Gabe Newell waxes poetic about his love for the Dota 2 community in a special message for The International: 'People talk s**t at me in chat' and tell him to uninstall the game on a weekly basis

Gabe Newell delivers inspirational message to fans and competitors at The International 2025

(Image credit: Gabe Newell (Twitch, via JakeSucky (Twitter)))

The finals of The International 2025, the annual Dota 2 world championship tournament, are now underway, and to get things started on the right foot Valve boss Gabe Newell shared a special message with fans: After all these years he still loves the game, even though a lot of you are pretty mean to him online.

"14 years ago, we held the first The International in the German city of Cologne," Newell said (via JakeSucky), presumably from the comfort of one of his yachts. "The first International truly amazed me. It was amazing to see the players’ skill and the passion of the community. Before the first International, I really liked the game, but after TI I fell in love with it. I love not only the game, but also the community."

"Sure people talk sh*t at me in chat... I still play Dota every day"Gabe Newell's intro for The International😂 pic.twitter.com/90LQoGeTQhSeptember 11, 2025

Okay, well, that's maybe a little less inspirational, but full points for telling it like it is: That's the real Dota experience, alright. Of course, there are good odds here that Newell isn't being entirely serious about the whole thing: He's known for having deadpan fun with this sort of thing, maybe most famously with the Potato Phone episode of 2022. Compared to that, this is positively restrained, but still pretty great.

The finals of The International 2025 kicked off today at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg, Germany, and will run until September 14, with a $2.6 million prize pool up for grabs. You can follow along with the action at dota2.com.

TOPICS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.