Deadlock Patch Notes: Jul 30, 2026

Players with an active sanction, including low priority or a communication ban, cannot queue for Ranked.

Calibration uses a soft Rank reset seeded by prior performance, cannot place above Oracle VI, and must be played without a party.

Ranked duo partners must be within one Rank of each other; Eternus players may only queue with another Eternus player within three subranks.

Ranked matches now begin with a waiting area that shows every player's Rank and allows team adjustments before play starts.

Players may switch to an unlocked, Ranked-eligible hero that is not already selected; opposing swaps are not shown live, and a cross-team conflict prompts another choice.

Starting lanes can be adjusted in the Ranked pregame waiting area; Hyperline lane swaps are disabled after the match begins.

Ranked now bans 3 heroes instead of 2 and uses an improved ban-selection algorithm.

An early abandon makes the match safe to leave and voids it for everyone except the leaver and their party, who receive a loss; the leaver also receives penalties.

After a later abandon, the leaver is penalized and their party receives a loss; other teammates are safe to leave without punishment, can still earn a win by staying, and concede automatically if they all leave.

If the initially non-abandoning team also loses a player, that leaver and their party are penalized under the same rules; remaining players on either team avoid a loss and only earn a win by finishing and winning.

Leaver penalties begin with queue timeouts and escalate to increasing numbers of low-priority games.

Matchmaking now offers separate Standard (unranked) and Ranked modes.

The matchmaker now makes improved team-composition choices while continuing to account for players' hero priorities.

Standard Mode does not adjust Rank, has no party-size or skill-spread restrictions, and accounts for each player's experience with their selected hero.

Ranked now uses six subranks (I–VI) within Initiate, Seeker, Acolyte, Sentinel, Mystic, Ritualist, Emissary, Oracle, Phantom, Ascendant, and Eternus; uncalibrated players are Obscurus.

Ranked Season 1 runs from July 30 through October 7, and each season permanently records the player's highest achieved Rank in Rank history.

A new Ranked Hub in the hideout provides current and past season information, global leaderboards, and Rank history.

At season end, players receive a hideout item commemorating their highest achieved Rank.

Wins and losses adjust Rank Points by about 250 on average, with variation for match expectations and win streaks; promotions cost 1,000 points, full-Rank promotions cost 2,000, and Eternus subrank thresholds update daily by percentile.

Rank loss protection lasts five games at a full-Rank boundary and two games at a subrank boundary.