Over the last month, members of the Hearthstone community would sit on Twitter and refresh Lead Designer Alec Dawson's profile in hopes that he would announce upcoming balance patches.

On Friday morning, those who refreshed his page saw an announcement from the developer that he would be leaving Team 5 and moving to an unannounced project within Blizzard Entertainment.

Ever since he joined Blizzard as an Initial Designer on the Hearthstone team back in 2018 (according to his LinkedIn account), Dawson used his background in game design to improve the title that millions of players enjoy each day.

Shortly after joining Team 5, Dawson found himself named Set Lead for the Saviors of Uldum expansion which was released in August of 2019. Notable powerful cards from the set include Khartut Defender, Siamat, Zephrys the Great, Plague of Death, Mogu Fleshshaper and numerous class Quests.

Apparently a fan of how the expansion turned out, Dawson was given the reigns to Scholomance Academy which would debut a year later in 2020. Cards such as Cult Neophyte, Pen Flinger, Mindrender Illucia, Secret Passage, Diligent Notetaker, Wand Thief, Jandice Barov and many, many more became meta staples that players still experience today.

In between the release of the two expansions, Dawson was promoted to Senior Game Designer in September of 2020 before becoming Lead Game Designer in March of this year.

Despite the "unannounced game" Dawson is joining being a mystery, some began theorizing that he could be joining former Hearthstone developers Conor Kou, Mike Donais, and Peter Whalen who also left the team for secret projects within the company.