Deadlock wins my award for the best placeholder UI text that I've read with this one line character bio calling one its heroes an a**hole

Now that Valve has acknowledged that Deadlock does exist, we can talk about its awesome vibes. The heroes are a major part of the aesthetic of the hero MOBA: a colorful cast that includes occultists and interplanar anomalies. According to the unfinished character backgrounds, at least one of them is an asshole.

Valve's Deadlock project is still in early development, as you can see in the message that appears when you launch the closed playtest. All the art, abilities and UI text could change before the game's unspecified release date.

Even though each hero will be unrecognizable when Deadlock reaches its full form, early versions of each character’s background tell us that Valve’s writer thinks Lash's a real piece shit.

The majority of character bios provide a brief overview of the tragedies that led to the creation of Deadlock's misfit paranormal cast. Abrams, a half-devil detective is involved in a conspiracy involving a mysterious book that appeared on his desk. Dynamo is a tenured Columbia Professor who fell into a time-space hole. He now lives as a tiny star in a robot's body. Ivy is a living gargoyle-turned-vigilante who was adopted by a family from Spanish Harlem.

The backgrounds are at various stages of completion. Some have interesting quirks. Yamato, a yokai with a sword who is due for a redesign, has an untranslated bio. Others have some probably-unintentional punctuation goofs. Then there's Lash's one-sentence bio, which reads as follows:

"Jacob Lash, you are an asshole."

That's it. All we get is this. No backstory and no tragic past. Just a quick note to say that this guy is a jerk.

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.

Lash's abilities make me understand why someone would want to label him as a trashman, even if it's just for a short time. Lash's kit contains a whip which allows him to grapple and pull towards targets. His ultimate lets him tangle the enemy team into a large ball. He's a large guy with a moustache, who can launch himself into the air and throw you and your friends in the worst places with his terrible whips.

Here's a good example:

I understand, that's what I say. Whoever wrote that placeholder text, I understand you. Lash: Be a better person.