What Serral’s Victory Means to Starcraft 2 and Its Fanbase
Back in 2011, I was first introduced to the video game Starcraft 2 by my older cousin, Isaiah. I would always anticipate Isaiah’s visits, as the long hours we spent playing the game together in my grandmother’s basement evolved into memories I’ll never forget. We were obsessed with discovering such a difficult but rewarding game, which involves mining resources and building an army to achieve one goal: militant victory.
What we quickly discovered was that this games predecessor Starcraft has been played competitively since 1998, making it one of the earliest and most popular esports since then. A huge reason for the games’ competitive popularity was the introduction of PC cafes in South Korea.The game’s newfound fame allowed for the possibility of its most devoted players to start a professional Starcraft career. Corporate sponsors like Samsung financially aided in organizing large tournaments with huge prizes, and media companies even created two television channels to broadcast these tournaments to millions of viewers. In addition, Starcraft became such a part of South Korean culture that non-South Korean players are called foreigners in the competitive scene.
Due to the popularity of Starcraft in South Korea being much higher than in any other country, the country’s professional gamers reached a much higher skill level compared to players in other countries. This aggressive dominance continued to prevail in the competitive scene of Starcraft 2, as it became common for South Korean teams to have dedicated houses for their players to practice the game against each other, get advice from coaches, and overall ensure they would always stay on top. In fact, every world championship from 1998–2017 for Starcraft and Starcraft 2 has been won by a South Korean!
So often as a fan I recall the vast amount of tournaments I’ve watched where a non-Korean has made it far into the tournament, only to be obliterated by a player from South Korea. Despite this long history of foreign players being inferior to South Korea’s best, the community still remained hopeful for the arrival of what they would call a “foreign hope”.
In 2018, however, the stigma was turned on its head due to the emergence of the Finnish player Joona “Serral” Sotala. After winning every major tournament in Europe and North America in the world championship circuit, Serral entered the Global Finals as a heavy favourite to end the reign of Korean dominance.
In the Global Finals, Serral disposed of all the best players that South Korea could muster in a dominating fashion, collecting a first place prize of $280,000 but most importantly a place in history and a lifelong memory for Starcraft 2 fans like me. This is an iconic moment in Starcraft 2 that has never been witnessed before and this has the potential to inspire other foreign players and change the landscape of the competitive scene as a whole. After years of South Korea having the best players, the fanbase can finally say that they have found their foreign hope.