Steven R. July 31, 2018
Dota 2 fans now know who they’ll be listening to at The International.
The full lineup of on-air talent for TI8 was announced Tuesday, with Wykrhm Reddy breaking the news on Twitter. Though there are few surprises on the list, there are a handful of notable changes from TI7.
The lineup of casters and content creators, for the most part, is just what fans would expect. Familiar voices like Chan "WinteR" Litt Binn, William "Blitz" Lee, and Ioannis "Fogged" Loucas will be on play-by-play duty, while Kevin "Purge" Godec and Alan "Nahaz" Bester will likely reprise their roles presenting in-depth analysis and statistics, respectively.
That said, the host desk is getting a major shakeup. Jorien "Sheever" van der Heijden will likely have a significantly larger role this year, after being on light duty during TI7 while being treated for breast cancer. Paul "Redeye" Chaloner will be back for TI8 after being left off the bills for both the Boston Major and TI7. Most interestingly, Starcraft personality Sean "Day[9]" Plott is off the bill entirely, seemingly replaced by ESL’s William "Chobra" Cho, who has an extensive portfolio of work in esports, but none to date in Dota 2.
Finally, the most significant area of change will be in the desk analyst role. Quinn "CC&C" Callahan, Peter "ppd" Dager and Per Anders Olsson "Pajkatt" Lille will all be attending TI8 as players for OpTic Gaming this year after having worked as talent in 2017. They have been replaced with former CompLexity Gaming captain Kyle "melonzz" Freedman, ex-MVP Phoenix offlaner Park "March" Tae-Won, and North American journeyman Brian "BananaSlamJamma" Canavan, as well as former Alliance stalwart Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg.