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VALVE fires DOTA tourney host, Gabe Newell calls the host "an ass" publicly on Reddit

L

luckygodzilla

Member
Dram said:
What happened with Peru?
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For about a year the north American severs were swamped with Peruvian players thanks in part to their servers being actual trash. At least from personal experience, most of them weren't actually all that good at the game, and so a huge well of vitriol sprung up in the English speaking community about them. It's one thing to have a bad team mate, but when they don't even speak the same language as you and more often than not had a pretty shitty connection, things could get frustrating. Personally I think the level of hate thrown at them by the dota community is downright ridiculous, but if you want to know why it exists there you go.

Similar thing also happened with Russian players back in '13.
 
S

Savitar

Member
There are people defending James, in many ways they are part of the problem and why the community is so toxic. Glad Gabe did what he did.
 
D

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
v7sfuxN.png
 
S

sephi22

Member
For the new page. Will correct myself if given sources.

sephi22 said:
Wait, what? I think some people in this thread may be uninformed.

James made fun of someone's mentally handicapped brother
Citation needed. I've seen all of the TIs James has hosted and most of the panel during this major. I haven't seen his Dreamleague stuff, but I don't think he's done this. Googling leads to this which is a joke post : https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/47sc46/update_from_the_shanghai_major/d0f9upq

James called another player an autist
People might be going by my post in the Dota 2 OT. This is what the conversation was actually like:
James: I'm not sold on Envy. Who would be sold on Envy? I don't dislike the guy. His drive is that he almost hates the game. Rise or fall its very entertaining to watch him.

Its nice to have people that are stable. No... I don't mean gameplay stable. I mean... y'know?
Cap: Are you saying Envy is an unstable person?
James: I'm saying he's too invested in Dota 2 y'know? Not like that, y'know don't hate the game you work on yourselves y'know. More about an internal investment you know.

http://www.twitch.tv/dotamajor/v/50757535
23 minutes in.

He did say cunt and he has been making fun of other players and the production staff, but the extent of his unprofessionalism has been greatly exaggerated. And yes, I've seen the 2GD in a nutshell video but I'm purely speaking about his presence here.
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P

Pooya

Member
I've seen his casting, that kind of language he finds suitable for twitch chat has no place in a major event but gaben probably should have just thanked him for his efforts etc not calling him out...
 
J

Justinh

Member
Uh wow. I'm not into any of this, but seeing Newell calling someone an ass reminds me when Obama called Kanye a jackass.

Also, reading through the reddit thread/thingy, this made me chuckle heartily.
rHXfbPU.jpg
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H

HardRojo

Member
botty said:
My experience with this community has been uncontrollable racism and hate. What these people did to the innocent citizens of Peru is racial bludgeoning.
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Wait what? What the fuck happened with citizens from my country? I haven't heard a thing (I don't play Dota).
 
W

wildfire

Banned
Jebusman said:
This is just as much of a problem as James himself.

Gabe Newell is not some untouchable diety. The amount that people are willing throw their weight 100% behind him the moment he makes any comment as if he can't be wrong is insane.

James is an ass. I don't think anyone is going to dispute that. But he's also an ass who was trying his hardest to carry a fucking SHITSHOW of a production. He was going out of his way to keep the panel, and by extension the audience watching, entertained while dealing with multi hour delays and horrible production quality.
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Gabe took the time to put that production team on blast too. He didn't call them asses but to say he's firing them because they were terrible is hardly any different considering they are talking about an entire team.
 
T

trh

Nifty AND saffron-colored!
miladesn said:
I've seen his casting, that kind of language he finds suitable for twitch chat has no place in a major event.
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Valve should have known what they were getting when they picked him to host the major. James absolutely is not by any stretch of the imagination suitable for major events, and I have no idea what the fuck they were thinking hiring him, so I have no sympathy for Valve. James did his thing and got lambasted for it publicly by Gabe Newell, despite it seemingly being what they asked for. This is primarily funded by the players' buying compendiums and items, and so far the ROI is exceedingly subpar. This entire thing is on Valve, as far as I'm concerned.


Edit: things might have happened (and probably did happen) behind the scenes that influenced Valve's decision that none of us are privy to, but this is what we have to go on.
 
R

rakkadakka

Member
Pretty crazy but leading up to this was 4 or 5 threads on reddit with thousands of upvotes calling Valve out on it.

Gabe didn't just do this because he has a vendetta, he did it because the heat was turned up.
 
