posted by Malystryx.GDS,
Valve have a history of choosing to not make public announcements, but Managing Director of Valve Gabe Newell made his own Reddit thread sharing his thoughts on proceedings. The thread has amassed over 2,500 comments in less than an hour.


James "2GD" Harding was suddenly stripped off his hosting duties earlier today, with Sheever stepping in to cover for him. "Sorry to say I won't be returning to the Shanghai Major, I was let go after that last segment. We'll always have day 1 together," said 2GD on Twitter this morning. 2GD then added that the decision came from Valve and that ahead of the event he was told to "be himself".

Gabe Newell: "We won't be working with him again"
There was no official response from Valve, and based on previous history few would have expected Gabe Newell to come forth and make his own thread to explain why the decision was made, but he did.

Gabe Newell posted the following message on his own Reddit thread:


1) James. We've had issues with James at previous events. Some Valve people lobbied to bring him back for Shanghai, feeling that he deserved another chance. That was a mistake. James is an ass, and we won't be working with him again.

Gabe Newell on Reddit


2GD is expected to share his full thoughts later today. "It's a very very odd situation. more than meets the eye you could say," said 2GD on Twitter ahead of Gabe Newell's post on Reddit. However, 2GD responded to the Reddit thread with the following message:

This is why my statement is taking sometime. It seems more personal than professional. So I will respond. Just for the record gabe, I don't think you are an ass. But I don't think you are right about me (well maybe you are a bit of an ass for calling me an ass, but let's find out what others think shall we?). Brb

James "2GD" Harding on Reddit


Valve also firing production company behind the Shanghai Major
The coverage of the Shanghai Major has had it's fair share of technical difficulties, with microphone problems, audio issues and stream freezes just some of the recurring issues. The production company behind the Shanghai Major is KeyTV, the same Chinese company that was involved in hosting the Nanyang Championships in Singapore last year. However, their involvement in the Shanghai Major is also about to come to an end according to Gabe Newell.


2) As long as we're firing people, we are also firing the production company that we've been working with on the Shanghai Major. They will be replaced, and we hope to get this turned around before the main event.
As always, I can be reached at gaben@valvesoftware.com.
Gabe

Gabe Newell on Reddit


It appears the third day of the Shanghai Major will also start with drama, but there may be a silver lining up ahead.

*UPDATE* 27th February 2016

James "2GD Harding finally posted his official response to his firing from the Shanghai Major, a 6,000 word google doc available to all to read. You can find the link below:

Read James official statement aka "James is an ass" by James Harding

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