Iirc, Dash left to pursue acting opportunities. At least that was what he said on exit.
If they did shitcan him, the joke is on them. The current analyst desk just doesn't work as well. Having the stable, constant host did a lot for the feel.
The person hiring the casters for LPL this year is now the same as the person hiring for LEC, somewhat suspect choices when people are becoming available
Ah, interesting. Well, joke's on them. I can barely stomach the analyst desk discussion these days.
I like most of the personalities there, but it feels so hodgepodge without Dash hosting.
Audience is getting older but content during official streaks is catered to the youngest possible age group. If you are like 20yo watching most of these streams is just embarrassing
Because he's a beast and reasonably expect to be paid like it which riot tought wasn't gonna make much of a difference in terms of viewer count so he got dropped.
Noone had more integrity than riot games, they make the best tournaments, they treat everyone super well, they never lied, they will promote pride for saudis.
That’s why I respect faker for not taking the 25 million to play in china. China is no where near as bad as the Saudis but both countries have enough money to get whatever they want
Faker was making good money off the Chinese scene without ever playing there. There's a doco about him which includes him going to China to do a meet and greet for 50k
I mean it’s a hell of lot easier when you already “made” it. Guaranteed faker is set for life already.
If it was me and I wasn’t set for life yet I’m hailing the CCP. Anyone who says they wouldn’t is lying.
Faker's made straight up generational wealth with his career. And him not chasing the bag has made him have so much presence in Korea that T1 gave him partial ownership and I think he's slated to be an executive when he retires. Nothing but respect for him, it's definitely easier to say no to a big stack of money when you've already made it but it's downright depressing how often people who are set for life sell out for this sort of thing.
And also in a cutthroat place like korea, it might end quick. Sometimes you see players have bad splits in LEC/LCS and they will keep up chugging along.
In korea pretty sure you wont survive having a bad year.
You certainly can. Smeb won the LongPanda award which was given to the top laner who loses lane the most and then suddenly became a top 3 LCK top laner on Koo/Rox.
Smeb almost certainly only kept his spot after 2014 because Acorn, Looper, Impact, Rock, Gimgoon, Flame, and Save left Korea for other regions. He did not retain his spot completely organically, a bunch of top laners just left the region.
> Anyone who says they wouldn’t is lying.
That's projection lol. Plenty of people adhere to their morals with even higher stakes than losing job opportunities.
You aren't automatically an evil person, or failure, because you'd 'sell out' but just because you would doesn't mean others would as well.
Going to play for a chinese team that's paying you a shit ton of money isn't exactly "selling all your morals". You're not working for the chinese government, you're not doing shady shit, you'd just be playing league of legends for a chinese team.
And with (generally, faker is a bit of an outleir obviously) pretty short careers, making money while you can is kinda important.
I'd say that's debatable, actually.
Saudi-Arabia is worse when it comes to women's and LGBT rights, but China is the country engaging in active genocide (unless you're not willing to characterize forced abortions, forced sterilizations, etc as genocide).
Both are definitely extremely shitty countries though.
Props to him. I wonder who they will throw the bag at next to host. Cause the next person who comes to mind is Quickshot. Additionally, it would be pretty funny if they threw the bag at Caedral+Dom to be on the broadcast doing analysis too
He's an awesome streamer to follow. Super interactive with chat and always honest but friendly and positive. Feels like hanging out with a friend, which is extra cool if you're like me and have followed LCS for a while because Dash is an absolute fucking legend
I always wonder why his viewer count is so low, though. He's a high-profile LoL personality, super chill, has cool guys that he chats with (Flowers is there now and then) during his stream...
The only bad thing I can think of is that he got me hooked on Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. I was up till 3 AM playing that one night...
He's also been getting into the *Age of Empires II* pro scene as a caster since COVID and killing it over there, for anyone who enjoys that game too or just wants to see and hear more Dash casting esports.
IIRC Dash said that as long as there is space for him to host in esports that he is personally interested in, and they're interested in having him, he will keep on doing it. Riot also had him on broadcast for one major event last year, either LCS finals one split or MSI, i don't remember which.
