GamesMOBADeadlockDeadlock wins the award for best placeholder UI text I’ve ever read with this one-line character bio calling one of its heroes an a**holeWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesMOBADeadlockDeadlock wins the award for best placeholder UI text I’ve ever read with this one-line character bio calling one of its heroes an a**holeWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Valve)

Now that Valve is acknowledging that okay, yes, Deadlock exists, we’re free to discussits excellent vibes. A major piece of the hero shooter MOBA’s aesthetic is of course the heroes themselves: a colorful cast of occultists, interplanar anomalies, and—according to its unfinalized character backgrounds—at least one asshole.
As you’ll read in the message that pops up when you launchDeadlock’s closed playtest, Valve considers the project to be in early development: All of the art, abilities, UI text, and just about everything else currently in-game could change before its unspecified release date.
The backgrounds are in varying degrees of completion. Some have interesting quirks—Yamato, a sword-wielding yokai who’sdue for an upcoming redesign, has a bio that’s written entirely in untranslated Japanese. Others have some probably-unintentional punctuation goofs. And then there’s the single-sentence biography for Lash, which reads:
“Jacob Lash is an asshole.”
That’s it. That’s all we get. No backstory, no tragic past. Just a note to say this guy sucks.
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(Image credit: Valve)

It’s clearly very placeholder—although I’d love to see Valve be ballsy and leave it as is, no notes—but it’s also a fun window into the ever-changing nature of game development, where juggled production priorities might mean that a character’s background remains a single-line dev dunk for an indefinite amount of time.
I will say, looking at Lash’s abilities, I can understand how someone might end up in a place where they need to mark, however briefly, that he’s a trash man. Lash’s kit includes a whip that lets him grapple and pull himself towards targets, and his ultimate lets him tangle up the enemy team in a big ball. He’s a big guy with a big moustache who can launch himself through the air and toss you and your friends into the worst possible places with his horrible whips.
Here’s an example:
funniest thing that happened to me in deadlock, lash throwing my entire team into the enemy’s fountain pic.twitter.com/EbeSB0lXdwAugust 24, 2024
funniest thing that happened to me in deadlock, lash throwing my entire team into the enemy’s fountain pic.twitter.com/EbeSB0lXdwAugust 24, 2024
I get it, is what I’m saying. Whoever was responsible for that placeholder text: I see you, and I understand. Lash: Be better.
Deadlock beta: How to get inDeadlock characters: Full heroes and abilities listDeadlock crosshair: How to customize yours
Deadlock beta: How to get inDeadlock characters: Full heroes and abilities listDeadlock crosshair: How to customize yours
Deadlock beta: How to get inDeadlock characters: Full heroes and abilities listDeadlock crosshair: How to customize yours
Deadlock beta: How to get inDeadlock characters: Full heroes and abilities listDeadlock crosshair: How to customize yours

Deadlock beta: How to get inDeadlock characters: Full heroes and abilities listDeadlock crosshair: How to customize yours
Deadlock beta: How to get inDeadlock characters: Full heroes and abilities listDeadlock crosshair: How to customize yours
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