'This game is going to easily—and I mean easily—take over': Major streamers, early fans, and esports players share their Deadlock hype after Valve opens the floodgates

Played my first round two days ago, got flamed for being bad at the game. 10/10 League experience would play again.

You need to have 12500 hours experience in the game before you are allowed to play the game.
- Sounds like an entry-level job
I love Deadlock, but I am worried about a hyper competitive scene being a big part of it. I'm happy exploring mechanics without being flamed.
- This is why i play cookie clicker
- Getting familiar with mute or mute all options is the way to go. There's always gonna be dirt throwing in matchmaking, so you have to adapt it to your liking. For me that means that if the first thing someone says in team chat or voice is a complaint or flame, they are not really worth my time or attention. They could have said hello, asked for help, but no they went straight for a basic emotional response. No thx. That has helped a lot for me in MM.
  
  Too bad I have no idea how deadlock works so far , gonna be a lot of muting! 😅

Is this game actually good or just hyped up because it's a valve game?

The new mix of moba and fps elements is handled really well. You've got to be good at shooting and building your character over time, which leaves a shitload of space for interesting gameplay. Positioning, planning, adapting, experimenting, it's all here and the game is early beta. There were puzzle games before Portal, and there were shooters before this game. Deadlock is extremely well made like portal so far, and I'm excited to see where it goes.
The game does what its trying to do excellently, and knowing Valve it'll continue to improve until release. If you like MOBAs and you like good shooter mechanics, you'll most likely enjoy this game.
It's just a moba but ~~first~~ 3rd person, it's no TF2 that's for sure...
- I thought it was third person?
- Yeah, I mean where's all the hats?
- Oh, an FPS, groundbreaking. Hard pass.
It's still very much a MOBA. If you were hoping for parts of that that are boring to be more exciting, they're not. If you were hoping for parts that were difficult to learn to be easier to learn, they're not. I personally have a hard time believing that, long-term, this will appeal to anyone that Dota doesn't already appeal to.
- I disagree. The perception of how the game is set up changes the more you play. At first you think it's 75% MOBA and 25% shooter - mostly a MOBA. But the more you play the more you realise that that 25% shooter part is disproportionately important.
  
  Deadlock adds an entire layer of complexity and skill on top of the MOBA: three-dimensional movement, mouse control, crosshair placement... The amount of movement tech alone is wild, and will be insanely important for high calibre play. It will appeal to an entirely different type of player.
extremely hyped up. it's made by Valve, and lead by the legendary Icefrog, and it feels just like his previous game - Dota 2, just in shooter arena.
- "It feels just like one of the biggest and longer lasting videogame ever crafted by mankind: overhyped."
  
  K
Overhyped, I played about 30 hours and it's just a boring lane phase that you either win or lose within 5mins. There's no coming back from losing a lane. Then it's a boring mid game where you either enjoy pushing other lanes after winning yours or just get stomped if you lost it. Late is just a mess. There's no strategy, map gameplay is mediocre, champion gameplay is okay but less interesting than other MOBAs with less skills and plays involved. And again, if you have a bad first 5 minutes of the game and fall behind farm then just go play another game cause it's just gets even more boring.
- if you have a bad first 5 minutes of the game and fall behind farm then just go play another game cause it’s just gets even more boring.
  
  I thought that was basically the genre definition of MOBA.
- Sounds like skill issue to be honest - if you farm well and deny you don't fall far behind even if you eat dirt during the laning phase. Even if you get absolutely stomped and denied, there are still a lot of chances for you to return into the game by catching waves and pushing them out and jungling.
  
  I'm kinda mid-to-high MMR right now (to the point where I can't really play together with friends as we get always separated), and I've had so many games where I went 0/5 in the laning phase with a soul deficit, then ended up jungling/pushing waves/jumping on enemies if they were alone and then suddenly being top or close to top in souls on my team.
- I was initially feeling more like you are, but after playing more and watching some streamers play my opinion is slowly changing.
  
  Let's remember that it's an alpha. I agree that snowballing is a problem right now, but I don't think we can expect perfect balance from an early development build. Comeback mechanics are there, but they're maybe not quite powerful enough. They also typically rely on team play and coordination, which is hard to find in low MMR lobbies.
  
