Despite Grubby's retirement being enough to send shockwaves through the hearts of Warcraf3 fans, the most interesting piece of information within Cassandra's blog is that it was initially planned for MYM to keep hold of a few players instead of release them all.

"Since one month ago or so there were talks of keeping only 1-3 players in the team..," said Cassandra, "but closing the whole Warcraft III team altogether was unheard of. 'Is this a mistake?', we thought."

According to the Singaporean the news was a surprise, "when we first heard the news yesterday afternoon, we were both very disappointed." The decision to drop the entire Warcraft3 team reached the duo via a telephone call following a meeting of the MYM board where Warcraft3 was voted off.

Grubby enters the market as a free agent today but with even MYM unable to afford the Dutchman, it will be slim pickings to find a team able to pay his worth.

"Perhaps if he gets an offer that makes it possible to continue doing what he loves, he might go for it," said Cassandra, "if not, retiring from progaming is the next option." Cassandra believes that even if Manuel 'GrubbY' Schenkhuizen did decided to leave he "would walk away with his head high, and many worthy stories to tell his grandchildren.

"Even if Grubby retires from progaming, it is not the end of the world," said Cassandra. The last statement is definately a matter of opinion, it may not signal the end of the world but would certainly indicate that perhaps the golden age of Warcraft3 has passed us by and dark days lay before it.

MYM