"Nahaz may die soon and we should respect our elders"
LOL
I recently wrote a small bit about TI invites & invitations in general based on a comment that some invites were determined because of nepotism. Here's my response
That's not how any of this works
First of all, the talent invites for TI every year are decided by Valve themselves and doesn't have much outside influence. I don't know but I would guess it's decided by committee or 2 or 3 people rather than one guy. Valve decides (just like every other tournament organizer out there) what kind of show they want to put on before deciding what talent to invite. You don't invite Redeye first and decide you want a professional, well-executed show later. First you decide for a premier event like this you want everything looking & sounding professional (but still fun) rather than a more laid-back & casual show like The Summit or Seatstory Cup. Redeye will be the first to tell you that organizers are hesitant to hire him for an event like that because he's so good at being the pro and they can't imagine him in a much more relaxed environment. This proves you can be perfectly capable talent but not be invited because you don't fit the organizers vision.
So, now that you've decided what kind of show you want to have, this will usually decide (as well as the budget) how many slots you have for talent. A limited number of slots at the biggest tournament of the year means you have the tough task of picking and choosing which talent fit your vision for the event. Some invites are obvious, like Merlini, Tobi and Redeye due to their long-term established talent and fanbases within the scene. You don't have a CS:GO Major without Anders & Semmler because they're fucking Anders & Semmler. Others farther down the line are going to be endlessly compared to other, equally suitable talents and you have to decide which one of them fits your event the best. You may have a personal taste for the ex-professional players on the panel and enjoy the in-depth analysis they give but that doesn't mean as a showrunner you fill up the panel w/ all hardcore analysts. I believe a good example was the TI5 panel was (from my perspective) rather stale & boring despite having great analysis. Part of the reason is that you have to consider synergy & who works best with others. For example, at the Frankfurt Major, Maelk was invited because he had good synergy with Paul and served as a catalyst & punching bag for flames to make the panel more fun & loose. Maelk serves as an excellent heel because he's likeable enough but still comes off as arrogant w/ unshakeable confidence so you can make fun of him without feeling bad. Does this mean that Maelk was more deserving of an invite over Godz? Absolutely not, Godz deserved it 10x more than Maelk, but Maelk fit the vision of the desk better for the showrunner.
So in this case, where's Fogged? Where's Nahaz? Again, I don't know exactly, but I'm going to guess he/they didn't fit the vision of the show despite being perfectly qualified. Charlie is naturally more of an entertainer than most with his elaborate flames & can serve as a catalyst for banter back and forth. Shane understand Dota at a better level than your average viewer but is endlessly finding ways to make things fun & loose. Pyrion's insanely personable & has an excellent sense of wit. Black has more experience with all the regions of Dota and probably has personal stories about many players. Slacks is a creative madman & sold his soul for an innovative sense of humor with a drive to create more content this year than any other personality in the scene. Godz is an excellent analyst who's able to break down the vast amounts of information to the most important points to the audience. Purge has a dryer sense of humor than anybody there and is mindful & articulate in explaing Dota's fundamental concepts. I got carried by Blitz, etc, etc. The point is, if you try to actually think outside of your own point of view & preferences and evaluate the various talents of the scene, you can see that there's a potential reason to invite almost every person people listed in this thread depending on what kind of show you envision.
While personalities can be flexibile & well-versed in covering multiple roles or moods in a show, every talent brings something unique. Nobody can be a better Blitz co-caster to me than Blitz. Nobody can beat Redeye on being the Redeye professional host & meme maker. Nobody can beat Charlie at being Charlie (see: Asshole). That doesn't mean I wouldn't be hyped to cocast with Fogged. That doesn't mean Chobra couldn't take Redeye's spot and make this event amazing.
This also doesn't mean that there aren't people out there who deserve it more than the people being invited. Durka, Llama, Lyrical, to name a few, all deserve it based on the purely on the hardwork of grinding more games out than almost anybody on this list. Fogged deserves it because of his genuine personality & knowledge of the game and its scene. Nahaz deserves it because he may die soon & we should respect our elders. Unfortunately those people didn't make it and that sucks. That doesn't take away from their talents or hardwork nor does mean that undermine who did make it by saying nepotism determines invitations.
