One of the UK’s most well-known esports hosts, Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner, won’t be hosting the Dota 2 International this year.
Paul has hosted the competition – which currently has the world’s biggest esports prize pool of over $20m – for the past two years.
He posted a Twitlonger explaining why he won’t be there this year and thanked Dota 2 developer Valve for working with him.
Sadly, I won’t be at The International this year, here’s why
Read: https://t.co/3fO3i1nua4
— Redeye (@PaulChaloner) 27 June 2017
Paul said: “After hosting the event for the last two years, I am obviously sad not to be chosen to do so again. While I’m personally disappointed, I don’t have any bad feelings towards Valve. This is a business, they must do what they believe is right for their product and honestly that’s the business I chose to work in.
“I’d like to thank them for [letting me know early enough] and all of the previous opportunities they have given me on Majors and the International events.
“I wish Valve, the teams and players and all of the talent who bring you the show the very best of luck, I’ll miss you all.”
Further reading: ‘Esports almost killed me’ – Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner talks burnout and the importance of downtime
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He has almost two decades of experience in journalism, and left Esports News UK in June 2025.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He also previously worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation.
