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On a live professional Dota 2 gamecast, popular caster Troels Lyngholt "syndereN" Nielsen commented on Pirate Software that caught fire with the gaming community. The comment, which was said about puzzle-solving in the independent game Animal Well, jokingly suggested that Pirate Software was able to solve complicated puzzles in minutes, whereas others could take weeks. Here's what he said,
"Have you played Animal Well? There are some insane secrets in that game that you will never discover on your own. Except, if you're Pirate Software, in which case you will just figure it all out on your own randomly. He'll just go AFK, he'll come back five minutes later, and he will figure out a puzzle that took the community three weeks to do."
Although probably meant to be a humorous joke, the comment elicited an unexpected response from Pirate Software or Jason "Thor" Hall and caused a stir on the internet.
Who is SyndereN?
Troels "SyndereN" Nielsen is a retired professional Dota 2 player who has transitioned to casting and analysis. Using his vast game experience, strategic insight, and the occasional humor, syndereN has established himself as a good presence in the gaming community. His commentaries are popularly followed, and his thoughts tend to drive community debates within the Dota 2 universe.
Who is Pirate Software?
Pirate Software is an independent video game developer and streamer named Jason "Thor" Hall. Pirate Software is perhaps most famous for its narrative-centric games like Heartbound. Alongside the studio, Hall is a Twitch streamer who streams every day and speaks often to his audience, broadcasting game creation live and chatting to them. His expertise in technical aspects of game development and solving puzzles has endowed him with a certain authority as an indie gamer.
The incident: SyndereN's comment during a Dota 2 match
During a live esports stream, SyndereN threw out a careless comment about Pirate Software while explaining puzzle-solving in Animal Well. He jokingly implied that Pirate Software would solve in minutes what would take weeks for other players to realize. Because Hall was known to break down games on stream, the comment was likely meant as a joke, but it surprisingly got a reaction.
Pirate Software's response
Jason "Thor" Hall wouldn't let SyndereN's comment pass without an answer. In deleted social media messages, he became upset, even asking why SyndereN would mention him in such a tone. He said,
"We solved Animal Well together as a community and had a blast doing so. I explained as such both in a pinned comment on the video and in another follow up video refuting all of the attacks I keep getting for weird s**t like this. @syndereNDota the f**k is your problem?"
A Dota 2 caster also acknowledges he's on Pirate Software's list.
He said, "Imagine it's true. I would expect a public apology from him, unlike pirate software."
Community reactions to the argument
The duel between SyndereN and Pirate Software has generated both positive and negative reactions from the gaming community:
In defense of SyndereN: Fans viewed the remark as a harmless joke and were taken aback by Hall's negative response. They believed SyndereN's comment was a joke and didn't deserve to be responded to negatively.
"This Pirate Software dude is on tilt. He’s chalking up L’s left and right and not even making sense." said a user
Defending Pirate Software: Some of the community members came to the defense of Hall, speculating that syndereN's remark might have crossed lines related to past criticisms against Pirate Software unwittingly.
"Pirate Software is a true winner, syndereN is a loser." said yet another
In general, the incident also ignited broader arguments regarding the interaction of esports commentators and game developers, namely public mentions within classical gaming broadcasts.
Was there any real conflict?
Despite the online buzz, there is no indication of a current feud between syndereN and Pirate Software. The incident seems to be a one-time case of a joke being taken out of context, resulting in a short but heated response. Since then, neither side has taken the matter further, and both go on with their respective endeavors in the gaming world.
Although SyndereN's mention of Pirate Software during a professional match of Dota 2 seemed innocuous enough, it incited a surprise response from Pirate Software. The story momentarily became a source of conversation among the fan base but did not amount to any long-term controversy. Ultimately, it is one example of how seemingly harmless comments in esports coverage occasionally become, of their own accord, popular memes within gaming communities.
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