No one can deny that Joona “Serral” Sotala has been one of the most dominant players in the history of StarCraft II. Most of the time, he is seen dominating the game with his high-level performances, and he did not waste time in owning the big stage of StarCraft II in the Esports World Cup 2025.

Once again, the Finnisher finishes strong, and he is now crowned the champion of the SCII tournament in the EWC, this time, he brings home a massive prize of $200,000, and a promising bragging rights to silence all of his critics who are creating ruckus about him moving on from the game. Definitely served them all right.

Serral’s triumph over Kim “Classic” Doh-woo was quite a stunning finish, and it cannot be denied that the SCII star has showed time and time again that he remains as the most prominent player in the game, which says a lot about his legacy in the game. No one would have anticipated that he’ll be coming back for more performances given how he’s missed some time in the game.

A Serral Clinic

Serral was owning the whole tournament right from the start. The Finnish star did not suffer any losses in the Group Stages when he took down HeRoMaRine and Classic in those games. The Finnisher made it look easy as he plowed through his opponents in just a short amount of time, showing how ready he was coming into the tournament.

In the Playoffs, Serral took down one of his rivals in Reynor with a 3-2 thriller – perhaps the only challenging game that he’s played in the whole tournament so far. He would then beat Cure in a sweep in the semifinals before securing his spot in the Grand Final.

Classic, on the other hand, had to battle in the lower brackets of the Group Stages after losing to Serral. He defeated ShoWTime in a 3-0 sweep before qualifying for the Playoffs, then swept through Clem in the Quarterfinals and dropped only a single game to Solar in the semis.

Serral took a 2-0 lead in a whimper in the final with wins in Persephone and Incorporeal. Classic did find a way to steal a win in Ultralove before Serral jumped back to a 3-1 lead with a win in Pylon. Classic tried to stay alive and even conquered a victory at Ley Lines to make it 3-2, but Serral was undaunted that he took over Torches and Magannatha to deny two more games for Classic and lock up the final for good.

A Defining Victory for Serral

This victory over Classic marked Serral’s third major world title, behind his championships in IEM Katowice back in 2022 and 2024. It can be remembered that Serral also played in the first SC2 EWC event but fell to Clem in the final. He is also the first finalist to return to the final stage of the same tournament.

“This is the highest achievement you can get,” Serral said after the match. “I trained hard, I put a lot of effort into it. I’m kind of speechless, just incredibly happy.”

The tournament drew a massive amount of global attention, with the final peaking at 80,000 concurrent viewers and an average of 40,000. That is a total of 1.4 million hours watched, with the final being the most-watched showdown of all.