Valve's upcoming hero shooter, Deadlock, hasn't officially launched, but cheating is already becoming an issue. The game is currently in closed beta, accessible only through player invites. Despite this, it has gained significant popularity, and as with many online shooters, more players mean more cheaters. Valve is addressing this by turning detected cheaters into frogs during the game session.
"When a user is detected as cheating, opponents can choose between banning the user immediately and ending the match or turning the cheater into a frog for the rest of the game and then banning them afterwards," explained Yoshi, a Deadlock developer, in a recent forum post. The system currently operates with conservative detection levels while they work on a more extensive v2 anti-cheat system. Banning will be activated a couple of days after the update. Matches ended this way will not count for other players.
These frogs are essentially defenseless, unable to inflict damage or use the abilities of the character they were playing. Non-cheaters can easily kill a frog or simply let it leap around the arena for the rest of the match. Deadlock was officially announced in late August, with Valve releasing an announcement trailer and lifting NDAs for streamers and playtesters. The official release date remains unannounced, but one thing is clear: no fairytale princesses will be kissing any of Deadlock's frogs, especially given their history of cheating.
