Finnish e-sports top Joona “Serral” Sotala beat Italy’s Riccardo “Reynor” Romit by 4-3 in the World Cup final of StarCraft 2.
Finland Jonah “Serral” Sotala is the new world champion in StarCraft 2. 23-year-old Sotala won the Italian final of the IEM Katowice Grand Tournament in Poland Riccardo “Reynor” Romitin kartoin 4-3.
At the same time, the World Cup title of StarCraft 2, which was distributed, also traveled to Finland.
Romiti defended last year’s championship in the World Cup final, while Sotala has already once celebrated the 2018 World Championships in the United States. However, Sotala, who won almost everything in his career, still lacked the traditional IEM Katowice championship – until this Sunday.
Sotala started the series of matches that went beyond four map victories by rushing to a fast 2-0 lead. Katowice’s reigning champion, Romiti, however, showed his cunning by taking the next three maps and forcing Sotala’s back against the wall.
On the sixth map, however, Sotala, representing the Finnish ENCE, showed his cold nerves, leveling the game with a huge mutalisk army to 3-3. IEM Katowice’s victory and World Cup title would thus be decided on the seventh and final map.
At the time of the settlement, Sotala no longer faltered. The Finn, who relied on his excellent Lurker game, left no room for Romit and took both the solution map and the entire match series 4-3.
There was both joy and relief in Sota’s eyes when he was finally able to lift Katowice’s trophy into the air as a token of championship.
Sotala in a wild mood all week
Sotala rolled into the Katowice finals outright in show style. In the group stage, the Finnish star did not lose a map and grabbed the victory of Group B with a pure 10-0 record.
In the quarterfinals, Pornainen’s son defeated the South Korean Cho “Maru” Seong-jun 3-1 and the second Korean was left under the roller in the semi-finals Lee “Rogue” Byeong-yeol with a score of 3-0.
As Sotala and Romiti stepped onto Katowice’s final stage, it was a significant moment in StarCraft’s history: for the first time in the World Cup final, no South Korean players were playing.
In addition to the World Cup title, Sotala will credit IEM Katowice for $ 170,000, or just over € 150,000.
Watch the full recording of Sunday’s semi-finals and final at Areena: