Deadlock cheaters are being turned into frogs as players get chance to vote on their fate

Valve instituted a fairytale punishment for cheaters in its unreleased laney shooter Deadlock yesterday. Cheaters will now be turned into frogs, provided the other players in the match vote for it. A Counter-Strike 2 modder proved the effect in a post on Xitter after the change was mentioned in some out-of-the-way patch notes by a Valve developer.

"Added an initial Anti-Cheat detection system," said developer "Yoshi" in the changelog posted on the game's official-but-kinda-half-hidden-behind-the-bins forum. "When a user is detected as cheating, during the game session the opponents will be given a choice between banning the user immediately and ending the match or turning the cheater into a frog for the rest of the game and then banning them afterwards.

"The system is set to conservative detection levels as we work on a v2 anti-cheat system that is more extensive. We will turn on the banning of users in a couple of days after the update is out."

Deadlock is still in heavy development, yet it was being played in the tens of thousands before it was ever officially announced. Valve have since recognised it as extant, which is nice of them.

Part of me wonders if a froggy punishment isn't a little too funny. I suspect some cheaters will just get a memey kick out of this, then double down their workaround efforts to rejoin the game. But there's hope some will be annoyed when that brief moment of novelty wears off. Valve is also likely making a push to show they are capable of dealing with cheaters, especially following years of complaints about rampant cheating in Team Fortress 2, which have started to also be addressed.

On top of the first volleys of anti-cheat, there are many other tweaks in this update, as you might expect from a game that is still being slapped together even as thousands of people violently tear each other apart on its streets. There are some changes to map layout, for example. And plenty of the playable heroes get altered. Bebop's hook range has been reduced from 30m to 25m. Dynamo's "Singularity" radius has been lowered from 8m to 7m. Look, I'll be honest, I haven't played the game. I don't know what these words mean. But they're probably important to some absolute Dynamo freak out there.

You can play Deadlock yourself, though. But only if you're invited to playtest by someone who already has access. Don't worry about me, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. I'll sort myself out.