Update (March 23rd 2022): Ddk has joined 100 Thieves as their new Valorant general manager, along with Sean Gares, who has joined as head coach at the North American organisation.
The news comes one month after 100 Thieves released ec1s and Babyj from their Valorant roster.
Original article (March 19th 2022):
British esports caster Daniel ‘ddk’ Kapadia has announced he is stepping away from casting esports for the time being.
Sharing his thoughts in a Twitlonger post earlier today, ddk said he will be finishing after the playoffs in the North American Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) and Game Changers playoffs. Ddk is currently casting in the VCT 2022 North America Stage 1 Challengers.
He said: “Casting will always be an integral part of who I am, but for now I’m stepping away. Learning that I wouldn’t be a part of the first VCT LAN this year was a big factor and something I’ve known for a while. After months of talks, Riot and I were unable to reach an agreement to allow both parties to work together in partnership.
“To the fans, thank you for helping me to realise my dream of casting video games. You are the ones that make it all worth it. I hope you will be stoked for my next steps and continue to support my esports endeavours.
“Please reserve ill will towards Riot and respect that I want to go out with positivity.”
“As you can as imagine, stepping away from nine years of commentary is heartbreaking regardless of what’s waiting on the other side, it’ll take some time to process this one. However, we don’t retire, we just take breaks.”
ddk
Ddk is an experienced caster, having worked on many events in Counter-Strike over the years, before also moving into Valorant in recent times.
The news comes a few days after fellow caster Sean Gares announced he too would be stepping away from casting after finding out he hadn’t made the talent cut for the Masters 1 Valorant LAN in Reykjavík. He went into more detail on why he stepped back from casting here.
US caster Sean Gares and British caster ddk also work on the Immortal Minds Valorant content show together.
Ddk was part of the PGL Major 2021 broadcast talent line-up and Valorant Champions late last year.
Ddk has not yet announed what he will be doing next in esports, but we’ll aim to update this article as and when he does.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
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 worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
