Deadlock mode is still in early development, so some players can play however they want without any consequences. The latest update should prevent that from happening.
Valve is working on a brand novel shooter, one of the Hero varieties, if you haven’t heard, but since it’s still in testing, Deadlock doesn’t have all the kinks ironed out yet. However, when it comes to things like players abandoning matches for no reason, there was no system in place to discourage such behavior. As part of the September update, that’s been changed, and in some cases, certain penalties will start to apply. For example, if a player has been showing bad behavior or abandoning games too often, they can now be placed in a secondary queue that has a lower chance of finding a match.
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If they want to be released from this low-priority queue, they will have to play a few rounds before they are moved back to normal matchmaking. Additionally, players can now lose access to matchmaking altogether, as well as the ability to talk in voice and text chat, pause the game, or report other players for abuse. It is incredibly vital for online games to have penalties that discourage players with bad behavior from doing things that cause other people pain, as shooters are not always known for their nice and genial communities.
This last change also brought some substantial general changes tooone of the biggest is the matchmaking time, which is 24/7 (previously it was restricted to certain hours). The minimap also underwent some significant changes, but they were quickly restored after player feedback.
One thing Valve still needs to work on is the cheating issue, but it’s early days so it’s safe and sound to assume that will change over time.