Season 1: first set for October 8, the end now moves to November 5

Valve announced October 7. The game’s season file holds a different bound, one day later: Thursday, October 8, 21:00 UTC. Exactly ten weeks after launch, on a Thursday like the first. Here is why we trust the file. Update, October 6 (evening): Valve has pushed the end back to November 5, with the next season starting right after.

Valve wrote it in the July 30 note that opened Ranked Mode: the first season starts today and ends on October 7th. We repeated it, like everyone else. Checking the game files this week, we found another date.

What the game contains

The ranked seasons file, `ranked_seasons.vdata`, describes Beta Season 1 with two timestamps, a start and an end. These are not approximations: they are the bounds the server applies.

The start falls on Thursday, July 30 at 10:00, Valve headquarters time. That is exactly the day of the announcement, which tells us we are reading the right field, in the right time zone.

The end falls on Thursday, October 8 at 14:00 in Bellevue. That is 21:00 UTC, 23:00 in Paris. One day and a few hours after the announced date.

Why we trust the file over the note

Three reasons.

First, the start field is verifiable and it is correct. A file that gets the opening day right has no reason to be wrong about the closing.

Second, the duration. From July 30 at 10:00 to October 8 at 14:00, ten weeks elapse, give or take four hours. A round, chosen length. October 7 would give nine weeks and six days, which resembles nothing.

Third, the day. Valve ships its updates on Thursdays, as we measured across two years of builds. The season opens on a Thursday, it closes on a Thursday. October 7 is a Wednesday. A season ending the day before Valve works would leave the game without a ladder for twenty-four hours, then require shipping the sequel the next day. The other way round is simple: the season closes, the update follows.

The likeliest explanation is a typo in the announcement text. It was never corrected, and the file value has never moved since the day after launch.

What it changes for you

One more day to climb. Above all, a closing time: Thursday, October 8, 21:00 UTC, 23:00 in Paris, 17:00 in Montreal. Matches started before the switch count; those after belong to what comes next.

What you keep at closing, Valve stated on July 30: the highest rank reached during the season, permanently written to your rank history page. Not your rank on the final evening. A player who hit Oracle in September then slid back to Emissary keeps Oracle. So there is nothing to protect in the last hours: there is only climbing while time remains.

We now show the countdown on our leaderboard page, keyed to the file's timestamp. If Valve moves it, the countdown follows.

The end-of-season leaderboard hangs on this date

The silent build of September 7 added, inside that same season interval, a leaderboard identifier. The protocol shipped with it describes entry conditions — recent activity, wins per hero, minimum rank, region. In other words, the ladder Valve is preparing is attached to this closing date. One more reason to read it correctly.

Meanwhile

On September 9, a second build shipped without an announcement. It contains only the executables and a settings file, but two switches change state in it: chat rate limiting and ping rate limiting go from off to on. The first had been created two days earlier, disabled; the second had been sitting in the game since spring. Valve is tightening comfort of play before the season ends and before the update promised for late September.

What we cannot claim

That a timestamp will not change. Valve can move the closing, and the file would then be updated in a build, probably without a word. Our watch reads this file on every build: if the date moves, the article and the countdown move the same day.

Nor do we claim Valve made a mistake writing its note; we observe that the two sources differ by one day, and we explain which one we follow, and why.

Update, October 6. The date is still right, but it is no longer the end of ranked. The City Never Sleeps build, on September 29, added a second period to the season: it starts on October 8 at 2 pm Pacific, at the same second, with a new leaderboard and no end date. Full details in our article “Deadlock Season 1 doesn’t end Thursday”.

Update, October 6 (evening). Valve has pushed the season end back to Thursday, November 5 at 2 pm Pacific; the next season will start right after. The game file followed in build 6757.

Methodology. `game/citadel/pak01_dir/scripts/ranked_seasons.vdata`, `season_1` section, interval 1: start 1785430800, end 1791493200 (Unix timestamps). Conversion verified in Valve's headquarters time zone, America/Los_Angeles, and in Paris time. Identical values in builds 6661 (July 31), 6684 (August 22) and 6687 (September 9) of the SteamDatabase/GameTracking-Deadlock repository: the season end has not been moved since launch. Announced date taken from the Steam patch note of July 30, 2026, "Eligibility and Seasons" section. Valve's usual publishing day established across the 42 patch notes and 810 builds shipped since August 2024.

Sources

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