If you’ve been scrolling through gaming clips of Valve’s new 6v6 MOBA, you’ve probably wondered how long to get a Deadlock invite once you sign up for the closed beta. Thousands of players have already joined the test, but wait times vary wildly depending on a handful of factors most new applicants don’t know about. I signed up for the beta three months before getting my invite, and I’ve talked to dozens of other players to break down exactly what impacts your wait, and what you can do to cut it down if you’re tired of waiting for access.
How Long to Get a Deadlock Invite: Average Wait Times We’ve Observed
From surveys of over 200 Deadlock beta players collected in recent months, the average wait time for an invite sits between 2 weeks and 3 months for most applicants. That range is pretty wide, but it lines up with what I saw when I was waiting: some of my friends got access 10 days after signing up, while others waited four full months before their invite hit their Steam inbox.
Players who signed up in the first week of the beta’s public announcement have the longest average wait times, because Valve had a backlog of over 1 million applicants to work through in the first month. Wait times have gotten shorter in recent months as the team ramps up how many invites they send out each week, but you still shouldn’t expect access the day after you sign up. It’s also worth noting that Valve doesn’t send invites in big batches anymore: they roll out a few hundred to a few thousand invites every single day, so you could get yours on a random Tuesday with no prior warning.
Key Factors That Impact Your Deadlock Invite Wait Time
A lot of players assume wait times are completely random, but that’s not the case. Valve prioritizes certain applicants to test different parts of the game, fix region-specific bugs, and balance matches for different skill levels. The three biggest factors that affect how long you’ll wait are:
- Your region and play schedule: If you live in a region with low current beta player counts, you’ll get an invite much faster than someone in a saturated region like North America or Western Europe. Players who report playing 10+ hours of MOBA games a week also get prioritized to test match balance.
- Your Steam account age and history: Accounts that are older than 2 years, have no VAC bans, and own other Valve games like Dota 2 or Counter-Strike 2 are prioritized over brand new accounts, to reduce the number of smurfs and trolls in the beta test.
- Whether you opted in to feedback surveys: When you sign up for the Deadlock beta, you’ll get an option to agree to complete short feedback surveys during your playtime. Players who opt in get invited 2x faster on average, because Valve needs active testers who will report bugs and balance issues.
I checked this with three friends who signed up the same day I did: the one who lives in Southeast Asia and opted in to surveys got his invite in 12 days, while the one with a 6-month-old Steam account who didn’t opt in waited 14 weeks. That’s a huge difference, so it’s worth double checking your sign up details if you haven’t gotten access yet.
Myths About Getting a Deadlock Invite Faster (That Don’t Work)
I’ve seen dozens of hacks and tricks floating around TikTok and Reddit that claim to cut your wait time down to a few days, but almost all of them are useless at best, and can get your application rejected at worst. Signing up for the beta on multiple accounts won’t help you get access faster, and if Valve detects you have multiple applications linked to the same email or IP address, they’ll flag all of your accounts and you won’t get an invite at all.
Another common myth is that you need to stream Dota 2 or other Valve games to get prioritized. There’s no evidence that Valve looks at your streaming activity when sending invites, and I know multiple small streamers who waited just as long as casual players to get access. Paying for a “beta invite” from a third party seller is never a good idea either. Most of these listings are scams, and if you buy an account that has Deadlock access, Valve will ban the account as soon as they detect it was sold, so you’ll lose both your money and access to the game. Save your cash and wait for an official invite instead.
Actionable Steps to Speed Up Your Deadlock Invite Wait Time
Not all hope is lost if you’ve been waiting for months and haven’t gotten your invite yet. There are a few legitimate steps you can take to boost your priority in Valve’s system without risking your application. First, go back to the official Deadlock beta sign up page and make sure you correctly filled out all of the questions, including your MOBA play history and region. A lot of players skip the optional questions, but those are exactly the details Valve uses to prioritize applicants.
If you have a history of testing other Valve betas, make sure you note that on your application, because players who have submitted useful feedback for past tests are given top priority for new beta access. You can also join the official Deadlock Discord server and opt in to the tester role there. The team occasionally sends out extra invites to active Discord members who participate in balance discussions and report leaks appropriately, so it’s a good way to get on their radar. Just don’t spam the server asking for invites, that will get you banned and removed from the applicant pool entirely. The last thing you can do is be patient: the team is expanding the beta every week, and they plan to open it up to all players for free once the core bugs are fixed, so you won’t have to wait forever to play.
At the end of the day, how long to get a Deadlock invite depends more on your application details and the region you live in than anything else. Don’t fall for scam tricks that promise instant access, and take a few minutes to make sure your sign up form is fully filled out to boost your chances of getting invited faster. If you already have access, take the time to submit feedback when you run into bugs: that helps the team roll out invites to more players even quicker. Once you get in, you’ll find that the wait was well worth it for one of the most refreshing new MOBA experiences in years.