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'Dude no joke looks like Hugh Jackman now': The internet is swooning over Gabe Newell's svelte new look at The International
Newell's video message welcoming everyone to this year's Dota 2 championship tourney caught a lot of viewers by surprise.
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Valve honcho Gabe Newell recorded a video to kick off The International 2026, the latest edition of Valve's annual Dota 2 championship tournament, and as noticed by GamesRadar, the reaction to it is pleasingly wholesome.
Plenty of esports fans are thrilled to see the return of one of the world's premiere tourneys, naturally, but in this case it's not just the excitement of elite competition that has everyone would up: An awful lot of folks seem to be more impressed by how good Gabe is looking these days.
Newell's video message was pretty standard fare for this sort of thing: Reminiscing about past Internationals, gazing into the future, and thanking the fans, players, and host city of Shanghai for making it all possible. But the reaction?
"I’m so happy he lost all that weight," redditor TheMilkman1811 wrote in response to Newell's "Chad Gabe" look. "Probably bought another 10 to 15 years of life with us."
"Right? I'm just happy he looks healthy! More time among us," another replied. A third cut more directly to the point, referring to the Valve founder as "Babe Newell."
The cause of Newell's new svelte style came up for debate: Some believe his life-on-a-yacht lifestyle is the reason, others surmise it's medical intervention; redditor rice_goblin theorized that "he's slowly absorbing australian genes through osmosis due to living in new zealand for so long."
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That theory is surprisingly popular, at least to the extent that people think (perhaps not entirely seriously) that Newell is becoming genetically Australian: No fewer than six redditors, and possibly more by the time you read this, say he's looking like Hugh Jackman (or, in one case, "Hugh Jackman's cool dad," although Jackman is actually only six years younger than Newell.)