With Valve taking a step back from the Dota 2 scene, 2024 has been an uncertain year so far. While players are rushing to compete in every Dota 2 event on the calendar, hosts and talent have been branching out with SirActionSlacks jumping to mainstream media with Fox Sports.
Dota 2 fans caught a glimpse of SirActionSlacks last night on Fox Sports as the Dota 2 personality was hosting a football segment.
This isn’t SirActionSlacks’ first rodeo outside of the Dota 2 world either, as he also hosted a Genshin Impact cooking competition in June, 2023. While many Dota 2 fans appreciated spotting the host on TV, others criticized Valve for its neglecting approach to the Dota 2 scene. With third-party tournament organizers taking control of the game’s competitive scene, working conditions have been more unstable for talents.
Ever since the COVID pandemic, LAN event organizers have also started cutting corners in production by stationing their talents in different countries or having them present at the event in an online format. Though they might have cut down costs by skimping on talent hires, this also caused a decrease in quality Dota 2 content.
Before 2020, Dota 2 events would also be a hub for the fans to get familiar with their favorite players. Skits and funny bits from these events would become popular memes and inside jokes within the Dota 2 community. Such content also helped fans learn more about players they could cheer for. Now that they’re no more, getting to know new competitors just entering the Dota 2 pro scene has become difficult.
SirActionSlacks might need to get ready for an intense Dota 2 calendar in the upcoming months, though, as Faith_bian and Ori came out of Dota 2 retirement, joining Azure Ray ahead of tournaments like BetBoom Dacha Dubai and DreamLeague S22.