I just watched someone try to explain Deadlock to Joe Rogan for 6 minutes, and surprisingly, they kinda nailed it

Brian Simpson, guest on the Joe Rogan podcast, explains to Joe Rogan about the intricacies of Valve's Deadlock. — (Image credit: Joe Rogan Experience #2491, Valve)

There are times where, during our daily discussions of whether something meets the bar to be considered news on the good site PC Gamer, where I am filled with a deep sense of foreboding dread.

This morning was one of those times, where one of my colleagues informed me that Joe Rogan—American podcaster and historic advocate for current US President Donald Trump—had entertained a guest who tried to explain Deadlock. I then had the following thoughts in sequence:

Wait, I play Deadlock.
I have 285 hours in it.
I am going to have to watch someone explain Deadlock to Joe Rogan for six minutes.
I am then going to have to write about it.
Oh no.

Because, for good or for ill, someone pitching Valve's still-in-testing MOBA to one of the biggest podcasters on the planet is very much news. So allow me to stow my opinions on someone who helped elect the guy who (among several other deeply concerning things), has made it really bloody hard to buy RAM.

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Instead, I will focus on the important things. Like whether Joe Rogan understands lanes.

Stand-up comedian (and apparent Deadlock player) Brian Simpson spends about six minutes in the following clip trying to explain a deeply complicated genre to Rogan. Most surprising to me is that Rogan, by the end, has an accurate assessment of MOBA players.

Joe Rogan learns about #deadlock from Brian Simpson, this is not AI pic.twitter.com/mPmRFymhuCApril 29, 2026

I mean, Simpson opens with a crystal-clear encapsulation of the MOBA experience: "This sh*t cooler than a motherf*cker, but it will also make you mad as sh*t." Yeah, that about sums it up.

He then proceeds to open up with the most important part of any MOBA—economy. Deadlock might be a shooter, sure, but it is first and foremost a game about efficiency, and it is exactly how I've started explaining it to the friends I've roped into playing it. Mind, I might explain this with the phrase 'economy is king'.

Simpson says: "Since this b*tch got the most money, she's bought the most stuff, which makes her stronger." Maybe not the language I'd use but, hey, he's right.

At the end of the clip, Rogan makes two observations and I have to admit that he has basically understood it. His first is that "this seems super complicated." Yep. His second is that "this is the kind of thing that people without kids say", in regards to Simpson's assertion it takes about 200 hours to vaguely understand what's happening. Poor taste in presidential candidates, but when he's right, he's right.

Deadlock is an exercise in how high you can get your blood pressure, just like any other MOBA, but as someone who has put close to 300 hours into it? Yeah, I also kinda get what's going on. Add another 1,000 and I might even be halfway decent, and then maybe Joe Rogan will have me on his podcast to tell him how air strafing works.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.