StarCraft II World Championship Won By a Non-Korean

Joona ‘Serral’ Sotala has just made history at BlizzCon 2018, becoming the first ever foreign World Champion in the StarCraft franchise. Up until today, every victor since the championship began in 2005 hailed from Korea. The Finnish Zerg solidified his legacy as the best player from the foreign circuit ever to play StarCraft II.

Serral’s 2018 was a road paved with success; having won all four WCS Circuit competitions in Leipzig, Austin, Valencia, and Montreal, as well as the GSL vs. the World tournament in South Korea earlier this summer, the 20 year old entered BlizzCon as one of the favorites to claim the championship. The Fin fought his way through a star-studded bracket, taking down the likes of Joo ‘Zest’ Sung-wook, Kim ‘sOs’ Yoo-jin, Park ‘Dark’ Ryung-woo, Lee ‘Rogue’ Byung-ryul, and Kim ‘Stats’ Dae-yeob in the process.

The first place finisher of the 2018 WCS Global Finals took home $280,000, with half that amount going to the runner-up. The prize pool was increased by $200,000 from the initial $500,000 through crowd funding in the form of Warchests offering in-game goodies for fans.