For those who might have missed the most important news from the past week in competitive Dota 2 scene, here is a short review to catch up.
Started almost two months ago with a qualifier process, the Click Storm Pro tournament has reached the playoffs stage with 16 participating teams. Eight squads got directly invited while other eight joined them via qualifier process.
Shanghai Major: The group stage
Ahead of the main event of the second Dota 2 Major, all the 16 participating teams have been spread into four groups to play in a GSL format to determine the upper and lower bracket seeds for the main event.
Top two teams from each group will start their Shanghai Major adventure from the upper bracket while the bottom two will have to do their best firstly to survive the first two rounds in the lower bracket which are best-of-one games.
The Shanghai Major will resume on March 2nd from Mercedes Benz Arena
March 2nd: Shanghai Major - day one schedule:
03:00 CET: Alliance vs Team Liquid
06:30 CET: MVP Phoenix vs LGD Gaming
10:00 CET: EHOME vs Team Archon
11:30 CET: Team Spirit vs compLexity Gaming
13:00 CET: Virtus.Pro vs Vici Gaming
14:30 CET CDEC Gaming vs Newbee
James '2GD' Harding released from hosting duties at Shanghai Major
The second day at the Winter Major in Shanghai, China started with yet another delay and escalated quickly with an unexpected announcement from the Major official host James '2GD' Harding saying he got fired after the second GSL match.
Gabe Newell responds to the Shanghai Major production drama
Day three at Shanghai Major group stage started with Valve firing the entire production crew for the English stream and an unconventional announcement made by Gabe Newell himself via reddit:
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 [email protected].”
James '2GD' Harding’s response came in an emotional 7,000 words long google document titled "James is an ass" - by James Harding and it can be read here. KeyTV have also responded to Gabe Newell's post and the english verso of their letter can be found here.
