ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

EGStephano has left the game!

Updated on August 11, 2013
Ilyes "Stephano" Satouri
Ilyes "Stephano" Satouri

At the end of his contract with Pro-gaming team Evil Geniuses, Zerg player Ilyes “Stephano” Satouri is retiring from competitive Starcraft 2. In a scene heavily dominated by Korean players, Stephano carried the foreign flame going toe-to-toe with the world’s best. Stephano is arguably the best foreign player that has graced the scene.

Stephano started turning heads with his failed transfer to Complexity from his team Millenium. Apparently, he agreed to the transfer only to retract his decision a few hours later. In a scene that is striving to be taken seriously by the mainstream media, this is very controversial. The incident could have had a very negative impact on his Starcraft 2 career.

Luckily enough, it wouldn't as his raw talent more than makes up for his unprofessionalism. Stephano went on to dominate the IGN Pro League Season 3 beating notable Korean players like viOlet, inori and Lucky. This tournament quickly established Stephano as a contender and won him a spot in the Blizzard Cup All-Stars. From there, Stephano would go on to win various premiere and major tournaments like Lone Star Clash and the third season of the North American Star League.

Stephano would go on to join the foreign powerhouse Evil Geniuses when his contract with Millenium expired.

Stephano after winning NASL
Stephano after winning NASL

Playstyle

Stephano has been known to revolutionalize the metagame particularly the Zerg versus Terran and Zerg versus Protoss match-ups. During a period in Wings of Liberty where Muta/Ling/Bling has been the dominant Zerg composition, Stephano would be one of the first to experiment with mass upgraded Zerglings with Infestors into Ultralisks. Stephano would replace Banelings with the Infestor’s Fungal Growth as his splash and this would synergize well with Ultralisks. This composition would prove to be far superior to Muta/Ling/Bling and would go on to be the standard metagame and comp for ZvT until Heart of the Swarm.

The Zerg versus Protoss matchup is where Stephano's mark will be felt. Stephano would get three early hatcheries and set his gas timings in order to max out on Roaches at the 12 minute mark. This hits an extremely deadly timing that would outright kill a Protoss that can’t defend it properly. Protoss players would eventually have to develop a specific counter to the build: the dreaded Immortal-Sentry all-in. The Roach Max gas timings would become the standard gas timings for months to come.

Stephano’s strength lies on his impeccable game sense and can often win games with minimal scouting. As such, the very reactive Zerg versus Zerg match up proved to be very difficult for him. Stephano was very vulnerable to Zerg all-ins but his impeccable micro saves him more often than not.

Did you know?

Koreans are the best at Starcraft 2 and that they dominate so much that pretty much every other player who's not Korean is referred to as a foreigner.

Heart of the Swarm

The release of the first Starcraft 2 expansion Heart of the Swarm proved to be a new beginning for most players and true enough there were noticeable shifts in individual strength as some players become stronger where others just fail to adapt well. Stephano would remain a strong contender coming close to winning the first season of WCS EU only to be stopped by heavyweight and multi-GSL champion IM.Mvp.

Stephano was also brought in to participate in Proleague under the EG-TL alliance. In his first game, he well-mannerly typed "gl hf" in the chat as per tradition. Unbeknownst to him, however, Proleague has a strict no chat rule in its games that had disqualified players in the past. Luckily his opponent herO responded with a "gl" and prevented a disqualification. Stephano would then defeat herO using his trademark 12-minute Roach Max build.

Farewell

On August 6, Stephano fought Lucifron in a grueling series which ended in his defeat 0-2. In the last game, Stephano would type out his farewell to the community which was expanded in a post-game interview. While he said that he loved being a part of the game community, he felt that the game was no longer for him. He was to go back to his studies and pursue a degree.

Stephano's farewell
Stephano's farewell

Legacy

The first game of Stephano I’ve ever seen was against a Terran on Xel’Naga Caverns. I distinctly remember Stephano splitting his Zerglings to avoid the Siege Tank’s splash damage. This micro and control may be standard now, but back then I was pretty new to Starcraft 2 and that just blew my mind.

As proof of his impact on the scene, it has been suggested on r/Starcraft that Stephano would have an "Immortal Game" taken from chess tradition. In chess, if a player retires or dies, his best game played would be known as his Immortal. Personally, I believe a game where Stephano would crush his opponent with his signature 12 minute Roach Max would be appropriate.

Legends come and legends go. The best dominate but eventually decline as new players step up and best them. Stephano, while not entirely on the decline, is quitting while he is ahead but he will be leaving behind a legacy as one of the best.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)