  I think the biggest issue right now in terms of snowballing and balance are the flex slots. If you're ever trying to defend a siege when playing from behind you can easily end up with like 12,000 souls as you're successfully defending, but being literally unable to spend them due to having no flex slots.
- Definitively not, this is something that tends to occur at low skill levels in MOBAs, but gets better at higher levels as people figure out how to actually play the strategic layer
  
  I've lost plenty of lanes but came back in the midgame, there's a lot to do throughout the game, early, middle, and late. It's also about your team being able to adapt to the circumstances and execute the correct strategy at the right time taking into account the situation for your team
  
  And people struggling to do this is just a natural part of a competitive game, really. And sure, snowballing is a thing, but so are comebacks.
I have prior MOBA experience and played Deadlock for around 50 hours already, and it's a good game IMO. Of course, it's not perfect and I do have a couple issues with it but it kinda deserves the hype.
Game is super fun to watch on Twitch. I'm hoping more of my content creators pick it up and play it. I'll support it
I've been watching some streams and it seems good. A couple friends who have played are into it. There's definitely a good portion of hype from it being Valve though.
- In the article there's a testimony from someone who doesn't normally like shooters being into this game. That actually kind of speaks to me, but I'm convinced that's because the general public still doesn't have access to the game yet. Once people start getting crazy competitive on this, it won't be fun anymore.
I personally didn't care for it. I invited a few friends and after a couple of days, they couldn't get into it either.
It's far too early to tell. It's in early development yet. People getting invites and expecting a fully complete, polished game have unrealistic expectations.
I have 30h in the game now. It's worth the hype.
In my opinion it is hyped up. It is okay but not bigger than the Beatles.
Hyped because Valve and fanboi gamers who want see Sony "lose". Meh at best.

I'm a little confused. Deadlock is a 3rd person MOBA in a sea of MOBAs. Concord is a 3rd person hero shooter in a sea of hero shooters. Seems to me like this is Valve magic, even though ex-Destiny devs worked on Concord.

I'm not planning on playing either one due to my lack of good Internet, I just find it a bit strange.

Valve's 'magic' is play testing something to the point it's a polished experience that people keep coming back to. They put in the work to see how their game plays, and adapt where they feel it's needed. If Sony did near the play testing on Concord that Valve did on Deadlock, I'd bet their game would be pretty fun too.
- And if it doesn't work you'll never see it.
To note also, is that in addition to Valve magic Deadlock is created by Icefrog - the lead developer and designer behind Dota 2 (and DotA: All-stars for years before that). You can see his fingerprints all over Deadlock, and despite it clearly being at the alpha stage you can still see he knows intimately what makes a good MOBA tick.
The sea of MOBA in question:

LoL

Dota

Smite

errr.....
- And of those, Smite is the only real comparison.
- Since the first two have approximately 6.5 billion people playing them at any given time, I'd still call it a sea.
- Holler for Predecessor, the spiritual successor to Paragon.
  
  We having fun out here, jump in, the waters fine!
Valve has the resources and incentive to take years and years making something fun with no worry about profitability. Steam is their product, the games Valve releases on Steam are just reasons to spend money on their platform.
That Valve magic is monopoly and nostalgia.
- How tf is this a monopoly? There are other mobas you can buy, even on their own store. And if you meant steam, that's also not a monopoly, there are lots of other stores. Most just suck and are not even beginning to understand why steam has its standing.
- LMAO!!! I just found Tim Sweeney's Lemmy account. 🤪
  
  Try competing for the customers ya cunt!

I wasn't a fan. It's still too much like a moba to break through genres. I am curious if it will eat into Dota's fan base, or bring more people?

As someone who was interested in dota2 but found it too daunting to figure out, I've been brought in myself. I'm loving deadlocked so far.
- Are you me? Thats how I feel. It's like a moba that's fun.
I've been playing dota since 2012 and I haven't played a single game of it since I got invited to Deadlock months ago.
I don't need it to be unique. I need it to be polished and enjoyable!

It seems like a great game for those with the time and dedication to learn it.

I'm not one of those people. This game takes a lot from DOTA and will demand an extensive knowledge of the map, characters, builds, and items to start to get good at it, and I just don't care to spend the time to learn it all.

I know nobody asked, but I really wish more MOBAs like HOTS did well. I love HOTS for how approachable it was in comparison to the others. I'm at the point where if I play a moba and there's an item shop: I'm out. In every case I've seen an item shop the optimal usage of it is to build your characters stats to counter your expected build of the other team's build - and that is a LOT of added complexity I just don't want to deal with, especially because it requires so much knowledge and people with more time than you will flame you if you don't know it.

