The mythology of Gabe Newell now includes Mongolian throat singing

As a college student, Minh "Gooseman" Le had a substantial hand in shaping PC gaming history: He co-created Counter-Strike. When Le and his development partner later sold the IP to Valve, the purchase agreement stipulated that the studio would also hire the pair as employees once they completed their degrees. Hired in 2000, Le ultimately spent six years with the company, witnessing impactful moments of Valve history—moments like Gabe Newell's Mongolian throat singing phase.

In a YouTube interview with games marketing consultant Joe Henson, Le called the mythologized Valve founder a "very eccentric" person with a tendency to "venture off into interesting hobbies." According to Le, one of those ventures involved a hyperfixation with Mongolian-Tuvan throat singing, a distinctive singing style in which a vocalist harmonizes multiple pitches simultaneously through precise muscle control.

It's sick. But by the end of Newell's fascination with the technique—initially sparked after the CEO watched a documentary about its Mongolian practitioners—some Valve employees might not have thought so.

"He started to practice that. He started to do Mongolian throat singing, and he was doing it throughout the office. You would hear him try to sing with his throat as he's walking down the halls," Le said. "I remember a lot of people in the office were kind of annoyed, because, you know, it's kind of loud. And he would just walk along the halls just doing this throat singing. And he would do it daily."

Thankfully, Le said, the phase only "lasted for about five months."

Other additions to the Newell canon:

• Newell evidently isn't just a knife guy—he's also a sword guy and axe guy. Le said he maintained a room where he maintained a collection of "all these big-ass medieval swords and axes."
• Newell has a tendency to drop "difficult questions": When he first met Newell, Le—then a 23 year-old—found himself suddenly having to explain what makes a great game for Valve's CEO in the middle of a company lunch. Le said it's not a "malicious" habit, and that Newell's otherwise a "very nice guy."
• He loves a corndog: As a demonstration of how the Valve founder could be "just like a regular colleague," Le recalled passing Newell in a hallway as the CEO was enjoying a corndog—a delight that he, magnanimously, encouraged Le to partake in as well.