Deadlock’s ranked mode rolled out with a schedule, meaning players can only access it at certain times. Earlier in the game’s lifecycle, the entire matchmaking system shared a similar faith, so this is a practice that Deadlock players are familiar with.

With a ranked mode in place, it became easier for players to track their MMR in Deadlock since their performance will be reflected via the ranks. Competitive matches tend to be more fierce as more players look to bust out the best builds in Deadlock to pick up optimized items and abilities.

When are ranked times in Deadlock?

Deadlock’s ranked times are between 1pm-4pm and 7pm-10pm local time for each available region in the game. When you choose a region, Deadlock presents you with multiple time zones, allowing players to select the time zone that works best for them.

When you select a time zone, your Deadlock ranked schedule will be fixed for a week. You can only switch to another option after seven days.

Why is Deadlock’s ranked mode only available in certain time slots?

Deadlock’s ranked mode is only accessible during specific time slots because the developers are experimenting with features at the time of writing. The time-gated version of the ranked mode rolled out in an Oct. 10, 2024 update, and the main focus was to concentrate players into pre-decided hours to inspect the game quality better.

Valve developers also shared a blog post on Deadlock’s official forum, going over everything implemented with the mentioned Oct. 10 update. Based on the insights provided in the post, Deadlock’s ranked mode will likely receive further changes and be fine-tuned in the process.

During Deadlock’s early days, even the matchmaking system was only open during certain hours. This approach lets developers solely focus on loaded data sets. Deadlock players flood into the servers according to the ranked mode schedule and continue to provide valuable feedback on official forums and other community platforms like Reddit.

Once Deadlock moves further in its development cycle, the ranked mode is likely to become available all the time without any time restrictions. Given the developer’s history when it comes to rolling out updates for Deadlock, it may not even take that long for the ranked mode to reach an optimal stage. Following all the tweaks, Valve could even consider utilizing its new formula in other titles like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2.