PGL Takes Down NoobFromUA’s YouTube Channel

NoobFromUA, a YouTuber who posts highlights of professional Dota 2 matches, will have his channel terminated after four copyright strikes from PGL. 

NoobFromUA’s Contribution To The Dota 2 Scene

If you’ve watched professional Dota any time in the past decade, you would have heard of NoobFromUA. This YouTuber cuts highlights from professional matches so fans with jobs don’t have to sit through a series for three hours to watch. NoobFromUA compresses these matches into a 20-30 minute video, making it easy for people to follow the Dota 2 scene. 

Tournament organizer PGL, which hosts numerous Dota 2 events such as The International 12, has actively tried to take down NoobFromUA’s videos by sending strikes to his YouTube channel. 

An incident like this has happened in the past, where PGL claimed NoobFromUA could not play audio from the casters since PGL has the right to them. As a result, NoobFromUA would include commentary from freelance casters or no commentary at all. 

However, PGL kept going, and now, NoobFromUA’s channel has four copyright strikes, meaning his channel and account will be terminated on the 4th of March, a week later. 

“NoobfromUA has 1.04 million subscribers and has been posting consistent Dota 2 videos for 12 years. He is posting content that isn’t being provided by the organizers and an immense asset to the community. I hope it gets resolved, or I look forward to subscribing to NoobfromUA2,” a Redditor commented.

Dota Digest Also Gets Hit

NoobFromUA isn’t the only YouTube channel that posts Dota 2 highlights. Dota Digest, another well-known YouTube channel, also got strikes from PGL. The difference is that Dota Digest did not take the highlights from PGL’s live streams and, instead, recorded them from the in-game client. 

“I only used content from Dota 2 game client (DotaTV). I did not use PGL’s twitch/youtube. I’m using Valve content, not PGL content. Only Valve has rights to their game, PGL has no rights to the game. Hopefully Valve will step in and point out PGL’s infringements.” Dota Digest Tweeted.

Despite not using any content from PGL, Dota Digest has accumulated four strikes as well and has an account termination on hold. 

The Community Is Not Happy

Dota 2 fans are taking to Reddit to write complaint letters headed towards PGL. 

One post with 750 upvotes reads:

“You guys are deplorable and incompetent people. You are clearly out of your depth and should retire from running game events and go do something more your speed, like managing logistics for a child’s birthday party.

To think they would go after the biggest highlights channel on Dota, for what? For their own ego? Are they angry that their public perception is bad and no one likes them? Good job, now no one will EVER like you.”

Another post delivered a similar message:

“Dear Valve, PGL targeting content creators will drive people away from the community and nearly instantly kill the game. Please find a way to mediate this dispute so the game can hopefully retain its brilliant content creators.”

Before this incident, PGL has never had the greatest reputation, not only in the Dota 2 scene, but in Counter-Strike, too. Many PGL events faced production issues, and the Dota 2 and CS2 community have made memes about the “PGL audio guy”.

Going as far as to make highlights of professional matches inaccessible has made the community furious. Most fans simply don’t have the time to watch an entire Best-of-3 series, but want to stay involved in the professional scene.

“I don’t watch tourneys through the usual streams as I’m quite busy and rarely have the time but short highlights through NoobfromUA or memes from DotaWTF, Slope, and other Dota content creators keep me in the community and let me enjoy the game in other ways,” another Redditor mentioned.

The Dota 2 community is working with NoobFromUA and Dota Digest to reach out to Valve and resolve this problem. Recently, rival tournament organizer ESL hired NoobFromUA to become their official Highlights creator, and he has been uploading his videos on the official ESL channel since.