Deadlock: Cheaters and Fans Concerned About VAC’s Effectiveness

Valve’s upcoming MOBA, Deadlock, is currently in closed Alpha and has already been targeted by cheaters. In response, the studio has taken action.

According to the game’s Steam page, access is currently restricted to friends who have been invited by existing playtesters. Despite the limited number of players, there have been instances of disruptive individuals causing a negative experience for others.

In a post on the Deadlock Discord, the developer urged users to report any cheaters found in the game. These reports would be carefully reviewed by a team of community cheat moderators while the development team focuses on implementing more robust anti-cheat measures.

Valve is well acquainted with the challenges of preventing cheaters from gaining an advantage in their flagship competitive titles such as Counter-Strike, its sequel, and Dota 2.

As is the case with all of the aforementioned, the utilization of Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) by Deadlock has prompted early adopters to express their doubts regarding its effectiveness.

Three of Deadlock’s 21 characters playable in the closed Alpha

A user on the game’s subreddit expressed concern that hacks that are successful in CS2 will also be effective in Deadlock, particularly wall hacks and aimbots. They noted that Valve will have an advantage as both games will have the same defense mechanism, but the battle against cheaters will be challenging.

“Will there be no bans like in CS2?”one person asked. At the same time, some expressed their desire for Deadlock to become Valve’s next success, leading them to believe that they will put more effort into VAC.

Despite concerns from the community about cheating, the game has received positive reception from other sources. During his livestream on August 25, Shroud confidently stated, “This game is going to dominate, I mean dominate, when it is released.”

There is no indication from Valve about the potential end date for Deadlock’s closed Alpha phase or whether a Beta will take place after this initial testing period. Do you already have access?