Valve adresserer racistiske kommentarer fra Dota 2-professionelle

For dem af jer der ikke ved det, så løb Kuala Lumpur Major-turneringen i Dota 2 for nylig af stablen som den første store turnering i sæsonen, men som det generelt har været har turneringen været omtåget af kontroversielle udtalelser, og det vælger Valve nu officielt at udtale sig om via deres hjemmeside. Her forklarer de at de har hørt at fans har beklaget sig over de mange racistiske, og ofte homofobiske, udtalelser som professionelle spillere står bag.

"We expect pro players to understand that they represent the Dota community regardless of where they are. Words carry a lot of meaning. Some people may not agree or understand why certain words are harmful, but it doesn't make it any less so to those on the receiving end. The language used by multiple players over the last week has caused many of our fans a lot of pain and is not behavior that we condone."

"We've been spending the past few days talking to various pro players and community leaders about this. From all the interactions we've seen over the years, we know that deep down professional players respect each other immensely. However, we want to be very clear that Valve will not tolerate racist language between pro players in any form. We think it is really damaging to the entire Dota community whenever even a single professional player uses discriminatory language. It pits fans against each other, belittles and demeans entire groups and makes them feel like they are not as important. Going forward, we expect all teams who participate in our tournaments to hold its players accountable, and be prepared to follow up with strong punishments when players represent Dota and its community poorly."

"We hope that players and the community around the world will become better educated and more respectful as a result of the recent incidents. We think the communities everywhere around the world want the same things: for our favorite players and teams to do well, and for a great display of Dota."

Særligt racistiske udtalelser er i fokus i øjeblikket, hvor blandt andet Dbltap kan rapportere at en række spillere i hurtig sekvens har brugt stødende sprog i officielt medfør.