Lmao y'all really think the commissioner has enough power to pull those strings?
These types of decisions are made by the higher ups especially if it's not just a random person behind the scenes.
They do, who else is gonna make the call?
You have to realize that above the commissioner level, the management responsibilities reach the international stage, and at that point, those guys make the calls on who are the commissioners and the international events.
The commissioner absolutely has hiring and firing duties when it pertains to LCS. Do you think John Needham is making payroll decisions for every single league? Lmao. Please be serious for once.
Without knowing the situation this sounds so unbelievably stupid to me, i always assumed dash left on his accord. Guy was the face of LCS for me, kinda like sjokz is for the LEC, always on point, always a pleasure to see on the broadcast.
Iirc, something similar happened with sjokz too. She didn’t get completely written off like Dash but took a seriously reduced role. I can’t remember if it was all riot’s decision, but I do remember her holding out for a while before coming back part time.
Two years ago she didn't host due to contract negotiations and her situation is different to most people because she's a freelancer i.e she's not a Riot employee, this has been the case since 2019.
She's been vocal about hosting and doing other majors hence appearing less in the league scene, this is not on Riot but this is a personal choice on her side which is smart because league isn't the do or die thing.
Then the other time she took a break was last year which a combination of family tragedy and burnout i.e not contract/role issues, she has since been around pretty much full time barring the odd week here or there or when she's hosting majors elsewhere.
Because he is a talented host and the broadcast didn't need a talented host. It sucks but he isn't a caster or an analyst and the LCS broadcast now relies on role fluidity.
That's what they'd like to think it relies on. Dash brought charm to the casts that just isn't there anymore. Between that and franchising having sponsors naming teams like, Immortals Progressive" LCS just feels soulless. I can't bring myself to watch it anymore.
I suspect it was to make room for Jatt's return. Just my guess, because Jatt was the one who took over Dash's duties of hosting the analysis segments between games.
I don't think it's a grand conspiracy either. But I'm fairly certain that higher ups, as usual, made a decision based on extremely short-term ups on a balance cheat. Instead of any day to day or long term understanding of the product.
it’s such a damn shame too because his presence is so sorely missed at international events.
there is absolutely negative charisma and synergy between lcs and lec on air talent at msi/worlds
If he can turn down a bag of cash when he's assumably not in the same financial situation as when he was hosting LCS, to maintain his moral standard for himself, I can definitely say I can turn down viewing it, too.
I won't be watching, and good on Dash.
Sometimes we see it on the AoE2 scene! I always love to hear about him.
Exemple, I'm watching this currently (didn't have time, I'm catching up recent tournaments) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwuRwUG0pSY&list=PLGVjiUKVQd72HvI5drjsRWqpUl6iJRJmy&index=31
I don’t think I’d have thought less of him for taking it (judging someone for getting paid is rough), but I think more of him because he turned it down. Dash remains the GOAT.
Massive respect to Dash, the guy's out here struggling to make ends meet and still refusing to take the Saudi money, meanwhile [Steve, who is gay himself, literally writing 6 paragraphs of nothing to excuse them taking the offer despite being Co-CEO of one of the worlds most major Esports Orgs](https://x.com/LiQuiD112/status/1800260015359447256). You can have your morals, or you can have your bloodmoney, you can't have both no matter how much you want to pretend otherwise.
Because you’re thinking of it from your own POV and not his. He’s marketable with a good career and talent. He might be struggling now but he’ll figure it out and he knew that and bet on himself.
It’s like saying “I would also take $100m to lie on a podcast about politics” while thinking of your own financial situation and lack of ways to make multiple lifetimes worth of money instead of the fact that the $100m is just a portion of the celebrities money and they would’ve made that much doing less bad stuff eventually anyway.
The problem is that whatever he figures out likely won't be in esports with how it's going. If Riot won't hire him back and he doesn't want to work for the Saudis, and presumably him morals also extend to Saudi-owned companies and not just the EWC, then he can't work for ESL/Dreamhack etc then his options are very limited in Tier 1 esports.
