Saahil "Universe" Arora announced his retirement from Dota 2 on Thursday, about two weeks after he was released from Ninjas in Pyjamas' roster.
"I have decided to retire as a player from competitive dota 2," the 30-year-old wrote in a statement posted on Twitter. "Whenever I do anything in life I tend to be an all or nothing type of person and dota was no different. For the past 10 years I have given everything I have to this game/competition and it was an incredible experience.
"Now the time has come to pursue other interests and figure out what comes next. Thank you to my fans and past teammates for the amazing memories I will never forget."
Retirement
— Saahil Arora (@UniverseDota) April 23, 2020
Read: https://t.co/arwWHlRZqc
NiP released Universe, who joined the team last September, on April 7, citing the coronavirus pandemic for forcing a change in their plans.
Universe, a 30-year-old from Wisconsin, and offlaner Rodrigo "Lelis" Santos, a 23-year-old from Brazil, were replaced on the roster by "stand-ins" Roman "Ramzes" Kushnarev and Milan "MiLAN" Kozomara, respectively, on March 26. However, on April 4, team captain Peter "ppd" Dager of the United States announced that Evgeniy "Blizzy" Ree would be taking over for Ramzes.
The moves were made ahead of ESL One Los Angeles Online's Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States competition.
NiP also are slated to compete in the WePlay! Pushka League beginning April 23.
Universe is best known for a pair of stints with Evil Geniuses (2013-16 and 2016-17) -- contributing to a title at The International in 2015 -- sandwiched around a tenure with Team Secret (2016). He has also spent time with Team Dignitas (2013), Fnatic (2018) and Forward Gaming (2018-19).