Following the Dota Major cancelation bombshell, Quinn voiced out his frustrations regarding Valve’s lack of communication.
Valve’s long silence regarding the Major ends today - but no happy news accompanies its latest blog post. The Major has been canceled due to rising cases of COVID-19 and just like that, a $500,000 tournament vanishes into thin air and only specks of DPC points remain for teams to collect in this first season. Many pros and talents have expressed their frustrations online, including Quincy Crew’s midlaner, Quinn "Quinn" Callahan.
Right after the announcement dropped, Quinn streamed on Twitch to share his thoughts about the canceled Major and Valve’s lack of communication.
Quinn's first thoughts after the big news - retirement
It really isn’t surprising that pro players are starting to lose faith in this industry. After months of hard work through a lengthy League to qualify for the Major; everything goes down the drain. This news hits hard for fans, but it hits harder for the pros, even more, when Quincy Crew quite literally JUST qualified to the Major.
Quinn shared his initial thoughts after hearing the news. “I genuinely considered quitting. I felt so hopeless and trapped. I’m just powerless, I’m just completely at someone else’s mercy.”
Valve’s lackluster communication means disrespect to players, according to Quinn
The North American midlaner pointed out that Valve has a history of holding Dota 2 as a collaborative project between pro players, fans, and Valve.
(It) should be a symbiotic system, where all are benefitting. But what has happened recently is, I don’t feel like pros are treated like this is a collaborative thing. It’s just silence and we’re being really disrespected and it feels terrible.
Quinn also criticized how Valve handled the Major issue - questioning that they obviously knew the existence of Omicron (COVID-19's new variant) beforehand and they could’ve easily referred to other esports (like CS:GO, League of Legends and Valorant) to consider how they handle their tournaments.
“Dota deserves better than silence”
Canceling the Major due to a rise in COVID cases is understandable - but for the news to arrive when we’re into the 4th week of DPC? That’s brutal. And worst of all, there are no compensations given for teams that would have qualified.
It all falls down to Valve’s notorious lack of communication and questionable decisions and Quinn touched on this issue.
“I think this game deserves better than silence. At the end of the day, that is my biggest gripe. There is only one blog post every like millennia, and it very rarely feels heartfelt or like a person actually wrote it." said Quinn. "It felt like, 'hey sorry guys, tough luck'. Tough luck with middle fingers in the air."
"People aren't able to speak up because Valve pays the bills."
Quinn also highlighted the tendency of players and talents to not speak up against Valve, as it’s only natural to not bite the hand that feeds.
“Pros and people, in general, do not speak out very much against what is done because we rely upon Valve to make a living. So, if we bite the hand that feeds us it’s just not good for us. Unless the community sides with us in a massive way. It’s a super common thing where people aren’t able to speak up because Valve pays the bills.”
Throughout Quinn’s long vent on stream, the chat could only agree in despair. Valve’s scarce communication isn’t something new but it has grown to the point that the scene no longer feels stable, even for the Tier 1s. And like Quinn has mentioned in his stream, Dota 2 is an awesome game, and for that to be just discarded like this? - that’s upsetting.
At the end of the day, we can only hope for Valve to acknowledge the voices of the community.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates.