Valve started Deadlock’s Ranked Beta Season 2 today, and the biggest changes land at the top. Phantom, Ascendant and Eternus players no longer get any rank loss protection, and every ranked match now bans four heroes instead of three. The season runs for four months, ending on Thursday, March 11, 2027.
Season 1 is over, and players who took part will get a commemorative Hideout plaque of their highest rank once the new season rolls over, according to Valve’s Season 2 announcement.
Phantom, Ascendant and Eternus lose every rank loss shield
Shields were the buffer that kept you at a badge after a few losses. Players in the top three ranks now have none. Everyone else keeps fewer: at a full rank boundary the count drops from 5 to 3, and between subranks it drops from 2 to 1. Valve’s example: at Mystic I with 0 rank points, you now hold the Mystic badge for 3 losses before dropping to Sentinel, not 5.
Ranked matches now ban four heroes, up from three
Hero bans per ranked match go from 3 to 4, one more hero off the table every game.
The soft reset drops most players about one badge
Valve says this reset is much smaller than the last one, about one badge on average, with a further 1 to 2 subrank adjustment based on your Season 1 win rate. Before that, Valve is redistributing the whole rank curve to account for the season’s data and the recent influx of new players, so some players may actually rank up at the start of Season 2.
Returning ranked players skip calibration. New ranked players calibrate as usual, and the highest starting placement is now Ascendant I, with a chance of up to Ascendant III based on last season, up from Oracle VI.
Matches are worth 350 points, and a new badge takes 1,500
Each match is now worth 350 rank points, up from 300. Reaching a new badge from the final subrank takes 1,500 points instead of 2,000, while the 1,000 points between subranks stay the same.
Unlocking a hero for ranked takes 35 points instead of 15 wins
You still have to unlock a hero before playing it in ranked, but progress is now points instead of wins only: 2 points for a win and 1 for a loss, 35 in total. Valve did the math: at a 50 percent win rate, the old 15-win requirement worked out to about 45 points, so unlocks now come faster and losses still count.
Each season gets its own leaderboard, with a 50-match minimum
Valve reworked the leaderboard backend to fix bugs, and every season now has its own board. To appear on it, you need at least 50 ranked matches in that season within the last 30 days. Hero leaderboards need 15 ranked matches on that hero in the same window.
