Gorgc revealed the reason for the ban on his Twitch channel during his cast of The International 2026

I’m really not trying to pick a fight with Valve. I’ll lose, and I realize that. But you know, it was so strange that I started thinking about my next move. The community has mostly supported me—many agreed that it was a bit unfair and pretty harsh. I need to explain myself, but I’ll try to be careful not to stir up a fight.

To be honest: I don’t hold a big grudge, even though it was a huge letdown. The ban came out of the blue, without any warning. I just sat there thinking, “What the hell? I missed The International!” I was really sad, but at least we’re back to streaming. The whole situation turned out to be ridiculous: I was made the scapegoat. As far as I know, Valve hasn’t done anything like this to streamers before. I saw other casters switch to the main stream during the draft without any issues, and since I was only showing it for a couple of seconds, I didn’t think it would cause any problems. Especially since Dota TV wasn’t working at the time. I tried to appeal the decision and contact the developers, but it’s almost impossible. Obviously, they wanted to send a message and used me as an example.

Now, let’s go through this step by step. On the first day of The International, as you know, Dota TV was down, so people were allowed to watch the main stream, and I watched it too, just like everyone else. On the second day, Dota TV was working again, and I was told, “Hey, can you watch through Dota TV?” I agreed to that. Then I received a request: “Please don’t use our observer’s camera.” I didn’t want to argue, so I stopped doing that. But then Dota TV started glitching again, and I thought, “Damn, I’m missing important team fights on the stream.” So I displayed the main broadcast on the screen for literally a few seconds while we tried to fix the problem. We’d already been watching the game for 40 minutes, and I didn’t want to lose two minutes or however long it was. I showed it for about ten seconds, with the sound off, not even in full-screen mode—just to maintain the continuity of the stream while Dota TV wasn’t working. It seemed obvious to me that in a situation like that, it’s okay to show a couple of seconds of the main feed so viewers don’t miss an important moment.

I never got a clear explanation, but I think that’s exactly why I got banned. To be honest, it’s pretty absurd—Valve just decided to give me a strike for copyright infringement. The ban happened right in the middle of the TI group stage, during one of the most important periods of the year for my channel. Of course, I was really upset. I sat at my computer for about two hours, completely at a loss as to what to do. I’d heard that Russian streamers were supposedly allowed to watch the main broadcast under some special arrangements, but now I realize that Valve was lying—after banning me, they banned Russians from watching the main stream as well. I talked to the Russian streamer Nix; he asked what had happened and said he’d just been told, “Watch the official stream, and you’ll get banned.” So Valve banned me first, and then changed the rules for everyone.

If you think about it, it’s pretty crazy. They basically said, “And you, specifically—go to hell,” and then made it a general rule. I was pretty badly wronged, and the situation seems unfair. But it is what it is. I’ll follow the rules and move on. I don’t want this to affect me too much. I’ve accepted it and am putting it behind me.