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Valve talks to BurNing about the Chinese community's outrage over racist remarks

Vignesh RaghuramPublished On: 
After the Chinese Dota 2 community expressed their outrage on social media against the racist comments made by a few SEA Dota 2 Pros, it looks like Valve has finally decided to make a response.

Earlier today, Team Secret’s Manager, Matthew “Cyborgmatt” Bailey posted that Chinese Dota 2 player Xu "BurNing" Zhilei posted his conversations with Valve on Weibo. 

   

Email 1

It appears that Valve's Erik Johnson reached out to BurNing regarding the above-mentioned issue.
 

Reddit user, WhoIsEarthshaker posted a translation for the 2nd and the 3rd email.

Email 2
 


BurNing wrote:
 

"It is surprising to receive your email. I appreciate Valve's trust in me. I have three questions.

1. For racism remarks during DPC events, if the player isn't punished by his organization, will Valve step in?

2. For non-DPC events, will Valve get involved?

3. If a well-known pro player makes racist remarks in a pub game, will Valve get involved?"

 

Erik Johnson wrote:

"We think that the three situations you mentioned are not completely equal, but our decision will always revolve on how to make DOTA2 more popular around the world. Pro players have a huge impact on the growth of DOTA2. If the organization does nothing when a problem appears, we will get involved.“

 

Email 3


BurNing wrote:
 

"I understand your stance. In the last email, I mentioned three hypothetical situations, now let's talk about real events. Chinese fans wanted punishment for Skem from coL. Based on your last email, because coL already punished Skem, Valve won't hand out further punishment. I personally understand this result. I think posting our conversation would help Chinese fans understand Valve's stance on this issue. No problem. 

But for Kuku, he used the same racial slur in a pub game. After LGD refused to scrim with them, Kuku posted an apology on weibo. However, he also made up a story and tried to hide his mistake. (Kuku said the Tiny player's ID is Ching Chong and that he was just writing that player's in-game ID. However, Chinese fans found that the Tiny only changed his ID afterwards. Kuku later deleted the made-up story.) Chinese fans feel that Valve needs to express their stance on this event, as TNC hasn't made any statement so far. 

I personally hope through this conversation to understand Valve's logic and process on such events. I will post on social media to eliminate the ill effects amongst the Chinese community. 

A little suggestion, can we use this opportunity to establish clear rules on defining and processing such behaviour. We all want better pro scenes for DOTA2, maybe it's time to have clear rules, right?"

 

Erik wrote:
 

"We appreciate that you could pass on our stance to the Chinese community. We hope the DOTA scene around the world will become more professional.

We will directly communicate with TNC regarding the incident. We appreciate the information. We hope we can keep communicating on this issue in the future."

 
 
TNC Predator reprimands Kuku

It has been made clear that Valve has actively been monitoring this situation and figuring out a way to deal with situations such as this. Following Valve’s email to BurNing stating that they will “directly communicate with TNC“, the SEA Organization put out a statement on their weibo condemning Kuku and his behaviour.

     

With Valve clearing up their stance and TNC Pro Team’s apology. This issue should be put to rest.

The Kuala Lumpur Major kicked off earlier today and a few claims were made about Chinese teams not calling ‘GG’ after this incident.

 
But prominent Chinese Dota 2 personality, Jack “KBBQ” Chen quashed these claims.