TI8 Talent Revealed with Many Newcomers to Valve’s Annual Event
The International 2018 is set for a lot of firsts this year. Starting from being held for the first time ever in Canada, to having a couple of teams and players at their first time ever TI experience, as well as giving a chance to a few commentators and analysts who never appeared at TI before.
TI8 features four hosts and one of these four people is William “Chobra” Cho. Chobra worked for a few Dota 2 events in the past, such as ESL One Frankfurt 2015 and ESL One Manila 2016. He might not be a popular figure for the Dota 2 fans, but his career has many years of hosting esports events for many different games. From Starcraft II and Call of Duty, to Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, Chobra is probably most known for hosting League of Legends tournaments.
Valve haven’t announced which part of the tournament will be hosted by whom, but judging on how the previous TIs were ran, the four hosts will be split between group stage and the main event. Chobra will be accompanied by Alex “Machine” Richardson, last year’s group stage host and main event interviewer, Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden who needs no introduction to any of the Dota 2 fans, and the esports veteran Paul “Redeye” Chaloner who will celebrate his third TI this year.
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TI8 Hosts:
– Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden
– Paul “Redeye” Chaloner
– Alex “Machine” Richardson
– William “Chobra” Cho
It’s been a while, but SUPER excited to be back – and to have it be at TI, wouldn’t have it any other way. And to work with all these other lovely hosts T_T
Hope y’all are ready to have some fun!
There are a few debutants at commentator’s desk this year. Far from being new to the Dota 2 scene, however at their first The International, Grant “GranDGranT” Harris and Trent “TrentPax” MacKenzie have finally received an official letter from Valve.
TI8 Commentators:
– Toby “TobiWan” Dawson
– Troels “syndereN” Nielsen
– Owen “ODPixel” Davies
– Ioannis “Fogged” Loucas
– David “GoDz” Parker
– Austin “Capitalist” Walsh
– William “Blitz” Lee
– David “Luminous” Zhang
– Gabriel “Lyrical” Cruz
– Trent “TrentPax” MacKenzie
– Grant “GranDGranT” Harris
From Playing Dota 1 in my parents basement to Working at Walmart, To Yikin’ on The Haters to now Casting the Greatest Esports event of all time. Thanks to everyone who has always supported me , Cracking a Cold Monster tonight to ya’ll.
Seeing a TI talent announcement without @MerliniDota & @LDeeep’s names in it, the feels
Time’s are changin’ and excited to see TI8 in Canada this year!
After three years long wait, Alan “Nahaz” Bester is finally making his TI return. The Dota 2 stats man legend, although extremely active all these years, hasn’t received an invitation letter from Valve since TI5. The International 2018 has an interesting mix of former and active pro players, stats dedicated personalities and it brings a few colourful surprises.
Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg got another shot at making it at the TI analysts desk after last year when he was sent back home from the airport due to visa complications. If he makes it to this year’s International, he will be joined by Kyle Freedman, Brian “BananaSlamJamma” Canavan and Park “March” Tae-won, who is slowly re-entering the scene after finishing his mandatory military service in South Korea.
TI8 Analysts:
– Alan “Nahaz” Bester
– Kevin “Purge” Godec
– Chan “WinteR” Litt Binn
– Kyle Freedman
– Brian “BananaSlamJamma” Canavan
– Park “March” Tae-won
– Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg
The International 2018 also marks the debut of Jonathan “PimpmuckL” Liebig as one of the official observers for the English broadcast. After three years of grinding, and thousands of hours spent working for a plethora of tournaments, PimpmuckL finally joins the two TI veteran observers, Rikard ‘skrff’ Holm Melin and Johan “Weppas” Westberg.
TI8 Observers:
– Jonathan “PimpmuckL” Liebig
– Johan “Weppas” Westberg
– Rikard ‘skrff’ Holm Melin
An International broadcast talent list won’t be complete without having the official interviewers and content creators listed. Fans will be happy to hear that Kaci “Kaci” Aitchison will partner up this year with Ken “Hot_Bid” Chen, Ted “PyrionFlax” Forsyth and of course, the community favorite Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner.
TI8 Content Creators:
– Ken “Hot_Bid” Chen
– Kaci “Kaci” Aitchison
– Ted “PyrionFlax” Forsyth
– Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner
TI8
Along the English broadcast talent, Valve announced the Russian and Chinese ones as well, both with a couple of nice surprises. Alexander “XBOCT” Dashkevich, Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk, Artur “Goblak” Kostenko and Artsiom “fng” Barshack will show up on the Russian panel while on the Chinese official stream, the fans will have the chance to see the TI6 winner Chu “shadow” Zeyu, the TI4 winner Zhang “xiao8” Ning and the TI2 winner Luo “Ferrari_430” Feichi.
The International 2018 is set to commence on the 15th of August with four days of group stage, followed by the main event held August 20th – August 25th at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada.
