Lore
For over fifty years the people of Finland have bled and fought in the snow for their independence, but still they remain firmly in the grasp of the Soviet Empire and its Eternal Queen; an empire growing ever stronger as the embers of rebellion dims under their might.Dim, perhaps, but not extinguished.
This is how Sammy - as they call him in the Cursed Apple - finds himself far afield from his homeland, tracking down the Empire’s spymaster in the hopes of stopping whatever nefarious plans he may be executing. And should there also be any other way of helping to free his people, he is willing to do anything to see it done.
Appearance
Weapon
The Finnish Handshake: Long Range, Heavy Hitter.
The Long Goodbye: Longer Range, Heavier Hitter.
Abilities
Ability 1: Tools of War
Sammy can freely swap weapons between The Finnish Handshake and The Long Goodbye. When The Long Goodbye is equipped Sammy has reduced stamina and dash distance, but his bullets can pierce through walls.
Ability 2: Fade to White
Passive: Attacks and abilities by Sammy do not break Stealth, but taking damage does.Active: Sammy goes invisible, gaining bonus movement speed and weapon damage. Stealth breaks when enemies get too close.
Ability 3: Frosty Reception
Sammy emits a gust of cold air in a cone, pushing back and silencing enemies.
Ultimate: War in the Snow
Passive: Body shots over a certain distance count as headshots.
Active: Sammy summons a global snowstorm, reducing visibility of all heroes (both allied and enemy) and slowing enemy heroes. During the snowstorm, Sammy gains bonus weapon range and can sense all enemies within his weapon range.
Design Notes
Character Niche
Sammy follows a kind of stealth sniper archetype, kind of like a mix between Haze and Vindicta — a glass cannon that relies on keeping distance and staying unseen that is maybe less useful in grouped up scenarios. The ability to wallbang with The Long Goodbye helps distinguish it from similar abilities such as Vindicita’s Assassinate or Venator’s Ira Domini.His ultimate being a double-edged sword gives a thematic parallel with Kelvin, who is also ice/snow based.
Name
At Ellis Island, Sammy misunderstood the paperwork and erroneously put his name as Suomi which was then Anglicized by the immigration officer to Sammy.“So it says here you’re… Sammy, right?”
“No, no, no not Saami, Suomi!”
“Listen pal, no one here knows how the hell to pronounce that, so I’m going to do you, me and the whole damn city a favor and just put you down as Sammy, alright?”
Appearance
Inspired by this image of Finnish soldiers during the winter war, as well as a kind of meta Valve joke. Whereas TF2 has a short-range, continuous fire, flame-based character in a gas mask, Deadlock could have a long range, low rate of fire, ice based character.
