Deadlock streamer ohnePixel uses pause for “mental warfare” against enemies

While playing Deadlock on a live stream, a content creator discovered the game’s pause function and quickly realized its potential as a strategic tactic for psychological warfare.

Despite being in its early stages of development, Deadlock, Valve’s upcoming 6v6 MOBA, is gaining increasing attention as the studio continues to acknowledge the game and conduct playtests.

Despite its MOBA-heavy roots, Deadlock is already drawing numerous comparisons to another popular Valve series, Dota. As expected, many players are discovering the striking similarities between the two real-time online games.

This was also true for ohnePixel, a well-known Counter-Strike streamer, who discovered during a game that Deadlock has a pause feature similar to the one found in Dota 2.

A Twitter/X user posted a video clip of the ohnePixel moment where he unintentionally paused the game. Upon discovering that the pause lasts for several seconds, ohnePixel commented that it could be beneficial for taking a quick break and getting some fresh air.

nevermind deadlock is peak actually pic.twitter.com/494p9gTsWw

— Lise 🏳️‍⚧️ 🔻 (@cs_deathmatch) August 25, 2024

The streamer then instructed his friends to also pause the game, as it could potentially disrupt the enemy team’s emotions and affect their ability to strategize effectively. This term, known as “tilt”in Counter-Strike, is often used to describe the act of psychologically manipulating opponents in order to gain an advantage.

“[It’s] psychological warfare. Just take a moment to pause, my friend… it completely throws them off, I promise,”ohnePixel added.

At this point, it appears that Deadlock’s pause functions similarly to the feature in Dota 2, as it also has a cooldown. Nonetheless, there have been reports from players about opposing squads constantly exploiting this feature during matches.

A Reddit user reported that their team’s frequent use of the pause button caused their friends to become frustrated and lose interest in the game.

The long-standing presence of this feature in Dota 2 indicates that it will also be included in Deadlock. However, the feedback from users and concerns about cheating suggest that the Valve developers may make adjustments to its functionality during the development of the project.