Deadlock gives players a chance to turn cheaters into frogs, and Valve shamelessly discusses the issue

Right, so, deadlock. Before the launch was officially announced, entire villages were playing the Valve shooter. Players now have the option to turn those caught cheating into frogs before the ban comes down.

As with any massively competitive online game, it didn’t take long for Deadlock to cultivate a few people trying to gain an unfair advantage, even though it was still in the Penguins of Madagascar “You Didn’t See Nothing (Wave)” Weapon) phase of its existence . Thankfully, Valve’s latest patch starts the process of fixing the issue.

As you can see from the videos of defenseless amphibians jumping around in stalemate matches, the publisher has taken a rather tongue-in-cheek approach to telling those pesky cheaters to stop playing and play normally.

“An initial anti-cheat detection system has been added,” reads part of the game’s latest patch notes. “When a user is detected cheating, for the duration of the game session, the opponent will have the option to either ban the user immediately and end the user’s match or play for the remainder of the game. “As we work on developing a broader v2 anti-cheat system, we will set the system to a conservative detection level,” Valve continued. User bans are enabled within a few days of the update being released and when the game is over, other players’ results will not be counted.”

So, yes, if you get stuck in a deadlock and end up in a session with a cheater, you can vote to turn them into a harmless creature and you can enjoy some fun shooting while it jumps around the shop. It also looks like it’s living up to the hype, offering a little comical break from the action, and non-cheating types of players are understandably looking forward to a game that lets them give it a go.

As for the rest of the patch that comes with this addition, there’s a new hero called Mirage, some other new stuff like a “custom match mode,” and a ton of balance tweaks. You can view the full and rather lengthy synopsis here .

Valve made some changes earlier this month aimed at curbing issues like players abandoning matches for no reason – basically angry quitters – so it’s nice to see the publisher continue to refine how its games uphold rules of engagement.