Deadlock player gets Alpha access by emailing Valve CEO Gabe Newell directly

A Deadlock player on Reddit claimed that they received early access to the game by emailing Valve’s CEO Gabe Newell directly, bypassing the several-day wait time for invites in the process.

Although Valve’s latest game has been available for players who can get ahold of an invite for weeks, the company finally acknowledged its existence on August 23, 2024.

Deadlock has remained invite-only for those looking to get ahold of Valve’s FPS MOBA, with invites taking two days or longer to be sent to Steam users.

One user by the name of Ivyx123 shared on the Deadlock Subreddit that instead of trying to find someone with the game to send them an invite, they were able to get access from Gabe Newell directly by sending him an email.

“Gabe reads his email,” the post reads. “Just wanted to give a quick shoutout to Gabe Newell! I recently reached out about the Deadlock game and was thrilled to get a response from him. It’s awesome to see such personal engagement from the big names at Valve.

“Salute to Gabe and all the devs working on this game—your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. Looking forward to watching Deadlock grow and evolve. All the best to the team!”

Despite Valve being one of the biggest companies in gaming, Gabe Newell has always made it a point to make sure he answers emails from fans, so it’s not surprising he was able to help the Redditor.

Though the game is still in Alpha form, overall reception from players has been quite positive. One of Twitch’s biggest names and former FPS professional Shroud shared that he believes the game will “take over the world.”

“Yeah this game is gonna easily, and I mean easily, take over when it comes out,” he said. “It’s the first arena shooter MOBA that is actually good. All the other ones kind of stink.”

AverageJonas, who has gained notoriety as a Valorant content creator over the years, revealed on August 26 that he’s leaving the Riot title behind permanently to focus on Deadlock.

The game hasn’t been universally received, however, as Summit1G mocked the game – stating that it’s “worse than Overwatch.”