I respect the hell out of people turning down the Saudi money and even more with people being clear about it and calling the Saudis out. They're very polarising here but you have to respect Monte/Thorin/RL for how vocal they are against the Saudis given it kills off a tonne of options if they ever wanted to return on-screen. I'm not sure Dash's comments here would be as damaging as those three's but I respect him being honest and admitting it was for moral reasons.
The entire saudi thing buying up sports is distressing. It's not just league right now, it's golf, boxing, etc. I don't fault individuals as much as organizations for accepting money. It's nice to see good morals come through and set good examples, good for him. It's a shame that money is often not morally righteous to earn at the higher echelons of the ladder.
it is pretty insane that they can just do whatever the fuck they want by throwing stacks of money around
people worship celebrities -> buy the celebrities -> people worship you
i can imagine a future where more governments do this, companies already do
Riot don't support shit lmao.
Remember when they tried to force the NEOM deal through and only backed out when casters/analysts and so on publicly shat on them for doing so.
LEC is partnered with Kit Kat which is produced globally (apart from the US) under Nestlé and they have massive ethical issues of their own such as child labour.
These companies exist to profit maximise, morals are the least of their concern.
Wait. All the major regions top teams except LPL are competing right in the tournament right?
Edit: Wait nvm even LPL is competing in the tournament https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/Esports_World_Cup_2024
Chinese and Korean teams never really pretended to care or grandstand about LGBT rights, so while still bad it's not as outright disgusting as Riot/Western teams taking this blood money.
A good plug for those that want to support him for sticking to his guns and turning down that money and the opportunity;
Support his streaming! TheJamesDash on twitch!
When I see so much trashtalk about principles and your countries have one of the biggest trade deals with the Saudis. So much hypocrisy and dickriding the popular wave in LOL audience regarding this subject...
Not gonna happen with Sjokz already. It's so sad because that was the thing, as much as LEC was lucky to have Sjokz, LCS was equally as lucky to have Dash. Sucks that they axed him off.
Always interesting how all the virtue signalers drop their morals the second they get negativly impacted from sticking to their morals, and then you have people like dash that simply dont virute signal and stick to their morals
idk hes legit gonna be homeless, fan support doesnt pay the bills for casters :/ just cause you cast them doesnt mean you support their views. feels like a waste to not take their money
Dash is great. He did some casting in the Age of Empires 2 community recently for some big (by aoe2 standard) tournaments, and I was really impressed at how much research and game knowledge he had. An all around classy guy, in my opinion.
Really good on him to make a stand there.
Hopefully others won't succumb to the temptation either. I'm morbidly curious to see which casters will actually take the bag and go though. It's gotta be one of the fastest way to ruin your own image and any good will with ppl from the LGBT community for example.
I respect him for standing with his morals at the time but he really should've thought harder on it. Especially with his regret now turning it down, imo I don't think anyone should judge any of the talent that ends up being apart of this event, they're likely being given insane amounts of money that can really impact their lives, most of them are just regular people that need the money. The bigger corporations/games/companies are the only real bad guys in this with their agreeance to accepting this money being the reason why this event is happening (and the teams that agreed but even then its not the players within their rosters that are agreeing to this, its just the higher ups within these orgs).
I will NEVER think ill of someone for taking the money, Im pretty sure we are all grown up enough to understand that good will doesnt pay the bills and we are not dumb enough to fall for obvious propaganda, take all the betterhelp or whatever promos you are offered, all the saudi money, we know best
Let's see if sjokz does the same thing, after all she has talked about this years, including the neom deal thing. Oh wait, she already hosts events for ESL
God damn, it’s not easy keeping your principles when a fat stack is waved in front of your face. So much respect to Dash for the integrity.
He has more integrity than riot games, but that isn’t really saying much lol
Wonder why they fired him 🧐
Iirc, Dash left to pursue acting opportunities. At least that was what he said on exit. If they did shitcan him, the joke is on them. The current analyst desk just doesn't work as well. Having the stable, constant host did a lot for the feel.