B

bbd23

Member
trh said:
Valve should have known what they were getting when they picked him to host the major. James absolutely is not by any stretch of the imagination suitable for major events, and I have no idea what the fuck they were thinking hiring him, so I have no sympathy for Valve. James did his thing and got lambasted for it publicly by Gabe Newell, despite it seemingly being what they asked for. This is primarily funded by the players' buying compendiums and items, and so far the ROI is exceedingly subpar. This entire thing is on Valve, as far as I'm concerned.


Edit: things might have happened (and probably did happen) behind the scenes that influenced Valve's decision that none of us are privy to, but this is what we have to go on.
Click to expand...

uh...none of the prize pool is crowd funded.
 
V

Vital Tundra

Member
You can be entertaining and funny without resorting to any form of cursing or insulting of any level.

Look at D1 is the Smite and Smash scene. Professional and entertaining.
 
C

CupONoodos

Neo Member
THISGONBGUD.gif


Not going to lie, he's offensive, but I laughed a lot at some of the crude things he said. The times he hosted TI were really entertaining.
 
G

grandwizard

Member
2GD absolutely is an ass and I'm sure Valve were justified in firing him. Seriously he has been doing this for years and years.

Excusing his behavior because the production has been bad is absurd. He could be a professional but he got away with so much shit for so long he thought he would here too. Glad that Gaben put him in his place.

They are also replacing the production crew so it's not like they are unaware of the show being of low quality.
 
T

trh

Nifty AND saffron-colored!
bbd23 said:
uh...none of the prize pool is crowd funded.
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That's not what I said though - I'm saying that with compendiums being sold that are directly linked to the event people rightly feel like Valve has to answer to them and do things right by them, as they are the primary source of money for the event. The much less attractive alternative is tournaments funded by sponsors, with constant ads and what not, where the sponsors get to dictate what can be said.

grandwizard said:
2GD absolutely is an ass and I'm sure Valve were justified in firing him. Seriously he has been doing this for years and years.

Excusing his behavior because the production has been bad is absurd. He could be a professional but he got away with so much shit for so long he thought he would here too. Glad that Gaben put him in his place.

They are also replacing the production crew so it's not like they are unaware of the show being of low quality.
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But they asked for him, instead of Redeye or any other host known for being professional, and they (according to James) told him to be himself, and then they go on to shit on him in public for doing what they asked of him. It's unjust, and looks very poor.
 
F

FunkyMunkey

Banned
how is gabe calling him an "ass" even a big deal? is the guy a child? i've heard ass and other words thrown around in the work place easily and if he wants to call it like he sees it, oh well.

it's not like gabe went on some tirade against the guy or something
 
L

Linkark07

Banned
After seeing those videos about Harding, I can understand why Gaben called him that.

But still finding amusing he used that word instead of relying on a PR person.
 
B

bobeth

Member
FunkyMunkey said:
how is gabe calling him an "ass" even a big deal? is the guy a child? i've heard ass and other words thrown around in the work place easily and if he wants to call it like he sees it, oh well.

it's not like gabe went on some tirade against the guy or something
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Because it's not usually how information transpires from a big company?
 
D

diamount

Banned
In the end, Gabe is signing the checks so if he doesn't feel James is a good image for Valve then he can do whatever the hell he wants.
 
GavinUK86

GavinUK86

Member
The Goat said:
Uh, yeah...
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lol that was pretty funny. i don't watch anything like this so i'm completely out of the loop but i would watch it if this guy was on it.

but, gaben can do what the fuck he likes so if he wants to call someone an ass he can. zero fucks given. he doesn't care what anyone thinks of him, like most rich people. as long as steam keeps printing money he's happy.
 
R

Rezbit

Member
Strikes me as the kids have been fucking around and now Dad's come home and seen what they've been doing - and he's pissed.
 
N

NaDannMaGoGo

Member
That's all kinda insane but I'm glad James is getting shafted the way he deserves to be.

The guy has always been a huge asshole and the edgy kids love it because he's 'cool' and got some charisma. I would agree that he can be an entertaining host to some degree, but personally his assholish nature always shines through to a detrimental amount.

James simply gets away with a lot of the crap he says because a lot of people like him, not because he rides a fine line with his humor or sth similar.
 
spootime

spootime

Member
This has to be about something behind the scenes. James hasn't said anything that would warrant this on-stream afaik.
 
poodaddy

poodaddy

Member
Never heard of this guy but after looking him up I can't say I feel sorry for him. He's definitely rude, he's definitely sexist, he's definitely an "ass." Hell I salute Gabe for speaking so bluntly, nice to see someone in charge speak like a normal person for once instead of hiding behind PR.
 
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