Hey there, champions! Librarian Husky here, and I’m excited to bring you some of the most valuable insights from the first-ever pro tournament for Deadlock, where four top teams battled it out for a $10,000 prize. Whether you’re a seasoned player or just starting, these takeaways from the Aurora $10,000 tournament will help you level up your game and dominate the battlefield. So grab a seat, and let’s dive right into the action!

Kelvin: The Unquestionable Top Hero

This tournament proved beyond doubt that Kelvin is possibly the best hero in the game right now. While he may not be a flashy damage dealer like Vindicta, his utility as a support is game-changing. His ultimate allows him to lock down objectives like the Guardian mid-boss or the weakened Patron, ensuring they remain uncontested. Kelvin can even trap himself with an enemy for a free kill while healing rapidly. Additionally, his ice path ability provides fast map traversal, which teammates can also benefit from, increasing their movement speed.

Kelvin’s Impact on Map and Objective Control

Kelvin’s ability to control the map and objectives is unparalleled. His ice path offers incredible map control, enabling both him and his team to move quickly across the battlefield. As a result, Kelvin had a 100% pick or ban rate throughout the tournament. His support capabilities, combined with his utility, made him an essential hero for every team competing.

Underutilized Mechanics: The Power of Punching

Another interesting finding from the tournament was the underutilization of basic mechanics, like punching. While repeatedly punching players might seem risky, as it opens you up to being parried, stunned, and possibly killed, it remains an effective strategy when timed correctly.

Maximizing Punching Efficiency in Early Game

That shouldn’t stop you from punching Troopers, jungle mobs, and objectives like Guardians or even the mid-boss. In most early-game situations, punching deals significantly higher damage per second than weapons or abilities. Using it properly can allow you to deal insane damage to Guardians and the mid-boss much earlier than expected.

Utilizing Punching and Parrying Against Guardians

If you get close enough to Guardians, they will attempt to punch you, but what many don’t realize is that you can parry the Guardian. Parrying temporarily stuns them, stopping them from dealing damage to you or your Troopers. Even if you’re not going for punches, stunning the Guardians will prevent them from causing unnecessary damage, giving you more pushing power.

Maximizing Soul Orbs and Punch Efficiency

Punching is extremely effective in Deadlock. Punching a Trooper with low health secures a Soul Orb, preventing the enemy from denying it. Instead of risking a skill check, the pros often opted for melee attacks, doing so consistently. Additionally, when a teammate dies or an objective is captured, they start shooting the souls that emerge, denying the enemy team valuable resources.

Safely Securing Souls and Jungle Clears

If close to a fallen teammate or captured objective, punching the souls is a safer method of ensuring you collect all of them, though it comes with the risk of being poked by enemies. During jungle clears, pros continuously punched the mobs, using lineups that allowed them to hit as many targets as possible in a single punch. This strategy helped them clear jungles quickly without wasting shots or ammunition.

Key Hero Bans and Strategic Considerations

Due to cooldowns, the ban system, and general gameplay, we’ve identified which heroes other than Kelvin are considered significant threats in Deadlock. At the highest level, heroes like Qu, Dynamo, and Warden can have a massive impact. So much so, that it’s often safer to ban them entirely rather than risk letting the enemy team use them. These heroes excel in mobility, jungle clearing, and survivability, making them top-tier picks.

The Strength of Mo and Krill

Mo and Krill are outstanding at high levels of play. They not only move across the map with record-breaking speed but also clear jungle areas rapidly. Their survivability and ability to gank make them dangerous. When paired with a teammate, using their ultimate on practically any enemy turns the target into an easy kill, giving their team a significant advantage during pushes.

Dynamo: The All-Rounder Hero

Dynamo, with his versatile skill set, is often considered too valuable to pass up. He boasts a knock-up, a teleport, void ability for teammates, self-healing, speed boosts, and a powerful ultimate that can stun-lock an entire enemy team if executed properly. His adaptability and utility make him a solid choice in any lineup.

Warden: Unstoppable Once He Gets Rolling

Warden is known for dealing massive damage once he gains momentum. If left unchecked, he can quickly become a nightmare to handle in team fights. His scaling damage makes him a formidable threat in the late game, especially when he’s allowed to dominate his lane.

Lane Strategy and Optimal Setups

The ideal lane setup appears to be a 1-2-2-1 formation, with single lanes on the sides and double lanes in the middle. This configuration maximizes map presence while concentrating the majority of players around the middle, ensuring strong team coordination and control of crucial objectives.