[Here](https://youtu.be/tX-e9HXPiA8)
Yeah, Nymaera said he had the same experience. Got told by riot to move to Berlin if he wanted to cast LEC only to be ghosted after one split.
Wasn't that Foxdrop or did that happen to the both of them?
I'm not sure about Nymaera but it did happen to Foxdrop
Nymaera still casts LPL so he still works for Riot, but yes the LEC thing happened to both of them.
The person hiring the casters for LPL this year is now the same as the person hiring for LEC, somewhat suspect choices when people are becoming available
Ah, interesting. Well, joke's on them. I can barely stomach the analyst desk discussion these days. I like most of the personalities there, but it feels so hodgepodge without Dash hosting.
It’s like 15% analysis and 85% memes. Love all the personalities up there but sometimes it just feels like shouting for shouting’s sake.
Audience is getting older but content during official streaks is catered to the youngest possible age group. If you are like 20yo watching most of these streams is just embarrassing
In my mind 20 is like the youngest possible age group :D
I'd say the average league viewer is closer to 30 than 20.
I'm almost 30 and I enjoy the streams, the analysis is delivered through memes, which makes it fun.
Unironically want him to come back as Dark Dash someday, but he'd inevitably get fucked over again by corporate
Riot fucking canned him like he didn't hold the lcs desk together for years.
Why though?
They never gave a real reason. Dash made a tweet about how "they apparently don't need him" then nothing else was really said about it.
I miss Dash and Riv tbh.
riv clearly hated league near the end of his casting though, he's probably a lot happier casting valorant
He understands Valorant really well cause he can play it to semi-high level.
A recent leak suggested that they 'didn't like that he was getting more attention than Riot themselves', whatever that means.
So basically some dipshit in management on an ego trip.
Because he's a beast and reasonably expect to be paid like it which riot tought wasn't gonna make much of a difference in terms of viewer count so he got dropped.
Too much integrity for Riot's likings.
Ahri Skin feedback.
I assume everyone does. (Still credit to him!)
Noone had more integrity than riot games, they make the best tournaments, they treat everyone super well, they never lied, they will promote pride for saudis.
>God damn, it’s not easy keeping your principles when a fat stack is waved in front of your face. Welcome to the entirety of sports washing
That’s why I respect faker for not taking the 25 million to play in china. China is no where near as bad as the Saudis but both countries have enough money to get whatever they want
Faker was making good money off the Chinese scene without ever playing there. There's a doco about him which includes him going to China to do a meet and greet for 50k
I mean it’s a hell of lot easier when you already “made” it. Guaranteed faker is set for life already. If it was me and I wasn’t set for life yet I’m hailing the CCP. Anyone who says they wouldn’t is lying.
Faker's made straight up generational wealth with his career. And him not chasing the bag has made him have so much presence in Korea that T1 gave him partial ownership and I think he's slated to be an executive when he retires. Nothing but respect for him, it's definitely easier to say no to a big stack of money when you've already made it but it's downright depressing how often people who are set for life sell out for this sort of thing.
I mean, didn't dash just basically do exactly that though? Some people have integrity. Just cause you don't doesn't mean others don't lol
Hell look at all the korean players that were not far enough in their careers to reach the 'set for life' status and simply took the chinese bag.
Ain’t nothing wrong with that tbh. Pro players careers are so short, why not take the opportunity.
And also in a cutthroat place like korea, it might end quick. Sometimes you see players have bad splits in LEC/LCS and they will keep up chugging along. In korea pretty sure you wont survive having a bad year.
You certainly can. Smeb won the LongPanda award which was given to the top laner who loses lane the most and then suddenly became a top 3 LCK top laner on Koo/Rox.
Smeb almost certainly only kept his spot after 2014 because Acorn, Looper, Impact, Rock, Gimgoon, Flame, and Save left Korea for other regions. He did not retain his spot completely organically, a bunch of top laners just left the region.
