With just 15 days remaining before the International 8 group stage kicks off, Dota 2 publisher Valve has released the full list of English broadcast talent attending the event.
A grand total of 31 personalities will broadcast TI8 to fans worldwide, with the list containing a mix of old and new faces. This is a significant bump up from last year’s count, which had 24 men and women commentating on the event.
The analysis desk, which will provide insight and background information on all of the matches, will be hosted by four different individuals this year. The veteran Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner makes his return to the stage, alongside Alex “Machine” Richardson, Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden, and William “Chobra” Cho.
Chobra in particular has been largely absent from the Dota 2 scene as of late, with his last desk appearance having been at ESL One Manila in 2016. Prior to that year, however, he had been a part of the TI5 wildcard round.
TI7’s main desk host Sean “Day[9]” Plott, who had his first ever Dota 2 gig last year, will not be coming back this time around.
As for the casters and analysts, fan favorites such as Toby “Tobiwan” Dawson, Austin “Capitalist” Walsh, Owen “ODPixel” Davies and more will be manning the casters’ table. The list of newcomers includes North America-based pro player and streamer Brian “BananaSlamJamma” Canavan, TI3 champion Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg, former MVP Phoenix player Park “March” Tae-won, and former compLexity Gaming captain Kyle Freedman.
Seattle-based news reporter Kaci Aitchison, who has been working on The International since 2013, will once again be teaming up with Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner when it comes to player interviews and additional content in between games. Who knows what hijinks they’ll be getting themselves into if Ted “PyrionFlax” Forsyth and Ken “Hot_bid” Chen manage to join them.
