Deadlock, the unreleased Valve title that recently held its first open playtest, now has a collegiate league in the works going into Spring 2025. The league is unaffiliated with Valve and will be running a trial season this fall.
While this is the first big mention of collegiate competition for the new multiplayer shooter, it’s unlikely to be the last. If the game takes off upon release, it can be expected that the major collegiate leagues will all be running the game in some capacity.
What We Currently Know
While their initial post on X was deliberately vague, they’ve announced much more since, along with information in their Discord server.
The biggest news is that they plan to fully begin operations in the spring. This is to align themselves with what they hope to be the game’s full release. Delays on Valve’s end could potentially end up pushing back College Deadlock’s start date.
College Deadlock has also announced that while their inaugural Season 0 will be free to compete in, later seasons will likely come with a fee. That fee is currently unannounced, though they’ve stated that fees would be implemented to “keep the league running in a sustainable way.”
Like most collegiate leagues, competition will be played remotely with no currently announced plans for in-person competition. In their Discord’s help channel, they revealed that competition will currently only consist of teams from the United States and Canada.
College Deadlock announced in their Discord that the format would consist of Swiss Stage taking six weeks followed by playoffs.
On October 14th, College Deadlock made another post detailing that their first season would feature a $5,000 prize pot and that registration was now open.
The team also revealed that registration would be closing on January 17, 2025, with the first matches beginning the next week on January 21.
Matches will take place Tuesday and Thursday, with 12 teams making playoffs, six teams from the Eastern Conference and six teams from the Western Conference. The top two teams from each conference will receive a bye going into the playoffs.
The First of Many Deadlock Announcements
Coming off the success of the game’s playtest in August, College Deadlock is unlikely to be the last group to announce collegiate competition.
Leagues like NACE, NECC, Playfly, and ECAC are all very likely to make their own announcements closer to the game’s full release. These leagues already have their own built-in base of teams likely to continue competing with them.
College Deadlock will have the challenge of garnering a loyal following leading up to the game’s full release. If they don’t succeed, they run the risk of losing out on teams to the other established leagues.
Alternatively, there’s also the option for College Deadlock to partner with one of these leagues, similar to ECAC’s partnerships with Collegiate Corestrike League and iRacing.
These partnerships are generally only done with smaller titles, though. How successful Deadlock will become remains to be seen, but with VALORANT pros already starting to make the switch over, there are high expectations among fans and critics alike.
Valve could even come in with their own collegiate league similar to Riot’s CLOL and CVAL, or Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch Collegiate.
Given Valve’s history of generally being less involved in esports than those companies, though, it’s more likely that Deadlock will be entirely run by third-party organizers at the collegiate level.
Those interested in signing up for the inaugural season of College Deadlock can sign up here. Hopefully more information will be revealed as the start date for their first season approaches.
