How to play ranked with friends in Deadlock

You can play Deadlock ranked with one friend, as long as the two of you are at most one rank apart and have both unlocked ranked and played your calibration games. A group of three or more can't queue for ranked at all, and plays Standard instead. Some answers still say ranked is solo only, which was true of Deadlock's first ranked mode in 2024 and isn't now.

This guide is for a player who wants to play ranked with a friend, or has a group that ranked turns away. It covers who can queue together, what a friend needs before they can join you, where a group of three to six plays, how a duo shares a lane, how to find a duo partner, and where a full team goes. For other games, see every game's team format.

In short

• Ranked takes solo players and duos only. A group of three to six plays Standard, which has no limits on party size or rank.
• A duo must be at most one rank apart, so a Mystic can duo with a Sentinel or a Ritualist. Eternus players duo only with another Eternus within three subranks.
• Before a friend can join you in ranked, they need 60 wins in Standard, three heroes with 15 wins each, and eight calibration games played alone.
• Calibration places each player from their own history, so friends can come out more than a rank apart and lose their duo.
• A party can ask the game to put its members in the same lane: set Lane Preference to With Party. In ranked, you can also swap lanes before the game starts.
• A duo wins only a little more often than a solo player, and the gain shows with partners who haven't played together before.
• To find a duo, look for a player within a rank of you, in your region, at the hours you play.

Who can queue ranked together

Solo players, and duos at most one rank apart, Eternus only with Eternus. Valve's matchmaking update of July 2026 split Deadlock into two modes: Standard Mode, which is unranked, and Ranked Mode, which "will currently only allow for solo or duo parties".

• A party of three or more can't queue for ranked. It plays Standard, or splits into a duo and solo players.
• A duo must be within one rank. By Valve's update, "both players must be at most 1 Rank away from each other (i.e. Mystic and Ritualist)". Valve counts whole ranks, so below Eternus the subrank doesn't matter: a Mystic I can duo with a Ritualist VI.
• Eternus duos only with Eternus. An Eternus player can queue with another Eternus within three subranks, and with nobody else, so an Ascendant and an Eternus can't duo at all.
• Valve may loosen this. The same update says the party size and rank limits "might be too restrictive", and that Valve will "adjust in the future as needed".

When a duo is too far apart, the game says "Your party contains too large of a badge range to play together in ranked." The table gives who each rank can duo with:

Your rank	Can duo with
Obscurus (calibrating)	Nobody: calibration is played alone
Initiate	Initiate, Seeker
Seeker	Initiate to Acolyte
Acolyte	Seeker to Sentinel
Sentinel	Acolyte to Mystic
Mystic	Sentinel to Ritualist
Ritualist	Mystic to Emissary
Emissary	Ritualist to Oracle
Oracle	Emissary to Phantom
Phantom	Oracle to Ascendant
Ascendant	Phantom, Ascendant
Eternus	Eternus, within three subranks

Before a friend can join you in ranked

Each player unlocks ranked on their own, then plays eight calibration games alone. Until both of you have, your duo plays Standard.

Unlocking ranked. By Valve's matchmaking update, a player needs "at least 60 wins in the Standard Mode" and at least three heroes they've won 15 Standard games with. In ranked, a player can only pick those heroes. When a friend hasn't unlocked it yet, the game says "Not all players in this party have unlocked ranked matchmaking and therefore this mode cannot be played." An active sanction, such as low priority or a comms ban, keeps a player out of ranked too, and their duo with them.

Calibration is solo. A player's first eight ranked games are calibration, and "You cannot be in a party during calibration matches." Each player is seeded from their own past performance, a "soft reset of their prior Rank", and nobody leaves calibration above Oracle VI.

Why friends calibrate apart. Each of you brings your own history to calibration, so two friends who played as a duo can come out two ranks apart and lose the right to queue together, as players have found. The way back that keeps both ranks is for the lower-ranked friend to climb until they're within one. Losing on purpose to drop down, which some players do, throws away rank the higher friend earned.

For a group, that means playing Standard together while the newer friends unlock their heroes. Every Standard win counts toward the 60, and toward the 15 on the hero you played.

Three to six friends: Standard

Standard is where a group plays. By Valve's matchmaking update, "There are no restrictions on party size or skill spread", so any ranks can play together, up to a full team of six.

Rosters. By Valve's update of January 2026, a party of three or more needs four heroes in each player's roster instead of three. If your rosters overlap too much, the game says "Your roster overlaps too heavily with other players in your party."

Mixed ranks play up. When a party's players are far apart in skill, Valve's update of May 2024 has the matchmaker treat the party as closer to its best player than to its average. A group with a much better friend in it plays harder games, and players in mixed groups report long losing runs. That's mostly the lobby, not anyone's fault.

Big stacks wait longer. Since Valve's update of September 2024, "A 6 player party will no longer match against solo players", which Valve warned "may result in longer queue times for 6 stacks". Players report waits of several minutes for a stack of three or more, and sometimes much longer for a full six.

Custom games. A group of twelve can play a custom match in a private lobby, six against six, a mode Valve added in September 2024. That's where teams play each other, as the last section covers.

Playing as a duo: lanes, voice and leaving

Set the lane preference before you queue, agree on voice, and play every game out.

Lane preference. By Valve's update of November 2024, a party can "override the default balance oriented lane assignment system and make the system prioritize putting your party members in the same lanes together". Once you're in a party, press Escape and open the cogwheel beside your party at the top of the screen: Lane Preference there has two choices, Balanced and With Party. The game warns that With Party "may impact game balance", and it only applies when possible. Players report that it sometimes goes back to Balanced after a match or when the game restarts, so check it at the start of each session. Valve hasn't said whether ranked uses it, but in ranked you can move to your partner's lane before the game anyway.

