Valve chief Gabe Newell fires host of Dota 2 esports tournament: ‘James is an ass’

Esports is having some pretty glaring growing pains to end this week.

Valve has fired James “2GD” Harding, who was hosting the English-language stream for the Shanghai Master event for the publisher’s multiplayer online arena battler Dota 2. On Thursday, Harding noted that he was dismissed by Valve from the position. Today, Valve founder Gabe Newell took to Reddit to confirm that he had fired harding while also calling him an “ass.” This comes as fans have complained throughout the event about the quality of the production, which continues through this weekend on Twitch. Unexplained disruptions and connectivity errors have marred the experience for the hundreds of thousands of people who have tuned in to watch. This led to Newell revealing that he is also firing the production team in charge of the Shanghai event — and he wants to replace them before the main event begins next week.