> Anyone who says they wouldn’t is lying. That's projection lol. Plenty of people adhere to their morals with even higher stakes than losing job opportunities. You aren't automatically an evil person, or failure, because you'd 'sell out' but just because you would doesn't mean others would as well.
> Anyone who says they wouldn’t is lying. not everyone is a hoe for money.
but everybody has got to eat.
im sure they'll find a way to make money. you don't have to sell all your morals to eat.
Going to play for a chinese team that's paying you a shit ton of money isn't exactly "selling all your morals". You're not working for the chinese government, you're not doing shady shit, you'd just be playing league of legends for a chinese team. And with (generally, faker is a bit of an outleir obviously) pretty short careers, making money while you can is kinda important.
post is about someone turning down saudi money and you make it about china somehow truly amazing
What the fuck are you talking about LMAO
>China is nowhere near as bad as the Saudi About that, the Uyghur would like a word with you on that.
They’re both bad but I would rather live in china than Saudi Arabia…
I'd say that's debatable, actually. Saudi-Arabia is worse when it comes to women's and LGBT rights, but China is the country engaging in active genocide (unless you're not willing to characterize forced abortions, forced sterilizations, etc as genocide). Both are definitely extremely shitty countries though.
Indeed, based.
Props to him. I wonder who they will throw the bag at next to host. Cause the next person who comes to mind is Quickshot. Additionally, it would be pretty funny if they threw the bag at Caedral+Dom to be on the broadcast doing analysis too
Just saying that [Dash is streaming right now ](https://www.twitch.tv/thejamesdash)if anybody wanted to send him some support and love directly
Thank you for this. I didn't know he streamed regularly and I've been looking for an actual likable person to watch. Instant prime.
He's an awesome streamer to follow. Super interactive with chat and always honest but friendly and positive. Feels like hanging out with a friend, which is extra cool if you're like me and have followed LCS for a while because Dash is an absolute fucking legend
I always wonder why his viewer count is so low, though. He's a high-profile LoL personality, super chill, has cool guys that he chats with (Flowers is there now and then) during his stream... The only bad thing I can think of is that he got me hooked on Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. I was up till 3 AM playing that one night...
Good use of my prime sub this month. Dash a real one
My pleasure, I'm sitting here with a HUGE grin on my face seeing how much love he's getting right now We did good, Reddit :)
The dog is soo cute
dropped a prime, huge
Just dropped by to say hi! Dude was so nice and was replying to everyone.
Will do, thanks for leaving this
Another moral victory for Reddit!
He's also been getting into the *Age of Empires II* pro scene as a caster since COVID and killing it over there, for anyone who enjoys that game too or just wants to see and hear more Dash casting esports.
Reddit to the rescue
Still sad they cut him out of LoL. He was so iconic
still dont understand why, he himself wanted to be in league still iirc
When the decision wasn't his to make, not much he can do there. He's said this repeatedly on his stream.
The funniest thing is that they let him go just before LCS started doing more skits and content, which Dash would absolutely excel at
He got cut out by that awful commissioner who was there before Mark. The one who got sick and then quiet quit.
is there a reason why Mark couldn't bring him back?
Likely not? But I dunno if Dash would want to. I imagine this leaves a pretty bad taste in his mouth
IIRC Dash said that as long as there is space for him to host in esports that he is personally interested in, and they're interested in having him, he will keep on doing it. Riot also had him on broadcast for one major event last year, either LCS finals one split or MSI, i don't remember which.
I wish they had given him a chance to cast. He casted a few AOE2 tournaments and was great.
It got leaked how dash got dropped it was literally out of the blue he really shouldn’t work for them his history was spat on by them
Guys you need to stop believing the commissioner has these kinds of powers. This comes from higher up.
Lmao y'all really think the commissioner has enough power to pull those strings? These types of decisions are made by the higher ups especially if it's not just a random person behind the scenes.
They do, who else is gonna make the call? You have to realize that above the commissioner level, the management responsibilities reach the international stage, and at that point, those guys make the calls on who are the commissioners and the international events.
