Deadlock Hero Bans and Pre-Game Swaps: How to Use All Three

Deadlock‘s pre-game phase now runs on three hero bans instead of two, plus a one-time hero swap per player once a Ranked match is formed — and the catch is that you make the swap decision without seeing what the enemy team is changing into in real time. This guide covers exactly what the July 30 update changed, who to ban in the current meta, and when to actually spend your swap instead of saving it. It also splits what’s confirmed in the patch notes from what’s just early practice, since the system has only been live a couple of days.

Two separate mechanics got touched by the same update. First, the hero-ban system that Valve added to Standard Mode and Street Brawl back in January — where each player flags one hero on their roster screen they’d prefer to avoid — now enforces more of those preferences per game in Ranked. The total number of heroes banned in a given game is increased from 2 to 3 and the algorithm used has been improved. It’s still not a League-style draft where teams alternate picks and bans; it’s a background matchmaking preference that now removes one more hero from the pool per match.

Second, and bigger: Ranked now has a genuine pre-game waiting area. The update introduces a pre-game waiting area where players see both teams’ initial hero compositions and can swap to any other Ranked-eligible, unselected hero — once, and only once, per match. Each player can only swap into a new hero once, and you can also use the new pre-game waiting area to adjust your starting lanes, though you won’t be able to zipline swap after this.

This is the part that trips people up. You do see rosters when the waiting area opens — both teams’ starting heroes are visible up front. What you don’t get is a live feed of changes. This is not intended to be primarily a counter-picking feature, as much as just a quick way to improve your team’s general hero composition: you only ever see their opening picks. So if you swap in response to what you initially saw, the enemy could already be swapping into something else at the exact same moment, and neither side finds out until the loading screen.

There’s also a collision rule worth knowing before you commit: if you end up swapping into a hero that the enemy team happened to also swap into before you, you’ll get an error and then be able to select a different hero — otherwise you will be given that hero. That means your swap isn’t fully “locked” until the system confirms nobody beat you to that pick.

Tier lists this patch generally agree on a handful of names sitting at the top of the win-rate charts, but they disagree on the exact order, and some — Haze in particular — show up anywhere from S-tier to mid-pack depending on the source. That disagreement is itself useful information: it means banning purely off a tier-list headline is less reliable than banning off what actually beats you in lane.

The S-tier features Graves (56.5%), Victor (56.2%), Seven (55.6%), and Paige (53.9%), with Graves posting the single highest win rate. These numbers move week to week and should be checked against a live tier list rather than memorized — the ranking above reflects one snapshot, not a fixed hierarchy.

The trap the brief above hints at is real: banning the single best hero on paper feels correct, but if you don’t actually know how to play against the second-strongest hero either, you’ve just traded one bad matchup for another. A more useful question than “what’s rated highest” is “what beats me specifically, and can I ban that instead.”

Use it early: fixing an obvious comp gap

If your team locks in with zero frontline or three heroes fighting for the same lane, that’s a clear signal to swap right away. This is closer to what the feature is actually built for. This is not intended to be primarily a counter-picking feature, as much as just a quick way to improve your team’s general hero composition, while still making it easy for players to have their preferred and most comfortable heroes in Ranked by default.

Hold it: matchup is unclear until rosters settle

Since enemy changes aren’t shown live, swapping the instant the window opens means you’re reacting to a comp that might not exist by the time the game starts. If your lane assignment looks fine on paper, there’s an argument for waiting a few seconds to see if your own team’s lanes settle before spending your one shot.

Don’t use it as a panic button

Because the swap is capped at one per player with no take-backs beyond the collision-error case, using it reactively to “fix” a hero you’re simply uncomfortable with — rather than one that’s genuinely a bad matchup — burns the tool for a soft reason. Save it for a matchup problem, not a mood.

“My ban is guaranteed to work”

The ban system is a preference the matchmaker tries to honor, not a hard team-draft removal. With only three total bans enforced across a full lobby, a flagged hero can still show up if the queue can’t otherwise form a match.

“I can see what the enemy is swapping to”

You see their starting picks, not their changes. Treat the enemy roster in the waiting area as a first draft, not a final answer — this is the single most misunderstood part of the whole system right now.

“Banning the meta’s number one pick is always correct”

It’s a reasonable default, but if your actual losses come from the second- or third-strongest hero — or from a specific playstyle like a slippery duelist — banning the top-line name doesn’t fix your real problem. This same logic is why hero-specific match-up guides, like a Haze counters breakdown, tend to matter more than a generic tier list once you’re past the early Ranked grind.