Swapping lanes. In Standard, you can ask a teammate to swap lanes during the opening zipline phase, from the button under their portrait on the scoreboard. In ranked, you settle lanes in the pre-game waiting area instead, and by Valve's matchmaking update there's no swapping during the zipline phase after it.

Voice. By Valve's update of June 2024, team voice and text chat are opt-in, with a prompt before each match. A party can set its chat to Party-only, All Team or Disabled, which suits a duo that talks on Discord.

Leaving. A ranked game a player leaves counts as a loss for their party too, by Valve's matchmaking update. After the first five minutes the leaver gets penalties as well, which "start with queue timeouts and escalate to increasing amounts of low priority games". A partner who leaves costs you the game.

Finding a duo partner

Look for a player within a rank of you, in your region, at the hours you play, who plays heroes you don't.

Rank first. Within one rank, or the two of you can't queue. That's why players looking for a duo often give their rank as two neighbours, such as Sentinel/Mystic. The table above gives your window.

Region. Deadlock is played in five regions, which Valve's update of November 2024 keeps leaderboards for: North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. A partner in your own region plays at the same hours you do.

Heroes. Each of you can only pick heroes you've unlocked for ranked, so a partner whose heroes differ from yours gives you both more to pick from.

Keep a good teammate. After a good game with a stranger, add them as a Steam friend and ask them to queue again.

What a duo is worth. On average, a partner adds under a point of win rate. deadlock-api.com's study of solo and duo win rates covers 641,345 ranked matches from 30 July to 6 September 2026. Valve doesn't publish who queued together, so the study works duos out from friend lists, lobby slots and who keeps playing with whom. Across every rank, duos won 50.9% of their games and solo players 50.0%. The gap is widest at the top, 53.8% against 49.8% in Ascendant and Eternus, and at Initiate it runs the other way. The bigger difference is the partner. Players won 54.2% of their games with a partner they had no recorded games with before ranked began, against 49.9% of their own solo games. Players whose usual partner made up more than 60% of their earlier games won 50.3% together and 51.2% alone. In the study's words, "A friend you have never played with is worth about 4 points of win rate and an extra subrank or so per 100 games, while a partner you already have hundreds of games with is worth nothing measurable."

Duo games against solo games

All ranks duo 50.9%, solo 50.0%

+0.9 points

Initiate duo 49.6%, solo 50.1%

−0.5 points

Ascendant and Eternus duo 53.8%, solo 49.8%

+4.0 points

The same players, with their partner and alone

A new partner together 54.2%, alone 49.9%

+4.3 points

A long-standing partner together 50.3%, alone 51.2%

−0.9 points

So a partner is worth looking for, and one you've never played with is no worse a bet than an old friend.

Agree before you queue: voice, the hours you play, the lane preference, and playing every game out. How to make an esports team covers keeping a group together.

Post on TeamTavern. Put up a player post with your rank, tick "Ranked" under "Looking for", add your Steam account as a contact, and say in the description which heroes you play. A group looking for its sixth puts up a group post. Then filter the posts by rank and message the ones within a rank of you.

Deadlock players and groups on TeamTavern

From a stack to a team

Valve runs no tournaments or leagues for Deadlock. Every competition is run by the community, in custom lobbies of six against six.

• The Death Slam League is an open league for teams of six with up to two substitutes. By its own page, new teams start in the lowest of its four divisions, seeded by their players' average rating, and the best of each season move up a division. Matches are on Saturdays, on North American servers, and there's no official prize pool. A player without a team can sign up to be matched into one, in the sign-up window before each season.
• Other events are invitationals and occasional open qualifiers, mostly in North America and Europe.
• Scrims are practice games against teams of a similar level, played in custom lobbies.

The guide to joining a team covers Deadlock among every game's team formats.

Frequently asked questions

Can you play Deadlock ranked with friends?

With one friend, at most one rank away, once both of you have unlocked ranked and played your eight calibration games. Three or more friends play Standard.

Why can't I play ranked with my friend?

One of you hasn't unlocked ranked (60 Standard wins, and three heroes with 15 wins each) or finished calibration, you're more than one rank apart, one of you is Eternus and the other isn't an Eternus within three subranks, or one of you has a sanction such as low priority. A party of three or more can't queue for ranked at all.

Can three friends play Deadlock ranked?

No. Ranked takes solo players and duos only. Three to six friends play Standard, which has no limits on party size or rank.

Can you see your friends' rank in Deadlock?

In a ranked match, yes: the game shows every player's rank at the start.

How do I get a friend into Deadlock?

While Deadlock is a playtest, Valve's Steam page says access "is currently limited to friend invites via our playtesters". A player who has the game invites a Steam friend from the game's invite screen, and the friend gets access through Steam. By Valve's update of June 2024, you must be Steam friends to invite someone, and a limited Steam account can't be invited.

Find your duo

• Unlock ranked and play your calibration games first.
• Stay within a rank of your partner.
• Set Lane Preference to With Party, or swap into your partner's lane before a ranked game.
• Take a group of three or more to Standard.
• Look for a partner a rank either side of you, in your region, at your hours.

Post as a player with your rank and tick "Ranked" under "Looking for", or post as a group looking for its sixth: Deadlock players and groups on TeamTavern.