common distribution of skill levels seen in competitive gaming. Though rather than being heavyweight, with most players hitting the lower ranks and then narrowing down to higher skill tiers, Deadlock feels like a mid-heavy title.
This may be because players who take the time to establish their rank in Deadlock are more dedicated to it than players in other games, or that Deadlock does not have the same rank decay as older competitive games. In any case, this distribution means that a tiny percentage of players remain at the lowest rank.
Of the 70,000 competitive players in Deadlock, only 75, or 0.1%, are in Initiate, the bottom rank. And among the six sub-ranks there are only the seven lowest, Initiate I. There is nothing wrong with being at the bottom. Honestly, if I decided to try ranked play again, the number of Initiates would probably increase to 76, but even so, other Deadlock players are wondering why there are so few of them.
“Okay, but only 75 players?!” They must have some kind of company there,” says one of the players. Someone else suggests that instead of just watching the live view tab, there should also be an option for Eternus players (highest rank) to sit and watch Initiate games.
It’s a little strange, but having such a small number of numbers at the bottom is not a major problem. Yes, new players will mostly be playing among themselves, but they will also be competing with adventure players as they fight to rank up. When Deadlock officially releases, it’s likely that more players will join the lower ranks and a lot of newbies will join the game.
Deadlock and its ranked mode have improved incredibly quickly since its launch thanks to the constant updates that the developers have been releasing. Changes have been made to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of players with specific heroes, and there’s even an additional competitive option for those who want to take ranked matches seriously. And while these new features may not arrive as quickly in the future since Valve has decided to slow down updates and take a more methodical approach to changes, all I can see is Deadlock’s ranked game going from strength to strength.