Hyerim "MagicAmy" Lee will be taking a sabbatical from competitive Hearthstone as she announced her departure from Tempo Storm today, despite the team offering their support to the Korean player.
It's been wild couple of days for female Korean player Hyerim "MagicAmy" Lee. Yesterday, her name became the center of a huge drama, as former team-mate of hers Eric "Specialist" Lee posted a thread on Reddit, saying that she isn't who she claims to be. Specialist speculated that a group of people might be standing behind the MagicAmy persona: the female Korean being the face and a Canadian by the name of William Blaney being the guy who actually competed as her in online tournaments.
Though sounding wild and bizzarre at first, Specialist's claim was soon supported by Dignitas players Keaton "Chakki" Gil and Lewis "Blackout" Spencer, who provided screenshots further indicating that Blaney and Lee might have indeed shared an account. With MagicAmy also deciding to withdraw from the ESL Legendary Finals and thus dodging an opportunity to play in an offline event while giving several different reasons for that in the process, her case was not at all made easier.
Promptly, an investigation was launched by Tempo Storm, the team that employed MagicAmy until today, and the jury got out today. T/S' statement reads that they "believe that MagicAmy is one person and that Hyerim Lee is indeed who she claims to be." Consequently, Tempo Storm offered her full support in order to clear her name by "having her compete in an offline tournament" but MagicAmy met the offer with a decline. Instead, she will be taking a leave of absence from Hearthstone and "answer these issues on her own."
Tempo Storm's statement also addresses other allegations concerning the MagicAmy persona, namely scamming employers and players - an issues which Tempo Storm believe should be resolved privately between the parties in question. The possibilty her account being involved in boosting and win trading, with player Jeffrey "Tarei" Liu acting as a possible accomplice, is also addressed, but there's not much to be concluded there.
"We looked into this issue as far as we could, but we were not able to produce proof that someone else was responsible for any of her high legend rank finishes," Tempo Storm write. "The only people who truly know the answer are Blizzard and the involved individuals. On a side note, win trading is an unlikeky scenario considering how aggressively Blizzard banned notable win-traders, including Specialist, the spark of the entire controversy. They evenaccidentally falsely accused players. It feels safe to assume Blizzard would have caught such an action between Tarei/Hyerim or anyone else if this were the case."
What will MagicAmy's next move be remains to be seen but if there's one thing certain is that Tempo Storm are getting poor on players. The release of WeiseGuy and Kitkatz earlier this year and losing MagicAmy now leaves the team under the captainship of Andrey "Reynad" Yanyuk down to just three players: him, Petar "Gaara" Stevanovich and George "Hyped" Maganzini.
More on GosuGamers Hearthstone:
