Clinton “Fear” Loomis, one of the oldest and most respected North American Dota 2 players announced that he’ll be taking a break from the competitive scene.
In a recent announcement, Valve revealed that the Dota Pro Circuit will be delayed until the first few months of 2021. Furthermore, there’s still no word on actual DPC events and it seems like Valve will be reaching out to third-party organizers to fill the gap between September and the potential start in 2021.
Clinton “Fear” Loomis started his Dota career back in the original mod and transitioned into Dota 2 with the team Online Kingdom. In 2011 he joined Evil Geniuses where he’d spend the next 7 years switching from player to coach and back. As a player with EG, Fear won The International 2015, leaving his name in the game’s competitive history forever. Loomis eventually left EG and joined J.Storm where he spent two years and found relative success. In 2020, his latest endeavor began with business associates, a North American team that struggled against CR4ZY and Quincy Crew.
On Monday, Fear officially announced on his Twitter that he’ll be taking a break from Dota 2 for some time.
I'm getting messages asking why I'm not playing today. I decided to take a break from competitive for a little since DPC isn't starting until Jan-Feb of 2021. The team wanted to keep playing regardless (3/5 of the roster) so they made a new team. Best of luck to the guys!
— Clinton Loomis (@FearDotA) September 7, 2020
According to the tweet, business associates will soon change their name and fill the missing numbers. Earlier, Fear also commented on the latest news from Valve and just like many others, he wasn’t too happy.
Correct me if I'm wrong but when they say "upcoming competitive season" they are not referring to the DPC, but more so the shit fest that is online gaming as we know it without a DPC in place. Looks like more than ever you can't play Dota in NA if you want to aspire to be a pro. pic.twitter.com/hdj4dWm254
— Clinton Loomis (@FearDotA) September 4, 2020
Here’s also the full part of Valve's statement Loomis had in mind:
For this upcoming competitive season, there are going to be at least four third party events and leagues in EU/CIS events, three in China, and a few others that are still in the preliminary planning stages and are not able to commit at this time. However, there are still going to be a lot of teams, casters, organizers and fans around the world that are not going to be meaningfully served based on the current trajectory and that is our fault for not pushing on those and supporting them enough.With that in mind, we’ve started reaching out to many more tournament organizers to offer help and financial support in order to be able to create increased coverage globally for the remainder of the year. We expect that these events will be gradually announced over the remaining season as soon as they are ready to communicate to fans and teams.
There was a great deal of mystery and uncertainty surrounding the Dota Pro Circuit and Valve’s latest announcement didn’t do much to make it better. Sure, there’ll be a DPC eventually, and sure TI10 is coming in 2021, supposedly in August, in Stockholm. Once again nothing is certain and events in North America for the upcoming months are practically non-existent. We’re sure that third-party organizers will do their part and give us at least a couple of events but Fear’s decision to take a break comes as no surprise.
The next Dota 2 season was supposed to start on October 5, but it looks like we’ll have to wait until next year. Fear’s not the first and he probably won’t be the last player to take a break or walk away from the popular MOBA.
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