Deadlock has guns, but that doesn't make it a shooter

Deadlock as a Steam page, tens of thousands are playing its closed alpha, and even more are watching streamers play it on Twitch. Valve's next competitive game is finally in the public eye, but beyond the general sentiment that it's fun, the community hasn't fully nailed down what Deadlock is or even who it's for.

I've seen every kind of Deadlock take at this point—that it's basically just Dota 2 in third-person, that it's eating the lunches of Smite and Predecessor, or that it's Valve's big play at a hero shooter.