Clear Objectives and Strategic Pushing

It became clear what both teams were playing for at all times, and the steps they took to achieve their goals were evident. To win, teams must defeat the Patron, but there’s much more to it than that. In these pro matches, players constantly focused on dealing as much damage to enemy objectives as possible, taking every opportunity to weaken or destroy them.

Efficient Objective Management

Rather than engaging in unnecessary fights, players took advantage of empty lanes to push towards enemy Guardians. If the enemy team grouped without a reason, they would push lanes for free, sometimes trading objectives or even destroying a Guardian without any losses. This focused lane pushing provided a significant advantage in the long run.

The Impact of Destroying Guardians

Destroying a Guardian grants considerable control over the map, allowing for more strategic rotations and access to deeper zip lines within the enemy base. More importantly, each Guardian taken down unlocks a Flex slot, a crucial element in getting ahead of the enemy team by improving builds and gaining an advantage.

Strategic Trades and Minimal Fights

There was a constant trade of objectives, with players focusing on pushing lanes and only engaging in fights when absolutely necessary. This careful balance between pushing and objective control allowed teams to stay ahead without unnecessary risks, using every opportunity to further their goals and dominate the map.

Sliding for Infinite Ammo While Shooting Objectives

As I’ve discussed previously, sliding on nearby steps or ledges while shooting an objective grants you infinite ammo for the duration of the slide. This technique allows you to extend your magazine almost infinitely. While punching typically deals more damage, shooting from a safe distance is often the smarter choice, especially when avoiding close encounters near Guardians.

The Importance of Mid-Boss Control

One thing that stood out in the tournament was the immense priority placed on securing the mid-boss. Most pros started working on the mid-boss as soon as it spawned, assuming they had enough time to kill it before the enemy team could intervene. Whether it was done after a team fight or through an element of surprise, the mid-boss almost always proved beneficial.

Mid-Boss Buff and Its Impact on the Game

The buff you receive from the mid-boss, combined with the enhanced pushing power of your Troopers, gives your team a significant advantage in lane control. This makes it easier to push Guardians, Walkers, and other objectives with little resistance. Securing these objectives early on gives teams a considerable lead, effectively allowing them to push for free.

Early Mid-Boss Fights and Punching Strategy

While normally fighting the mid-boss early in the game would be near impossible, the pros used punching strategies to deal massive damage quickly. Punching was a key factor in taking down the mid-boss before the enemy team had a chance to respond, contributing to their early-game dominance.

The Importance of Soul Earn and Mid-Boss Strategies

I am baffled by how vital the Soul Earn is for your team’s success, though perhaps not as critical as the mid-boss. Both the mid-boss and Soul Earn were targeted immediately after becoming available and consistently after respawning. Numerous micro-strategies were employed to make these runs safer, including utilizing players holding the Earn, using rescue beams to pull the carrier across, or creating ice bridges for easy delivery.

Counters and Knockdown Strategies

One effective counter I saw involved picking up knockdown abilities specifically to shut down Vindicta players. With a decent range, the knockdown stuns her mid-air for a few seconds, and the stun timer doesn’t start until she hits the ground. This tactic can effectively neutralize her aerial dominance, giving the opposing team a significant advantage.

Power-Ups and Buff Sharing Tactics

Power-ups found on the map can be collected by multiple players simultaneously if they stand on the spawn grate. Pros often used this technique to ensure their entire team benefited from the buffs. By timing their positions perfectly, they ensured a greater impact during key moments of the match.

Advanced Movement and Item Efficiency

Many pros showcased advanced movement techniques, such as rolling onto bridges and sliding down tiny stairs for quicker traversal. Additionally, buying items like Rapid Recharge, which grants extra ability charges, also refreshes all charges upon purchase, giving players a significant boost in utility during crucial moments.

The Surprising Utility of the Magic Carpet in High-Level Play

I initially overlooked the Magic Carpet, but it has proven useful at the highest levels of the game. For heroes with large area-of-effect abilities that rely on surprise, such as Seven, the carpet excels. It’s great for rotations and split pushes, but it can also act like an enduring leap to reach the enemy’s back lines or secure perfect positioning.

Strategic Advantages of the Magic Carpet

Since you can fly, you can approach from angles that the enemy would never expect, allowing for incredibly valuable ultimates. This unexpected positioning often leads to game-changing plays. The Magic Carpet adds a layer of strategy to rotations, making it an underappreciated tool in specific team compositions.

Key Takeaways and Lessons from the Tournament

There were certainly more strategies to gather from this tournament, but I wanted to highlight a few that stood out. These insights can help players refine their gameplay and leverage underused tools like the Magic Carpet to their advantage in high-level matches.

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