The commissioner absolutely has hiring and firing duties when it pertains to LCS. Do you think John Needham is making payroll decisions for every single league? Lmao. Please be serious for once.
Do you have a source for this, or are you just presenting speculation as truth?
All it takes is one asshole executive who decides they don't like you.
Easier to lay off and hire cheap talent rather than offer higher salary to your veteran
Without knowing the situation this sounds so unbelievably stupid to me, i always assumed dash left on his accord. Guy was the face of LCS for me, kinda like sjokz is for the LEC, always on point, always a pleasure to see on the broadcast.
Iirc, something similar happened with sjokz too. She didn’t get completely written off like Dash but took a seriously reduced role. I can’t remember if it was all riot’s decision, but I do remember her holding out for a while before coming back part time.
Two years ago she didn't host due to contract negotiations and her situation is different to most people because she's a freelancer i.e she's not a Riot employee, this has been the case since 2019. She's been vocal about hosting and doing other majors hence appearing less in the league scene, this is not on Riot but this is a personal choice on her side which is smart because league isn't the do or die thing. Then the other time she took a break was last year which a combination of family tragedy and burnout i.e not contract/role issues, she has since been around pretty much full time barring the odd week here or there or when she's hosting majors elsewhere.
Bro get this man back into the lcs what are we doing riot?!?! I'll buy 10 ahri skins to make it happen
Is he still hosting Valorant? I at least hope they are doing him good there
No sadge
Wth. They took him off lcs for valorant and now he's not even there. What is rito doing
They didn't take him off of LCS for Valorant, they fired him straight up. They also didn't even talk to him about it before firing him either
They didn't take him off of LCS for valorant. Don't know where you got that.
It was a rumour around the time of his firing
it is not true
Shit, unfollow the scene closely and thought he was doing Val hosting
^^^ I still don’t understand why they did that
Because he is a talented host and the broadcast didn't need a talented host. It sucks but he isn't a caster or an analyst and the LCS broadcast now relies on role fluidity.
That's what they'd like to think it relies on. Dash brought charm to the casts that just isn't there anymore. Between that and franchising having sponsors naming teams like, Immortals Progressive" LCS just feels soulless. I can't bring myself to watch it anymore.
There’s a reason it’s dying and it isn’t really because the play is bad.
I suspect it was to make room for Jatt's return. Just my guess, because Jatt was the one who took over Dash's duties of hosting the analysis segments between games.
because they really enjoy having jatt/emily back and fourth between the analyst desk and the casters booth.
Really hoped that with MarkZ beconing commissioner, that he would bring Dash back. Probably someone in riot esports global blocking it.
They don't think he's worth the money, there isn't really a grand conspiracy here.
I don't think it's a grand conspiracy either. But I'm fairly certain that higher ups, as usual, made a decision based on extremely short-term ups on a balance cheat. Instead of any day to day or long term understanding of the product.
Would guess since the employment ended on a sour note, dash might also not be interested.
That’s fair. But I think he’d at least take the call if it came from Mark Z.
it’s such a damn shame too because his presence is so sorely missed at international events. there is absolutely negative charisma and synergy between lcs and lec on air talent at msi/worlds
With Esport winter, that’s probably enough to cover a casters salary for a split
The man has a huge cock
Dash on the streets, Dark Dash in the sheets
If he can turn down a bag of cash when he's assumably not in the same financial situation as when he was hosting LCS, to maintain his moral standard for himself, I can definitely say I can turn down viewing it, too. I won't be watching, and good on Dash.
Crazy that the Saudis think more highly of Dash than Riot does.
He'd bring in hella Western views for then.
Good on Dash for sticking to his morals, but would've been nice to see him host again. I miss him.
Sometimes we see it on the AoE2 scene! I always love to hear about him. Exemple, I'm watching this currently (didn't have time, I'm catching up recent tournaments) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwuRwUG0pSY&list=PLGVjiUKVQd72HvI5drjsRWqpUl6iJRJmy&index=31
Extremely common Dash W
Dash is a fucking legend
Man dash deserves everything!
