Rich Campbell returns after long hiatus to host esports at Dota 2 WePlay AniMajor 2021

Richard "Rich" Campbell was one of the most followed Dota 2 casters until last September, when he announced his retirement from broadcasting. Rich began his broadcasting career in the title in 2019 and found quite a lot of success before announcing his shock decision to step away.

He followed his retirement with the announcement of his new streaming organization, One True King Network. The channel has nearly 80k followers on Twitch and gets tens of thousands of concurrent viewers.

This success meant that it was unlikely that Rich would ever make a comeback to Dota 2. However, everything changed when WePlay announced its talent line-up for the Dota 2 AniMajor.

The announcers and analysts attending the Major will be:

1. Owen "ODPixel" Davies
2. Shannon "SUNSFan" Scotten
3. Troels "Synderen" Nielsen
4. Austin "Capitalist" Walsh
5. Dominik "Lacoste" Stipic
6. Admir "Lizzard" Salkanovic
7. Brian "BSJ" Canavan
8. Kurtis "AUI_2000" Ling
9. Andrew "Jenkins" Jenkins
10. Neal "Tsunami" Khanderia
11. Ioannis "Fogged" Loucas
12. Kyle "Kyle" Freedman
13. Robson "TeaGovnor" Merritt

The desk hosts attending the Major will be:

1. Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden
2. Jake "SirActionSlacks" Kanner
3. Mira "EpheyDota" As Hroob
4. Richard "Rich" Campbell

Time to introduce the #WePlayAniMajor talent crew! 🤩The first 5 are:@ODPixel @CapCasts @SUNSfanTV @syndereNDota @SheeverGaming pic.twitter.com/KZmtEI0YTs

— WePlay Esports | 12 Days to the AniMajor ⏳ (@WePlay_Esports) May 21, 2021

WePlay confirmed that Rich was making a comeback to Dota 2 at the AniMajor. The community had waited for this comeback ever since the American esports host and content creator started teasing his return on Twitter.

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The story of Rich Campbell in Dota 2

I’m ready to host / commentate esports. Retirement over.

— Rich Campbell (@RichWCampbell) May 14, 2021

Rich Campbell started his esports career in World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, acting as a host/caster for those events. However, he was fired by Blizzard in June 2019, reportedly for criticizing the game live on stream.

The broadcaster had already begun his Dota 2 career by then, with his first tournament being the Chongqing Major in January 2019. He got invited to his first International that same year.

Following TI9, he became a regular in the Dota 2 scene and hosted the ESL One Hamburg and DreamLeague Season 13.

Campbell's most notable work was at WePlay events, where he became a permanent talent member. He hosted WePlay's Bukovel Minor, Pushka League, and Omega League.

However, after the Omega League concluded, he announced his retirement from broadcasting to focus on his streaming career.

Time to get this man back where he belongs... On stage, talking sh*t about Dota!Welcome back @RichWCampbell 🤩 https://t.co/rYoPa6LQz7 pic.twitter.com/ZNiym03DyN

— WePlay Esports | 12 Days to the AniMajor ⏳ (@WePlay_Esports) May 21, 2021

WePlay announced Rich's return to Dota 2 on May 21st, and he will be hosting his first event in over eight months.

The community has expectedly welcomed his return. The star's colorful personality and broadcasting style had made him a community favorite, and many are celebrating his return to Dota 2.

For now, Rich Campbell has not said anything about his future after the AniMajor, but fans will be hoping he sticks around.