Serral

Last night, Joona "Serral" Sotala made esports history. He was the first non-Korean player to reach the world championship final in the 20 years the game has had one - but not only that, the Finnish Zerg won, becoming the first world champion not to carry the Korean flag.

For some context - in Starcraft, Koreans are so dominant that any player who is not Korean is simply referred to as a "foreigner". It's been a running joke in the Starcraft community for years, that even mediocre Koreans will always outshine foreign players. When any passionate fans are debating the greatest foreigners of all time, it will always come down to the very small handful who have been able to compete with Koreans and come out roughly equal. But none of them have achieved what Serral has achieved - on top of winning the world championship, he won all four major non-Korean tournaments this year, and GSL vs the World, the clash of the two regions (GSL is the top Korean league). He was also the first foreigner to take the crown in that tournament, and is one of a select few foreigners to have won a major tournament on Korean soil.

Before the world championships, there were whispers that the gap was closing. Reddit was unusually optimistic. The Korean players, usually dismissive of foreigners in interviews, didn't want to get drawn against Serral. They were scared - they didn't want to be the ones to lose to a foreigner. But they all did: Serral defeated an all-star lineup of the best players Seoul has to offer, having faced a Korean player in every single match he played in the tournament.

The first time I watched Serral play Starcraft, it was at Dreamhack Valencia 2013, when he was 14. He took a game off Life, who would go on to be the world champion next year, and is considered one of the best players of the modern era. I remember thinking Serral was promising for his age, but I never imagined he would achieve what he has this year. Before, fans would talk about which player would be the "foreign hope". Serral has made our hope a reality, in one of the most inspiring and emotional displays of skill I've ever seen on an esports stage.

Thank you Serral, for making me proud to be a fan of Starcraft, esports and gaming.

Torille.