Deadlock Ranked: How to Unlock It, Every Rank and When Season 1 Ends

To play Ranked in Deadlock you need 60 wins in Standard mode, at least 15 wins on every hero you want to use in Ranked, and at least three heroes that meet that bar. The first Ranked season was due to end today, 7 October, but Valve has pushed it back to Thursday 5 November 2026, with the next season starting straight after.

This guide is built on Valve's Matchmaking Update notes from 30 July 2026, the 6 October hero announcement that moved the season end date, and the City Never Sleeps update notes. Where players report something Valve has not written down, we say so. Checked against Valve's announcements as of 7 October 2026.

What do you need to unlock Ranked in Deadlock?

Valve set three win requirements and one account rule in the Matchmaking Update, and the wins are all earned in Standard mode, the unranked queue that replaced the old matchmaking:

1. At least 60 wins in Standard mode before the Ranked queue opens to you.
2. At least 15 Standard wins on a hero before you can pick that hero in Ranked.
3. At least three heroes that clear the 15-win bar, so the matchmaker has a valid roster to work with.
4. No active sanctions on your account. Low priority or a comms ban locks you out of Ranked until it expires.

The per-hero rule is the one that catches people out. A player who has hundreds of games on one hero still needs 15 wins on two more before the queue unlocks, which is exactly the complaint PC Gamer reported from the community a week after launch. Some early coverage, including PC Gamer's launch report, only mentions the 15-win rule, so check the 60-win total as well.

When does Deadlock Ranked Season 1 end?

Season 1 now ends on Thursday 5 November 2026 at 2pm Pacific time. Valve's 6 October announcement, posted alongside the release of the hero Baba, says the end date has been pushed back and that the next season starts immediately after. The original date in the July notes was 7 October.

One wrinkle: Valve wrote "2pm PDT", but US clocks go back on 1 November, so Pacific time on 5 November is PST. If Valve means 2pm on the Pacific clock, the season ends at 22:00 UTC. If it literally means PDT, it is an hour earlier. The table below uses the Pacific-clock reading; Valve has not clarified.

When a season ends, the highest Rank you reached is saved permanently in your Rank history, and you get a hideout item marking that peak. Valve has not said how hard Season 2 will reset ranks compared with the soft reset used when Season 1 began.

What are the Deadlock ranks, in order?

There are 11 Ranks above the uncalibrated Obscurus badge, and each one has six Subranks, from I to VI. Valve's rank artwork labels the first eight with familiar metal-style equivalents, which is the quickest way to read them if you come from another competitive game.

How do Rank Points and loss protection work?

Each win or loss moves you by about 250 Rank Points, according to Valve's notes, with some variation depending on what the matchmaker expected from the game and on win streaks. You need 1,000 points to move up a Subrank, and 2,000 for the final step into a new Rank, such as Mystic VI to Ritualist I.

That makes one full Rank worth 7,000 points: five 1,000-point promotions plus the 2,000-point jump. At the average of 250 points per game, that is roughly 28 more wins than losses per Rank. Treat it as a rough guide, since Valve says the 250 figure varies.

Loss protection softens the way down. At the bottom of a full Rank with 0 points, you keep the badge for 5 losses before dropping. At a Subrank boundary you get 2 games of protection. From Eternus I upwards there is no fixed points threshold: Valve recalculates the Subrank cut-offs daily by percentile.

Can you play Ranked with friends?

Only as a duo. Valve limits Ranked to solo players and pairs, and both duo partners must be no more than one Rank apart, for example Mystic and Ritualist. Eternus players can only pair with another Eternus player within three Subranks. Valve admitted these limits "might be too restrictive" and said it would adjust them, but the July rules are still the latest published.

Standard mode has none of these limits: any party size, any skill spread. It is also where you grind the wins that unlock Ranked, and where the matchmaker accounts for how experienced you are on the hero you picked.

How does hero selection work in a Ranked match?

You queue with your hero preferences already set, and the matchmaker tries to give everyone their pick while building a sensible team. Once a match is found you see every player's Rank and enter a pre-game area, where you can swap once to any untaken hero you have unlocked for Ranked and adjust your starting lane.

Two details matter. You only see the enemy team's initial heroes, not their swaps, and if you both swap into the same hero the second player gets an error and picks again. Zipline lane swaps are disabled after this phase, and pause is off for the first two minutes. Ranked also bans three heroes per game instead of two.

Are the new City Never Sleeps heroes allowed in Ranked?

Valve has not said. The City Never Sleeps update on 29 September added six heroes that are being released two a week in an order decided by player votes, as PC Gamer explained. The Rat King arrived on 2 October, Baba on 6 October, and Valve says the next hero lands on Friday 9 October at 2pm PDT. Our new heroes release schedule tracks each release and how the vote works.

On r/DeadlockTheGame, players report seeing Rat King in Ranked games within days of his release, and question why no 15-win rule seemed to apply to him. That suggests new heroes may be exempt for now, but it is player testimony, not a published rule. If it matters to you, check your Ranked hero list in the client before queueing.

What happens if someone leaves a Ranked game?

If a player abandons in the first five minutes, the game is voided for everyone except the leaver and their party, who take a loss and leaver penalties. After five minutes, the leaver's teammates can leave safely without a loss, but a win still counts if they stay and win. Penalties start as queue timeouts and escalate to low priority games.

Where can you see your Rank?

In the Ranked Hub in your hideout. Valve added it in July to show current and past seasons, your Rank history and the global leaderboards. Players returning after City Never Sleeps redrew the menus have asked where it went on the subreddit. Global leaderboards need 75 games in the last 30 days; hero leaderboards need 30 games on that hero in 30 days and 100 lifetime wins with them.

For everything else on the game, from the player record to the six new heroes, start at our Deadlock hub.