NS on the pole for the dance segment during The International broadcast: “It’s like the Paragon broadcast producer is going through puberty.”

Commentator Yaroslav “NS” Kuznetsov spoke out on his personal Telegram channel about the pole used for pole dancing that was set up during Paragon’s official broadcast of The International 2026.
The quote is reproduced with the source’s original spelling and punctuation
A pole for striptease moves is just too much. We’re not showing the official stream as part of the event this time, but we have it open in a separate window and are keeping an eye on what’s happening there out of the corner of our eyes. And here, everyone—from seasoned veterans to those who have no idea about any of these streams—was completely blown away.
I don’t want to be a prude or get too deep into this, but this is just really strange. If you think along the lines of, “Well, there’s no actual striptease, we’re not showing bare boobs, everything’s within the bounds of the law and Twitch’s rules,” then you can take it further—like that streamer where a BDSM “slave” in latex was crawling around on the stream and sleeping on a mat; that’s all within the rules, so to speak, but there’s a catch. After all, you can dance without a bra, right? You just have to tape over the dancer’s nipples, and then everything seems fine too, doesn’t it? (Oops, I probably shouldn’t have written that—I’ve given them an idea.)
Anyway, it’s a very strange story—it’s as if the producer of the Paragon stream is going through puberty. I don’t see anything particularly wrong with a bit of sexualization in the content, but here it’s gone too far, with a constant desire to add more and more sleaze, innuendo, and objectification to the frame.
And as for Dota and The International—I don’t even ask questions like that.
In short, it’s just cringey.
Earlier, during Paragon’s official broadcast of The International 2026, ahead of the Team Bald vs. Power Rangers match, a pole was set up in the studio for a pole dance, and a guest choreographer held a short pole-dancing workshop for the analysts.
Photo by Yaroslav “NS” Kuznetsov.


