Dota 2 Host Fired By Gabe Newell Tries To Explain Himself

Megalith

Megalith

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I am no expert at Dota 2 nor eSports, but my take is that Valve wants a clean, professional act—yet that doesn’t correlate with the actual attitude of the fan base and its promoters. Gabe seemed annoyed enough to publicize this personally on reddit.

It’s hard to evaluate Harding’s view of events given that Valve have offered so little detail about their reasoning behind his firing, beyond Newell’s Reddit post. Watching the panel segments from the two days that Harding hosted, there are certainly a lot of things that Valve could have found objectionable: Harding was also fairly provocative throughout his time with the tournament, from his bizarre opening segment to his repeated declarations that he no longer follows nor knows anything about Dota, which could read as disdainful or indifferent toward the event he was supposed to be covering.
 
James defense is laughable "i was told(by my friend) to be myself!"...

No dude, no, even if your online persona is an ass, you should know that there are things that you shouldn't do, and showing disdain to the product that you are representing and mocking the production, even if it was true that it was troubled and also got sacked, is not something that you should do.

Act like a big boy, suck it up and move on, take this as experience about how there are always professional limits that you must keep.
 
I know nothing about dota, but this James guy sounds like a pretty fun commentator. ESPN-esports are boring.

In the Fighting Game Community, he's the rule and not the exception: no wonder we'll never get the valve treatment.
 
Ocellaris said:
The most surprising part of this... His compensation was $12K for the event and he still couldn't manage to be a tiny bit professional.
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Define professional. If you hire a personality for a show normally you expect them to be themselves. You don't hire a comedian and then expect them to not tell any jokes. If they hired him they knew up front what his personality was like and what they were getting.
 
Exavior said:
Define professional. If you hire a personality for a show normally you expect them to be themselves. You don't hire a comedian and then expect them to not tell any jokes. If they hired him they knew up front what his personality was like and what they were getting.
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I think he could have managed without opening up with a joke about whacking off and bashing the DOTA2 event production.
 
Supposedly he was canned after borderline bullying some of the players. But I just heard about it, i didn't hear a single one of the competitors complain that they are butthurt and want him fired. He was trying to be entertaining and stirring the pot. Also he wanted his own room, which apparently means he wanted his own penthouse suite.

I'm split on the matter, but even if the allegations are true, the host might have recourse for a lawsuit. There are some things you can and cannot say when terminating someone from your employment.
 
I think Gaben blatantly attacked him personally over the internet and made it public for all the see. That alone is pretty wrong in my book, especially if you are a billionaire with a huge company. That can ruin reputations, which it probably did for James. :(
 
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Ocellaris said:
I think he could have managed without opening up with a joke about whacking off and bashing the DOTA2 event production.
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But again if that is what he is known for and what is fans want, that is what he is going to do. When you have created a persona that you do every time you are on camera you will turn that on when you are in front of a camera.
 
Exavior said:
But again if that is what he is known for and what is fans want, that is what he is going to do. When you have created a persona that you do every time you are on camera you will turn that on when you are in front of a camera.
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Junkyard dogs do a lot of barking and biting of other people, but they're smart enough to not bite the hand that feeds them.
 
Valve knew precisely who they were hiring and how he behaved in this sort of environment. They even made a point of telling him to act how he normally does in these situations.

I suspect Gabe just didn't realize how nasty the guy could get and was maybe told the guy was "edgy". When Gabe heard what the guy was like first hand he dropped the hammer.

IMO, Valve simply fucked up on this whole situation. They shouldn't have hired a guy if Gabe wasn't going to approve of his behaviour. They people hiring him knew full well what he was like so they can't plead ignorance. The guy might be an ass, but he's not hiding his behaviour from anyone so they knew what they were getting.
 
jpm100 said:
Junkyard dogs do a lot of barking and biting of other people, but they're smart enough to not bite the hand that feeds them.
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We aren't talking about being the hand that feeds you, even so your junkyard dog is still a dog even if you wish it was a horse, a turret or a woman, it is still a dog. Do you agree with that part? that a dog is a dog no matter what? We are talking about a guy who is famous for acting a certain way acting that way when hired. Lets go back 15 years and say that you were in charge of hiring a comedian for a party. If you hired George Carlin, would you be upset and surprised that he said the word fuck during his show? No you wouldn't as that is who he is and what he says. So if you are the idiot that hires him to perform for a group that is 1/2 children and 1/2 adults don't be upset and complain that George Carlin was being George Carlin like you paid him to be. If you hire Ru Paul to speak to a group of kids, don't be surprised when he comes out in drag. If you hire a person that is known for making jokes about jerking off and being a little bit of a dick to people in a joking way, that is how he is going to act. Even if just for a moment to get it out of the way, he is going to be himself. If you don't want him to be himself then don't hire him and hire the type of person that you want. Don't hire George Carlin to do a kids show, hire a kid's comedian.
 
ok, fine, so the guy is known to be an ass, and he acts like this as his persona, so who cares if people call him an ass if that's how he markets himself? At this point everyone is just saying "well yeah, that's just the way he is" so Gabe just said the same thing as everyone...

I don't see anything wrong with getting rid of someone you don't want. If I hire a DJ and don't like the music he plays I don't see why I can't tell him to pack it up and leave and get a different one next time. Yeah, maybe I got the wrong DJ but I don't see why I have to suffer through it.
 
Revdarian said:
No dude, no, even if your online persona is an ass, you should know that there are things that you shouldn't do, and showing disdain to the product that you are representing and mocking the production, even if it was true that it was troubled and also got sacked, is not something that you should do.

Act like a big boy, suck it up and move on, take this as experience about how there are always professional limits that you must keep.
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I learned that, and I'm pretty far from professional anywhere but work. When I'm at work, I still have fun, but that limit is there. You can still be fun and have a good time without resorting to going full retard. I have a whoopie cushion at work and several other toys. It's a fun place. But, when I'm in a meeting with the higher ups, it's time to be serious. If it's with other IT people, I'm still not breaking out the jerking off comments. I do that at home or with friends.


Exavior said:
Define professional. If you hire a personality for a show normally you expect them to be themselves. You don't hire a comedian and then expect them to not tell any jokes. If they hired him they knew up front what his personality was like and what they were getting.
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No, but you still limit yourself. Great example - George Carlin. Foul mouth, yet he did Thomas the Train. Robin Williams was amazing at standup, but great with kids shows. Some comedians with extremely foul routines still do very well on network TV late night shows. Very funny, but they aren't pulling the hard jokes.
 
So what did this guy do that pissed Gabe off so much? Anyone got any links to video examples?
 
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