HOTS is actually an amazing MOBA for people who don't like MOBAs in that it eschews overlong matches (usual like 20 min), it has simplified itemization, decreased emphasis on perfectly farming your lane, etc. Definitely better game than people give credit for.
The store is simple, though. It has archetypal builds (or whatever they are called), like "cooldown reduction item", "life steal item", etc. I think the hardest part will be memorizing yet another set of heroes to play decently against them.

It's pretty fun, but its very much a MOBA. Matches usually take too long(30+ min), csing/laning is not really enjoyable (to me). The potential for massive power differentials based on items and balance. The shooting mechanics are pretty simplistic, though seeing how the game actually works (as a MOBA) that is probably a good thing.

It will be good probably for people who are already fans of traditional MOBAs with these elements. I'll play occasionally with my friends. Needs more heroes

I don't think I'll leave OW2 for this, purely because I'm super casual and only play unranked/MH.

I'm glad that is coming out and people are having fun though.

I play both. Deadlock is definitely more Dota style with longer matches and punishes poor team strategy much more. OW2 scratches a different itch.
Yeah I wouldn't. It's not really the same kind of game ultimately, and the time investment you need to grasp it can be a lot, even for someone like me who played DOTA and shooters way too much.

If you can get into it though, it's a real banger so far.
Try Marvel Rivals (out on December 6th). It reminded me of OW1, but also OW2, of course.

honestly didn't like this game much, it's very DotA and i didn't really like DotA

I don't like Dota either. I always liked League for being quick and snappy. That said, Riot/Tencent are evil sons of bitches so I won't go back ever.
I've never tried DotA, but did play Heroes of the Storm quite a bit when it wasn't on life support yet. Deadlock, on the other hand, I tried for 45 minutes and am now fairly certain it's got nothing to offer me.

I think they need to simplify it just a tad. There are so many buttons to press

You can always use builds that don't rely much on active items. I rarely buy more than 2.
I want more complex games though
Absolutely hard disagree with this. Removing active items would be dumbing it down too much.
Bro, I fucking LOVE pressing buttons!

Someone tell me I can play with my Steam Deck!

You can, it requires a startup command: "steamdeck=0 %command%"

Put that, without quotes in the game properties. You can start the game without it, but matchmaking is blocked.
- Nice! I'll save this comment for when I'm allowed to play this game.

If anyone is not sick of having to invite people, I'd love an invite.

I'll admit I'm curious. If a friend of mine invited me I'd try it, but I worry my flick shooting isn't good enough. I was always better at overwatch since it involved characters that could be played well without good shooting ability.

There is very little flicking, certainly less than Overwatch. Time to kill being much higher, longer sightlines, more predictable movement and third person means it really isn't twitchy. Shooting most characters' guns probably feels closer to Orisa's or Sombra's than anyone else.

I've felt the same way about Overwatch as you, and I'm enjoying Deadlock much more lately. I would give it a shot.
- Hmm okay, high TTK makes me more interested. I was a big fan of sombra too. I'll def give it a chance when I get access.

Its so freaking good. I been having a blast playing it and so has my son.

Been interesting watching streamers quitting their current games to jump immediately onto Deadlock, some even in tears pretending to be doing anything more than abandoning the communities that built them for anything other than the dollar signs they have in their eyes.

Imagine someone actually feeling bittersweet about moving on to something new for fun and/or for the benefit of their career.

Literally why does the Internet have to be filled with "they can't possibly just be good people making a decision that isn't inconsequential, FAKE" comments like this?
- Personally, I don't care as don't follow streamers myself. But seems like the right thing to do is to not abandon the people that built you up to begin with because something shinier shows up. Make a transition over time to something new, sure. But when it's sudden like this, it's hard to see it any other way.
streamers don't owe playing a single game forever to their viewers. If you like the streamer you can follow them to another game, or you can find someone else to watch. It'd be very strange to expect someone to play to not play the game they enjoy most just because you subscribe to them on twitch, especially when you can stop subscribing whenever.
... What? Dedicated streamers is a bizarre concept, playing different games is normal and good
That's weird. The dollar signs come from the community do they not?
- New game = new community = new dollar signs, I suppose.
Get back on that stage! I made you!