KuroKy spoke about his departure from the public eye: “I just wanted to collect my prize money and live my life.”

It happened around the time I won TI, in 2017. It was definitely a conscious decision. The way I saw it was this: I really enjoyed interacting with fans, but for me personally, it became more and more unpleasant with each passing year. I think it had to do with changes in society. It got worse every year. It was never enough. Everything was pretty negative and gradually became even more so.

And then I asked myself another question: What are my intentions? What’s on my mind? Why do I do what I do? Why should I bother with this?

I came up with these reasons: either you do it for fame and money—you build your brand, you become more visible. That makes your life in the media easier, and improves your financial situation. But I wasn’t interested in that. I just wanted to collect the prize money and live my own life.

Another reason is the connection with the fans. That’s something I really enjoyed. My main intention has always been to do something good, to inspire someone. Because receiving messages from people who felt inspired, grateful, or motivated by something you did or said—that’s amazing. I received messages like that, and that’s what motivated me.

I’m the kind of person who either does something completely or doesn’t do it at all. I don’t like doing things halfway. So, I have to see it through to the end. For me, that meant using my social media and starting to share my personal life. And I decided: no, I don’t want that.

I don’t want to shoot Reels every other day, show how I live, express my useless opinion on something, and just boost my visibility. I didn’t want to do that, but I still wanted to have a positive impact on the community or the world in some way. And I figured that would happen naturally: if I achieved success or gave a good interview from time to time.

So I just stepped away from all of that. It was more for my own peace of mind.

I wouldn’t attribute this exclusively to our community, the Dota community. You can see this all over the world, in any field. Unfortunately, I’d say that we now live in a world where people lack restraint. It seems like people everywhere are attacking each other over the slightest thing. <…>

As someone who’s been online since 2006 and continues to be so today, I definitely see major changes. Have rudeness and this kind of behavior always existed online? Of course they have. To some extent, it’s always been there. But things have definitely shifted much more toward negative emotions. It’s becoming very noticeable. <…>

And I don’t know if I made the right decision. But ultimately, I can control myself, but not other people. So I thought: I don’t want to be a part of this. It’s just bad for my soul, bad for me. And what good comes of it? <…>

Sometimes I miss it. I think it’s still possible to do this—I believe that. But the problem lies in this social media game, in how the whole thing is set up. Let’s say you have a YouTube channel. Then you have to post some really silly previews, make provocative montages to grab attention. And I don’t want to do that. But that’s exactly how the algorithm works.

There’s something very sinister about how social media and its algorithms work, with all these ratios of likes and dislikes. Essentially, controversial content works. It works incredibly well. But I definitely don’t want to play that game. I don’t want to be a part of it.