This year’s The International is filled with a lot of drama, from the whole Dota 2 community being upset about this year’s Battlepass to the team RNG being infected by Covid-19. However, there is also a silver lining, which is the return of the legendary The International host James “2GD” Harding.

2GD’d story

As one of the first hosts for The International, 2GD hosted TI2, TI3 and TI4. Due to his wit and humor, the English host quickly accumulated a huge fanbase in the early days of the Dota 2 pro scene.  

Following TI4, he was absent from the scene before making a return at the 2016 Shanghai Major. However, his return was cut short, as he was fired from his role as host of the $3 million event due to undisclosed reasons.

Later 2GD came out with his version of the story, explaining that he previously had conflicts with Valve regarding compensation and handling of production, but he felt that the reason for his firing was likely his bad relationship with a Valve employee, who was in a senior role for both The International and The Shanghai Major production. He has been missing from the scene since then. 

A glimpse of the hero

After yesterday’s marvelous display of performance by Team Secret in their TI11 Main Event series against PSG.LGD, the camera zoomed in on a single glass of malt whiskey which was on the main desk of the analyst panel. Not knowing what to expect, the audience speculated about the glass with confusion for about 10 seconds.

Then, footsteps could be heard as someone approached the glass on the desk, and the audience roared with pure joy and excitement to welcome the veteran host 2GD back to the Dota 2 scene. The community, including talent and teams, warmly welcomed 2GD back.

After approaching the desk, 2GD smiled at the camera and took a sip of his whiskey. He didn’t sweep the unfortunate incident from eight years back under the rug, but instead, as always, made a rather funny and witty comment about it: 

“It’s a good year. Welcome back to The International. I’m your host James “2GD” Harding and I am from…. Umm sorry I’m not Sheever. We’ve had problems with.. no wait, wrong time.”

“We’re getting ready to go into talking about the next game soon. My adrenaline is killing me. I haven’t been on camera for eight years since I hosted The International and I’m very excited to be back. If you wonder where I was..,it was low prio. Not sure who reported me but I’m here now. We’re going to be introducing our draft soon with the next game but first we’re gonna introduce the panel. Oh my god guys! I can’t believe I am back…” 

After almost eight years of not being on camera, it seems that the heat has turned down a bit. Although nobody knows for certain what happened between Valve and 2GD, or why he is back on the panel, right now, all that matters is that he is back and the nostalgia feels TOO GOOD for the Dota 2 community.

Header: Valve