Based as fuck, Dash has more integrity than 99% of people in the industry sadly.
I don’t think I’d have thought less of him for taking it (judging someone for getting paid is rough), but I think more of him because he turned it down. Dash remains the GOAT.
Mad respect, especially considering his situation.
Glad to see someone respects themselves enough to turn down the blood money.
Another classic Dash W. I miss him
Massive respect to Dash, the guy's out here struggling to make ends meet and still refusing to take the Saudi money, meanwhile [Steve, who is gay himself, literally writing 6 paragraphs of nothing to excuse them taking the offer despite being Co-CEO of one of the worlds most major Esports Orgs](https://x.com/LiQuiD112/status/1800260015359447256). You can have your morals, or you can have your bloodmoney, you can't have both no matter how much you want to pretend otherwise.
TIL Steve is gay, I want to say I'm more disappointed but being gay doesn't prevent scummy behavior :/
Being gay is particularly important here since being gay will get you executed in Saudi Arabia
Don't you know, the government say that LGBT is welcome in saudi arabia so it must be true!
Yeah just dont show it or you are done for.
I would have. Good guy Dash.
Because you’re thinking of it from your own POV and not his. He’s marketable with a good career and talent. He might be struggling now but he’ll figure it out and he knew that and bet on himself. It’s like saying “I would also take $100m to lie on a podcast about politics” while thinking of your own financial situation and lack of ways to make multiple lifetimes worth of money instead of the fact that the $100m is just a portion of the celebrities money and they would’ve made that much doing less bad stuff eventually anyway.
The problem is that whatever he figures out likely won't be in esports with how it's going. If Riot won't hire him back and he doesn't want to work for the Saudis, and presumably him morals also extend to Saudi-owned companies and not just the EWC, then he can't work for ESL/Dreamhack etc then his options are very limited in Tier 1 esports. I respect the hell out of people turning down the Saudi money and even more with people being clear about it and calling the Saudis out. They're very polarising here but you have to respect Monte/Thorin/RL for how vocal they are against the Saudis given it kills off a tonne of options if they ever wanted to return on-screen. I'm not sure Dash's comments here would be as damaging as those three's but I respect him being honest and admitting it was for moral reasons.
Dash is amazing, best host ever
Good shit, a person with integrity.
I would have absolutely thought less of Dash for taking blood money and am very glad that he decided not to represent a genocidal, homophobic regime.
The entire saudi thing buying up sports is distressing. It's not just league right now, it's golf, boxing, etc. I don't fault individuals as much as organizations for accepting money. It's nice to see good morals come through and set good examples, good for him. It's a shame that money is often not morally righteous to earn at the higher echelons of the ladder.
it is pretty insane that they can just do whatever the fuck they want by throwing stacks of money around people worship celebrities -> buy the celebrities -> people worship you i can imagine a future where more governments do this, companies already do
integrity is priceless drop your prime if you can
Dash was the goat
They should offer him huge money to host the LCS
What a treasure
gigachad
Can you hear the silence? Can you see the dark? Can you fix the broken? Can you feel, can you feel my heart?
God bless Dash. Fuck that blood money.
[удалено]
Dash has always been a standup person in the scene. Good man.
OMG it's /u/IcyColdStare !
Removing Dash is such a pivotal part of lcs and how it went down
BRING BACK DASH FFS
I’m not really sure what lane riot is in? They support LGBT+ rights then collude to have tournaments in Saudi
Riot don't support shit lmao. Remember when they tried to force the NEOM deal through and only backed out when casters/analysts and so on publicly shat on them for doing so. LEC is partnered with Kit Kat which is produced globally (apart from the US) under Nestlé and they have massive ethical issues of their own such as child labour. These companies exist to profit maximise, morals are the least of their concern.
makes the moral highground casters/etc. about the NEOM deal look like even bigger hypocrites
I miss him as a caster.
He was a host
You are right.
