Valve is knee-deep in the Dota 2 Shanghai Majors competition, a $3 million competition taking place in China. After James “2GD” Harding announced on his twitter that he had been let go, speculation has been running wild.
Gabe Newell has taken Reddit to clarify the situation. Stating “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.”
We goes on to outline the firing of the production company Key TV by outlining that “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.
James “2GD” Harding has responded in kind by saying “This is why my statement is taking sometime. It seems more personal than professional. So I will respond. Just for the record Gabe, I don’t think you are an ass. But I don’t think you are right about me (well maybe you are a bit of an ass for calling me an ass, but let’s find out what others think shall we?). Brb”
Update: James “2GD” has since posted his full response, you can read that here.
The Shanghai Major is one of the biggest Dota 2 tournaments of the years. With a prize pool of $3 million it is one of the key tournaments of the year with Valves official seal of approval. The tournament is being run by Perfect World, Valve’s official partner of Dota 2 in China. Shanghai Major finals will be taking place next week, with the qualifiers unfolding now. You can watch all the action as it happens on the official Dota 2 Shanghai Major Twitch Channel.
