Deadlock does what Valve didn’t get around to with Counter-Strike, turning the hero shooter’s cheaters into frogs

A new Deadlock update has arrived, and its approach to anti-cheat measures is one-of-a-kind – the shooter will now let players choose to turn any cheater into a literal frog.

Thanks to its “anti-cheat detection system,” Deadlock leaves every cheater’s fate in opposing players’ hands. If someone dares to cheat, opponents will be given two options – they can either instantly ban the guilty player, or they can opt for something far funnier. They can turn them into a frog for the remainder of the match. Right now, Valve says the system is just “set to conservative detection levels.”

The team is still working on “a v2 anti-cheat system that is more extensive,” but fans love it already – as do Valve veterans themselves. Speaking in a post on Deadlock’s unique anti-cheat measures, former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developer Burton Johnsey reveals that the company’s older iconic shooter almost featured a similar system. “Holy crap, they finally built codename ‘FU Surprise Mode’?!”

He continues: “When I worked on VAC, Rich and I designed this for CS but the cheater was a chicken.” That’s right, CS stans – the community could’ve had anti-cheat chickens. While it probably won’t happen in Counter-Strike 2, Deadlock at least has frogs. They aren’t the only thing to come to Valve’s hero shooter with its recent update, either – new hero Mirage has arrived as have various smaller changes.

Former Overwatch pro blasts Deadlock as “dogs**t” during a particularly bad game, only to have a huge change of heart later that day: “The future of gaming”