v1lat and LaoDang Were first Invited by The International 3

v1lat has allegedly received his invite to The International 3 together with uprising Chinese shoutcaster, LaoDang.

 

Famous Russian shoutcaster, Vitali 'v1lat' Volochai announced on Twitter that he has been invited to The International 3, Dota 2's biggest annual event.

The reason for such an early invite may be due to last year's incident in which three other Russian casters could not get their visa in time when they were invited in May.

v1lat ended up powering through the whole of TI3 and casted all the games solo. This can be exemplified when he lost his voice shouting at "The Play".

Cyborgmatt wrote on Reddit, "V1lat's dedication at TI2 was amazing, towards the end of the event he was literally dumping entire pots of honey in his morning tea before setting off for the venue".

As we were reaching out to v1lat to make sure that this isn't a joke, we reached out to several Russian casters such as Versuta but he has apparently not heard any of the sort nor has he received an invite.

iG vs Na`Vi - Game 2, Winner Bracket Semifinals - The International - Russian Commentary

 

However, Sgamer reported this morning that Chinese caster Wei Hua 'LaoDang' Dang has also been invited to cast The International 3. According to LaoDang's Weibo post, LaoDang stated Ming Yin 'Hippovic' Chen, Valve's Chinese Dota 2 representative invited him to the tournament yesterday after a short talk with Icefrog.

 

This indicates that Valve are already starting to send invites out to established and potential casters for their annual event in Seattle. Gosugamers also contacted Hippovic about LaoDang's Weibo post and was given the green light on the matter.

 

Translated LaoDang Weibo post:

 

In a brief conversation with IceFrog earlier, I have been invited as the official Chinese shoutcaster in The International 3. The day before yesterday when Seafall asked me about this, I told him I wouldn't even dare to think about it. As it turns out, Hippovic messaged me and talked to me about this on the same day. This is truly unbelievable.

 

My invite to TI3 as a live caster , this is the biggest surprise and my biggest challenge of the year. Enough of the nonsense, see you in TI3. Finally, a special thanks to Hippovic for his recommendation and for helping me in translation.