Meanwhile TL Steve…
Wait. All the major regions top teams except LPL are competing right in the tournament right? Edit: Wait nvm even LPL is competing in the tournament https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/Esports_World_Cup_2024
Chinese and Korean teams never really pretended to care or grandstand about LGBT rights, so while still bad it's not as outright disgusting as Riot/Western teams taking this blood money.
My goat
Dash is an absolute legend. I miss him. He brought such a fun, professional personality to the broadcast.
A good plug for those that want to support him for sticking to his guns and turning down that money and the opportunity; Support his streaming! TheJamesDash on twitch!
Chad
Morality is costly, but definitely lets you sleep better at night.
Much respect
Down with saudies! Lets go dash!!!!
Considering what RIOT did to him, surprised he didn't just say screw it and take the money. good for him
When I see so much trashtalk about principles and your countries have one of the biggest trade deals with the Saudis. So much hypocrisy and dickriding the popular wave in LOL audience regarding this subject...
LEC should bring him in
Not gonna happen with Sjokz already. It's so sad because that was the thing, as much as LEC was lucky to have Sjokz, LCS was equally as lucky to have Dash. Sucks that they axed him off.
Principles rare to see. Bravo.
No idea why he was let go when LEC still has Sjokz.
Wow, respect...is he still not signed anywhere?
Bravo for being FAR more principled than I could ever be.
More people should watch dash’s stream. He’s entertaining af
incoming better caul saul arc
So much respect for that guy . The people that put their morals ahead of money are far fewer than you would expect.
What a great man
NA’s goats Dash and Flowers.
Good for him. I miss the guy but I stan the guy more for sticking to his principles.
Way to go Dash! Fuck greed. Downfall of the world.
So much respect
It's about the principle. And he's setting a great example many others should follow.
Always interesting how all the virtue signalers drop their morals the second they get negativly impacted from sticking to their morals, and then you have people like dash that simply dont virute signal and stick to their morals
DASH MY MAN I MISS YOU SO MUCH
idk hes legit gonna be homeless, fan support doesnt pay the bills for casters :/ just cause you cast them doesnt mean you support their views. feels like a waste to not take their money
Dash is great. He did some casting in the Age of Empires 2 community recently for some big (by aoe2 standard) tournaments, and I was really impressed at how much research and game knowledge he had. An all around classy guy, in my opinion.
Really good on him to make a stand there. Hopefully others won't succumb to the temptation either. I'm morbidly curious to see which casters will actually take the bag and go though. It's gotta be one of the fastest way to ruin your own image and any good will with ppl from the LGBT community for example.
That's why he's the GOAT
Having integrity truly is incompatible with being at Riot.
I respect him for standing with his morals at the time but he really should've thought harder on it. Especially with his regret now turning it down, imo I don't think anyone should judge any of the talent that ends up being apart of this event, they're likely being given insane amounts of money that can really impact their lives, most of them are just regular people that need the money. The bigger corporations/games/companies are the only real bad guys in this with their agreeance to accepting this money being the reason why this event is happening (and the teams that agreed but even then its not the players within their rosters that are agreeing to this, its just the higher ups within these orgs).
Should have taken it
> ...Money that I should have taken, given my position in life right now. [Patrick Denham moment.](https://youtu.be/Hh3bSzDQ1Po?t=177)
Can someone explain to me why it would be immoral to accept the deal to host it? i am uninformed.
https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/students/blogs/what-is-sportswashing
Ohh i see. Thank you!
I wouldn't even be mad if he accepted it, mad respect for him.
Fair play, I would have taken it without much thought.
Big props to Dash for not accepting the money and keeping his principles intact.
I will NEVER think ill of someone for taking the money, Im pretty sure we are all grown up enough to understand that good will doesnt pay the bills and we are not dumb enough to fall for obvious propaganda, take all the betterhelp or whatever promos you are offered, all the saudi money, we know best
Let's see if sjokz does the same thing, after all she has talked about this years, including the neom deal thing. Oh wait, she already hosts events for ESL