deadlock – The Daily SPUF

First Major Controversy Hits Competitive Deadlock

May 29, 2026May 29, 2026 aabicus 2 Comments competitive, deadlock, esports

Every esport has matches that have gone down in infamy, that will be talked about for decades after the fact. Some of the most iconic involve a team busting out an unconventional strat that leaves everyone debating whether it should even be legal. CS:GO/CS2 has the infamous “Olofbooster” match, League of Legends has Azubu Frost reaching the World 2 Finals by screen-peeking, Overwatch had the “Brigitte in Spawn” gambit from the 2018 Playoffs. And now Deadlock, despite not having even left alpha yet, has had its own, courtesy of a bizarre interaction between a specific item and a recently-adjusted map element. But before we… [Continue Reading]

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Deadlock’s Seven

May 24, 2026May 30, 2026 aabicus 0 Comments alpha, analysis, class, deadlock, early access, first thoughts, hero, moba, mobility, recommendation, seven

The first time you boot up Deadlock, you’re going to be prompted to play a tutorial to learn the bare minimum of how things work in the Cursed Apple. And this game is absolutely complicated enough that everyone, myself included, will highly recommend you indulge that offer. You will find yourself playing a cackling electricity-ridden scarecrow with a satellite dish for a head, and the first thing I remember thinking was, “aabicus, under no circumstances are you allowed to main the tutorial guy. Any other character, sure, but there’s nothing lamer than playing the easy class clearly designed for noobs.” I… [Continue Reading]

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Deadlock’s Ivy

March 14, 2026April 11, 2026 aabicus 3 Comments #GargoyleGaming, alpha, analysis, class, deadlock, early access, first thoughts, hero, ivy, moba, mobility, recommendation

When I was invited to join the Deadlock closed playtest in August 2024, I installed it and logged into the main menu with pretty much no idea what I was getting into. After starting up the sandbox to poke around, I was faced with a massive list of random heroes I knew nothing about, and chose the winged gargoyle because I figured flight would be useful for exploring the map. A year and a half later, Ivy is still my favorite hero in the game. She really has a little bit of everything, and I’m mostly just writing this to gush about… [Continue Reading]