22-year-old Clément “Clem” Desplanches defeated Joona “Serral” Sotala in the final match of the Esports World Cup tournament with a crushing score of 5-0.
Dominated Starcraft 2 for a long time Jonah “Serral” Military lost the championship of the sport to a Frenchman Clement “Clem” For Desplanches 0-5 in a crushing loss.
Sotala’s resistance, a promising 22-year-old French Terran player Clément “Clem” Desplanches became a finalist after defeating a South Korean Protoss player Kim “herO” Joon-hon 4 to 0. Desplanches, who started playing Starcraft 2 at the age of 10, has long been considered a rising star of the game. He has also been called by the nickname The Wonder Kid.
The 26-year-old Sotala has been considered the world’s best player in his sport. He has previously won the official Starcraft 2 world championship twice in 2018 and 2022, in addition to which he has won dozens of tournaments around the world. Starcraft 2 is considered the most demanding game in e-sports.
Sotala advanced to the final match by outrunning the South Korean Zerg player Park “Dark” Ryung-woon in the semi-final I scored 4–0.
In the semi-finals, the best of seven sets was enough to win, while the best of nine was required to win the final.
After the match, the presenter asked Sotala how she was able to win so well.
– It’s just part of being Finnish, I guess. There is no reason to panic, came Sotala’s cool English answer.
Sotala is known for his poker face, which failed Vaininki in the final match.
The Starcraft 2 tournament was played in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The winner of the tournament received a top prize of $400,000. Overall, the prize money was distributed among the winning players, a whopping million dollar pot.
There is an Esports World Cup tournament organized for the first time, as well as its host country, Saudi Arabia accused about sportswashing, i.e. sports washing, which refers to the phenomenon by which states and companies seek to boost their reputation through sports. Saudi Arabia in particular has been criticized for using the tournament as a tool to divert attention from the country’s poor human rights situation.