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Dota 29 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

LD on TI5 caster invites: "The system is downright cruel"

Following no announcement on his attendance the BeyondTheSummit caster revealed he has been invited to The International 5 but asks for compassion over the way Valve announce their invitations for both casters and talent.

It's painful to bear witness. I was suffering in silence today, wondering if some of the more borderline candidates would make the cut.

 

Yesterday the first wave of invitations for casters, analysts and talent were revealed individually over Twitter including some of the highest ranked casters like TobiWan, Capitalist, GoDz and SyndereN all announcing their attendance. One name notably left off that list was BeyondTheSummit caster David 'LD' Gorman, whose lack of announcement had raised concerns over Twitter and Reddit of his potential omission. However this morning in a blog post on LiquidDota, the grand final caster for The International 3 revealed he has been invited - but raised big concerns over the way Valve handles this decision for the second year running.

LD revealed that he had hoped for the invites to be handled slightly more differently this year, with a more cautious approach following the stressful and lengthy proceedings for The International 4. Since last year each caster and talent had to personally reveal their invitation to the event, rather than Valve publishing a list to the public and clearing up any confusion over who has made the list. LD discusses the "anxiety and frustration" it has on the community, not knowing if their favourite talent or staff will make the important trip to Seattle, while also bringing up concerns over the people denied an invite being forced to pay steep prices to book planes and hotels due to the late announcement.

"In stark contrast to how most events handle talent and production staff announcements (ESL One, the Summit, Starladder, Dreamleague, etc) and how Valve itself handles team invites, they didn't say or publish a single thing publicly."

But a large section of his blog was dedicated to discussing fellow BeyondTheSummit caster Dakota 'KotLGuy' Cox and his 'anger' over his treatment. The American caster only received an invite to the event following a large Reddit campaign questioning his omission.

"I wasn't even considering the possibility that KOTLGuy might not be invited. This guy is the real deal. Absolutely committed to what he does, a trained actor who's more natural on camera than anyone else I've ever seen in eSports, and one of the most professional commentators I've had the pleasure to work with."

"Dakota spends more time preparing for one cast than some casters do watching competitive DOTA the rest of the year. When just about everybody else was having fun playing Mafia and Mario Kart at the TI Hub, Dakota was taking notes and researching for his next cast. But then he didn't get the invite, and I started to get angry. I thought back on all the sacrifices Dakota had made over the past year for this game. Quitting his old job, moving across the country to work full-time in California, having to be separated from his wife and family in New York all the while. Tackling pretty much any region we threw at him, researching teams day and night, taking meticulous notes, burning the midnight oil to cover Chinese/SEA Dota when it was asked of him. It wasn't always easy, and he's certainly not a saint. He cursed and vented and let off steam like the rest of us, but Dakota kept at it and never stopped hustling."

LD later went on to discuss the hardships felt by the people who put in the hard work and failed to land an invitation to the Seattle based event and raised concerns that there is no acknowledgement for their work.

"There's no rewards program, there's not even a friendly "thanks for everything you do for DOTA 2 the rest of the year." There's no acknowledgement of their hard work. Nothing but the stress of praying Icefrog just hasn’t gotten around to you yet, followed by the eventual crushing realization that all the invites are finished and you aren't invited to TI this year."

You can read the full blog post at LiquidDota.

Headline and banner image from the BeyondTheSummit Facebook page.


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