StarCraft 2's most successful European announces retirement

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StarCraft II pro Ilyes "Stephano" Satouri announced on a livestream today that he intends to retire from professional gaming this August, returning to school with his over $200,000 in winnings. The French Zerg player is arguably the most successful non-Korean in the history of the game (indisputably, based on winnings alone). His most recent major victory was at the 2012 Blizzard WCS European finals, since which he has been showing less impressive performance.

Not everyone in the community is wholly convinced by the announcement, however, as it's not the first time Stephano has announced such intentions only to resume regular tournament play. GameSpot's Rod "Slasher" Breslau tweeted:

https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/334063075747586048

Stephano specified a date of August 15 for his retirement, which would mean he won't be participating in the World Championship Series Grand Finals in November of this year. So, it might be a while before we know how serious he actually is—and he's got plenty of time to change his mind. Whatever the case, we'll keep an eye on Team EG, which we expect to have an eye out for ways to fill the void left by the loss of two of their best non-Korean players.

Photo Credit Kevin Chang, Team Liquid [Creative Commons BY-SA (Attribution—Share-Alike)]

Len Hafer
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Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.