After Day 1 of the DOTA 2 Shanghai Majors, DOTA 2 commentator James “2GD” Harding won’t be back for the rest of the competition.
According to reports, Valve’s head honcho, Gabe Newell, announced on Reddit that they fired Harding and the production company that Valve had been working with for the Shanghai Major. Here’s Newell’s message on reddit:
Two things:
1) James. We’ve had issues with James at previous events.
Some Valve people lobbied to bring him back for Shanghai, feeling that he deserved another chance.
That was a mistake. James is an ass, and we won’t be working with him again.
2) As long as we’re firing people, we are also firing the production company that we’ve been working with on the Shanghai Major. They will be replaced, and we hope to get this turned around before the main event.
As always, I can be reached at gaben@valvesoftware.com.
Gabe
Apparently, the Major has been having a lot of technical issues like streams going offline, frequent audio issues, faulty equipment, and other technical problems since the opening day.
Harding, a known badmouth in the DOTA 2 community, has been a long-time supporter of DOTA 2 esports up until 2015, when he didn’t appear for the International 2015 and Frankfurt Major.
The Shanghai Majors was Harding’s first return to the DOTA 2 scene, and it looks like it’s going to be his last.
After the Shanghai Majors, the next DOTA 2 Major will be held in Manila sometime in June.
What can you say about Valve’s decision to let go of Harding?
