Dear has just announced that he will be retiring from professional Starcraft 2 due to serving mandatory military service in the coming months. Here is his full statement on his retirement:
Who is Dear?
Baek “Dear” Dong Jun has been playing Starcraft 2 since 2010 and has been under numerous teams and organizations, such as: STX SouL, Mousesports, Samsung Galaxy, Newbee, and more recently, KaiZi Gaming. He has an approximate total of $246,321.51 in esports earnings. Here below are some of his best achievements:
- 1st in 2013 WCS Season 3 – 27th October 2013 – $40,000
- 1st in 2013 WCS Season 3 Korea GSL: Premier League – 19th October 2013 – $20,000
- 3rd/4th in Global StarCraft II League Season 2: Code S – 2nd September 2016 – $8,142.59
- 3rd/4th in Global StarCraft II League Season 1: Code S – 22nd April 2016 – $7,614
Photo by: Kevin “Silverfire” Chang
Dear announces his retirement – Why was he forced to retire?
For the people that live in native South Korea, military service is mandatory, and Dear, being 26 years old, has decided to start his service in October. It is unclear as to what his exact role in the military will be, which means that there his service length in the military is unknown. Here’s what he had to say regarding his retirement:
I am glad that I got the opportunity to meet many pro players, staff members, and fans. The experience that I had with all of the mentioned above will remain as valuable memories to me. I will never forget such experiences and my career as a professional Starcraft 2 player.
Dear’s twitlonger
It will be very sad to see a legend such as Dear retire this way, as he is still a very young individual with huge potential in the RTS esports genre. One can only hope that he returns to esports and maintain his status as a legend in the game.
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