Pretty much this. You're a stand-up guy for fighting for your friends and colleagues.
Thank you for taking the time to write this post and giving us a bit more understanding about the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Great to have you at TI, looking forward to your casts!

Deleted User 281514

68 Posts

June 27 2015 12:11 GMT

#22

Honest & loyal seems to fit LD's bill. I can't help but disagree with the whole

Haven't they earned at least that much for their hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours of sacrifice?

If you consider it a sacrifice or you're doing it for some kind of reward at the end... I suggest you stop doing it entirely. If it's not out of passion and love for game than you're doing it all wrong.
Getting a reward is a cherry on top; not the reason you do what you do.

thragar

Canada450 Posts

June 27 2015 12:14 GMT

#23

At least you're giving them the attention and recognition they deserve. I'm happy that you and KotlGuy are going to be there. Maut and the others you mentioned are not as entertaining or polished to me, even if they work hard, but maybe Valve could find them another role at the event, and I still recognize the work they put in even if they don't jive with me as a viewer. And I totally agree they should do all their invites at once and just make it public.

You've always been my favourite caster since arriving on the scene and seeing you publicly sentiments on this makes my heart grow fonder!

Heflamoke

Germany69 Posts

June 27 2015 12:42 GMT

#24

Amazing thread, describing everything very close to how it really is for every individual talent out there working towards that 1 event in the year or other big events. Even tho nobody around HeflaTV (a very hardworking bunch of casters) was mentioned, many of the things go for those guys aswell. Infact we have casted pretty much 80%+ of the T2 content which is not done by BTS/JD/etc, that translates into almost 3k Dota games since TI4, all of that without any support but community in form of likes, follows, share or just watching. All that content providing for the community happens while also working in other fields of eSport to simply pay the bills. Same goes for others that did so much, invested time and money as LD mentioned and when it doesn't pay off that really hurts. Let's see what happens around the majors and if Valve keeps the current system.

Kyyuna

United States1222 Posts

June 27 2015 12:43 GMT

#25

I looked at reddit and apparently Valve got themselves straighten out and invited KOTLGuy after all

+ Show Spoiler +

https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/3b9hhw/kotlguy_on_twitter_i_guess_its_not_coming/csk8yfz

link to his comment

I felt that Valve would be shooting themselves in the foot if they didn't invite him, glad that they realize he would provide some awesome contributions to the TI experience

I guess I should've rechecked the Personalities thread and see if it got updated before posting here

Zaphid

Czech Republic1860 Posts

June 27 2015 12:47 GMT

#26

Yeah, that's literally what LD writes in the blog - if the reddit almighty didn't intervene, they would miss out on a major talent, so maybe inviting talent a month in advance with no appeals isn't very smart.

BilledAlex

Sweden1 Post

June 27 2015 13:00 GMT

#27

Great read. Keep up the good work LD.

meegrean

Thailand7699 Posts

June 27 2015 13:17 GMT

#28

KOTLGuy Forever!

Kishin2

United States7534 Posts

June 27 2015 13:20 GMT

#29

On June 27 2015 21:11 yotcarter wrote:
Honest & loyal seems to fit LD's bill. I can't help but disagree with the whole

Show nested quote +

First of all, passion alone doesn't pay the bills.

Not inviting people who've invested so much time is a lose-lose situation for all parties. The person without the invite clearly loses. Valve loses that person's talent at their biggest event of the year. The community loses out from them not being there. The people invited have to work more hours to compensate. The only possible benefit I can see is that the quality of the casting on average might be higher if you only invite the best of the best. Even then it's probably offset by the increase in hours worked.

No idea why Valve are handling the invites differently this year. Maybe Valve is being skimpy with invites with Majors coming up next year. Or maybe they're just more comfortable working with a small group of highly talented people instead of a large group of highly talented + talented people. That fits with their corporate philosophy at least, but who knows.

BurningSera

Ireland19621 Posts

June 27 2015 13:43 GMT

#30

i am just proud that we get Envy LD to blog here for real talk.

LD you are a good man

Shikada

Serbia976 Posts

June 27 2015 13:46 GMT

#31

Thanks for the blog. TI without you LD just wouldn't be the same, and I'm very glad KotlGuy got invited in the end. He totally deserves it.

Emnjay808

United States10665 Posts

June 27 2015 13:54 GMT

#32

Qualifiers for caster/host/analyst is imminent at this point.

In all this I really hope Bruno makes an appearance just for old times sake. Even though this is no longer a part of his line of work, I feel like he was a pillar in the growth of ~~Dota 2~~ esports personalities.

TanGeng

Sanya12364 Posts

June 27 2015 14:27 GMT

#33

JUSTICE FOR DAKOTA!!!

Also how far we have come.

bludragen88

United States527 Posts

June 27 2015 14:32 GMT

#34

Definitely one of the best blogs I have read on this website. Maybe slightly depressing but I think thats the point. Guess it can be just as hard if not harder for personalities in the scene - sometimes it's not even under your own control, while players theoretically could win the games they play (not that it's easy to do so).

ahswtini

Northern Ireland22212 Posts

June 27 2015 14:37 GMT

#35

keep fighting the good fight!

GranDGranT

Sri Lanka2141 Posts

June 27 2015 15:04 GMT

#36

I wanted to write something about all of this but I assume it would be far to negative, It seems sad to me that getting Invited to TI is the end all for everything. Ive gone to ti2-ti4 (should have gone to ti1 but SK gaming and their management fucked me over) and have enjoyed it so much everytime. Did I have to spend my own money? yeah, but its because I love the game. I hope the un-invited people still decide to show up and show that they are just there for a free trip, but they want to be there because they love the game so much.

Do I ever expect an invite? During ti2 I had a 50/50 chance with Draskyl until Ayesee kind of fucked me over heh. Nowadays? Absolutely not, I just play and enjoy dota how I want to. Hope Maut keeps his head up cause I know it will be hard for him to, but hes a good guy and good friend.

Shard12345

United States5 Posts

June 27 2015 15:11 GMT

#37

Such a cool dude.

Ciel

Hungary289 Posts

June 27 2015 15:23 GMT

#38

LD you da real MVP

Elurie

4716 Posts

June 27 2015 15:40 GMT

#39

On June 27 2015 22:20 Kishin2 wrote:

Show nested quote +

Does Valve give each "personality" a fully paid trip to TI? Pays for their plane tickets, hotels (or an apartment with bunks lol), food, and give each a stipend for the week? The number of available positions aren't infinite, so naturally some people don't get to cast or analyze. They can't possibly hire every passionate John Doe who wants their glory at the superbowl of dota. Or maybe they could with their billions.

Ask the players if they are willing to accept less compendium cash and give a portion of that toward personalities. Or... let compendium holders vote for the casters they want. Hohohaha!

Verniy

Canada3360 Posts

June 27 2015 16:00 GMT

#40

LD what a guy.