James Bardolph leaves FACEIT after 10 years, open to casting gigs

James Bardolph announced on Sunday, March 31th that he left his Vice President role at FACEIT. The move marks quite a significant career shift for Bardolph as he has been an integral part of FACEIT since October 2014.

Once a mainstay in nearly every tier-one event, James Bardolph slowly started to be sidelined in favor of other casters, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. New casting duos like Harry "JustHarry" Russell & Hugo Byron and Mohan "launders" Govindasamy & Conner "Scrawny" Girvan arose during the so-called "online era" of CS:GO and kept getting invites afterward.

Leaving FACEIT, which is a part of ESL FACEIT Group, could open opportunities for James Bardolph to cast for other tournament organizers. He did this in the past but mainly worked in ESL tournaments from 2023 onwards. His last tier-one tournament, for example, was the Esports World Cup in July 2024.

The 40-year-old caster didn't say the reason for leaving FACEIT, but he did announce that he's "available for commentary" and is interested in reuniting with Daniel "ddk" Kapadia, and form once again the partnership that many fans have missed.

The last event that James Bardolph and ddk worked together was the PGL Stockholm Major 2021, in which Bardolph claimed other talent members worked behind the scenes to gatekeep them from casting the semifinals.

After that, ddk left to work in VALORANT and Bardolph commented with different casters. However, ddk has been actively trying to get back into Counter-Strike esports since last year.