Riot devs took inspiration from Blitzcrank when designing Deadlock

Riot Games developers have revealed that when designing Deadlock, the newest Valorant Agent, they looked at League of Legends champion Blitzcrank for inspiration.

Deadlock is the newest Agent to come to Valorant, entering the game with unique abilities and playstyles. The new Sentinel has a mostly reactive tool kit that players will throw at enemies to stall their advance or trap them for easy kills.

According to the developers who created the new Agent, Deadlock’s kit was inspired by League of Legends’ Blitzcrank and other champions with “hook abilities.”

“As a player who loves playing hook characters like Blitzcrank in any game, I took it as a personal challenge to explore ways to bring the thrill of a hook ability while also ensuring that it was tactical,” Valorant Game Designer Alexander Mistakidis said.

Riot dev explains hook ability inspiration for Deadlock

Mistakidis explained that the idea of adding a hook ability to the tactical shooter took a few iterations to make it work for Valorant gameplay. That ability ultimately became Deadlock’s ultimate, Annihilation.

The ability looks to be a powerful addition to Valorant as it captures the first enemy it comes into contact with. The captured Agent then becomes cocooned and pulled along a “nanowire path” to their death unless they are freed.

“My hope is that the Annihilation ability we landed with offers the high-skill outplay opportunities to Deadlock players while still being engaging for everyone involved,” Mistakidis said.

Unlike Blitzcrank’s hook, and other hook abilities in League of Legends and Overwatch, Annihilation doesn’t instantly snatch enemies and bring them to Deadlock. Players caught in those abilities also, generally, have no means of escape once captured and must complete the hook animation.

Valorant players will be able to test out the new Agent and her abilities on June 27.