I honestly would have never thought the time would come when I would write an article like this, at least not until a few months ago.
I had always rather pictured myself in a not too distant future, writing a book about my experience about the developement and growth of eSports in Italy.
Let us not waste time running around the subject, as I am sure most of its aspects will surface as I write, but I believe the time has come to pass on the baton and let someone else follow on our footsteps and let them have both the honors and the burdens this implies, following a path that I believe my staff and I have carried on in the best possible way during the past three years.
The years I've spent in this enviroement will always be regarded as some of the best in my life, something that had begun as a game and has slowly grown, gained a structure and has rapidly become some sort of a symbol, an hope, for all those who believe, and have always believed, that electronic sports deserved more room in Italy.
Vasacast has never been only a game to me, a diversion, or a passion: over the course of the past three years it has been something I nurtured and grown, hoping that someday it would find the right way to bloom in its full potential.
As you can easily imagine it has never been simple: the effort, time and resources spent by any and all of us would often equal those one would put into a job, but this has never been felt like a weight on our shoulders and we have always given it our best to improve ourselves and the framework in which we moved.
To me, Vasacast has also become an important school of life.
Facing the public, thousands of hours live, the people I've known, relationships with brands and sponsors... Lots of experiences that will stay with me and that will turn out to be useful in my life, both professionally and daily.
Then why leave it all? This might sound odd, but it is because I believe that at the present time we cannot do any more than this.
I have always been told that a project, just like an enterprise, need to grow and improve in order to survive, and today Vasacast would need too many resources to progress in its developement process, a developement that would inexorably come to collide with the environment in which we move, Italy.
This isn't the place to talk about economics or market-related situations, but I believe everyone can see the difficulties we're facing in our territory, and therefore it is even easier to understand how hard it is for a company working in a niche market such as gaming to get support, and how growing or evolving something is becoming increasingly difficult.
What had gotten us going, what had always driven us, has always been innovation and the constant search of that little something more that should always lead an healthy work group aiming at a common goal, and we would not be able to keep it up anymore.
Today we're witnessing the end of a journey that I believe could, and should, be taken as an example by many who would want this environment to be come a reality in Italy. I also believe that with dedication, commitment and passion, anything, even a game, can become something more.
This is the main reason we'd rather put a full stop today, rather than drag ourselves and pass away slowly and painfully, leaving but a memory of what has been done this far.
However, it should be noted that none of us will disappear. I for one am too tied to this environment, and to Starcraft, to disappear all of a sudden. The Italian Starcraft 2 scene certaintly won't end with Vasacast, as plenty of other groups have shown they can cover both Italian and International events just as fine, and i'm sure that, should the occasion arise, there will be no problem for me to help and comment an event, should this become necessary.
This is neither a farewell nor a goodbye, as life is too dynamic as a context to say for sure that we will never come back, but we'd rather be honest to ourselves, and even more to you all who have followed, cheered and favored us for all these years.
Thank you, everyone.
Alessandro 'Vasa' Vasarri
and all Vasacast staff.
Vasacast on Liquipedia
www.vasacast.com