Serral: The Finnish Phenom who Shattered Esports’ Oldest Dynasty
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- Throughout 2018, Serral proved himself to be the most dominant force in competitive StarCraft II.
In addition to becoming the only player to have won every WCS circuit event in a single year, Serral became the StarCraft II World Champion by winning Blizzcon, the game’s most prestigious tournament.
But the thing that’s most incredible about Serral’s historic feat is the fact that he achieved it as a non-Korean.
In becoming the first non-Korean ever to win a world championship, Serral also became the first player to truly destabilize that dominance. To prove, once and for all, that you don’t have to be Korean to play StarCraft at the absolute highest level.
Written by: Dimitri Pascaluta (@DPascaluta)
Edited by: Colten Gowan (@TheOnlyZoltan)
Hosted by: Daniel Rosen (@Daniel_Rosen)
Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).
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Oh, he's definitely Finnish. doesn't even smile after winning, just walks over to the trophy like "I guess this is mine now... I thought it would be heavier. wonder what I should have for dinner today"
. o O ("oh god not a handshake!")
haha. funny stereotypes
@@aikuisviihteenarkkipiispa8602 I have been a fan of Kimi Raikkönen for a decade. I know what I signed up for, and its NOT a stereotype :D
@@DGARedRaven Or Janne Ahonen in ski jumping.
@@DGARedRaven jerax is finnish and always went nuts when they won.
he is actually nominated for an the athlete of the year award her here in Finland with other greats like Lauri Markkanen and many other mainstream athletes!
Doesn't Grubby from wc3 also have a similar status in the Netherlands?
That's actually amazing
he deserves it, no matter what you think of esports, breaking a 20year dominance is something else.
@@arondj he gets mentioned on some gaming shows back in the day but definitely not a famous person and hasn't ever made it to mainstream news as far as I'm aware
That's pretty cool 👍 Hope he wins
As a finn myself, i am so proud of his pokerface.
I am ashamed as a finn that i had no clue about this guy... that poker face is stronger than steel
Yeah like that poker face is lvl 99 even for a finn
I fucking love his expressionless face as he holds trophies STRAIGHT UP with his hands lmao. What a God. All the zerg players have cried at least once bc of serral
fucking tonnin seteli
Lol
just when i stopped following starcraft, serral pulls me back in!
my exact thought
Just when I thought I was out.. they pull me back in!
@U Temuulen you had amazing opurtunity to say like a carier with viper
i missed all of it :/
That’s what u call ABDUCT of serral
I'm S. Korean and I find myself cheering for Serral... Respect for talent has no race.
This is maybe very late comment but totally agreed! I'm happy for individuals who win, race doesn't matter
Korea is also very popular in Finland. The culture, food, music, traveling there etc.
Serral actually did an amazing job for the SC2 health, he brought up so many atention from the ppl into a game that lost a lot of ppl lately. I myself stoped playing and watching SC2 and now im in again. Serral is just what SC2 needed
I've been following sc2 since it's release, over 8 years. For all that time I've been waiting to see a foreigner rise to the top starting wih Jinro, Idra, Huk, Naniwa etc. Finally it happens and it turns out the guy who did it lives like 20km from my place, crazy lol.
Region lock Finland
Lmfao
I think you'd have to include the whole set of Nordic Countries. There's a massively disproportionate amount of top-tier pro players from here compared to EU and USA.
@@killerkonnat Yeah, we're kinda a bunch of pathetic nerds.
@@khatack its just colder and people spend more time inside. nothing wrong about that :D
@@kintarooe7745 Hush, I'm trying to make us appear humble xD
Starcraftttttt clicked so fast when i just saw this
Tengku Aliff are you...are you Korean?
The fact that the so-called "Game Awards" didn't award him Player of the Year makes it painfully clear their only purpose was to promote games developers paid them to.
No one else should have even been considered, yet he wasn't even on the "nominations". Who the hell is Sonicfox and how many esports empires has he toppled?
SonicFox won because he is a winner in multiple games over the 2018 year and not just one. SonicFox deserves the praise.
Michael Smith In addition, Serrals was not also not the most dominating. Maru won WESG (beating Serral), 3 GSLs, and Rouge won IEM Katowice. I think, however, 2019 will be the year that he wins all the tournaments (maybe even a GSL) that he participates in because during 2018 he had a lot of room for improvement, but at the end of 2018 his mechanics and game sense became unrivalled.
lol I agree that's its ridiculous that Serral wasn't nominated, but Sonicfox totally deserved that award. He practically became world champions of MANY fighting games the same year! cruising between them without breaking a sweat
Mason 1 year later and it’s a three-way tie for Serral, Reynor, and Clem in Europe
@@spicytunah8043 not really, it's still just serral. I would say reynor comes second and clem has started to get on reynor's level now.
Dude Serral was so incredible this year it was like a story from a movie it was so cool I would literally watch a movie like this
10:17 that instant corrupter split
Serral's dominance cannot be undersold.
He has not lost a series in offline play, including group stages, for just about 10 months.
As mentioned, Serral is the first non-Korean in a Blizzcon finals but might as well be the first non-Korean to be in a Blizzcon Ro4. The only two other foreigners to make the Ro4, SpeCial and Elazer, did so because they were seeded against another non-Korean in the Ro8.
And if he wins GSL, in addition to no non-Korean ever winning that league, the only non-Korean to win any Korean league, Grrrr..., did so in 2000 during the second ever Korean Starcraft (Brood War) tournament.
what about neeb?
aren't you forgetting Envyus winning an Overwatch tournament in Korea, Apex season 1, in 2016. First western team to win a major tournament in Korea against Koreans
I think I just teared up a little bit hearing him talk about how hard he wants to keep the streak going. I don't personally play StarCraft II but I know that the Koreans have dominated this game for a long time. I hope Serral continues to dominate and give hope to other regions.
When can we start calling the Koreans `the best non-Serral players in the world` ?
lold
Lol. Then everybody is a non serral player
@@dennisdalida3584 I mean, technically yeah, everyone is a non-Serral player except for, y'know, Serral
When he beats Maru.
Baelor he has
Yes! I love starcraft and am a big serral fan, amazing to finally see him get recognition :D
So what more did Serral need to do in 2018 to end up on theScore esports awards at the very least as a candidate for best player of the year? Does StarCraft 2 not count as an esport anymore or Serral not good enough?
You mean 2019?
@@krioni86sa No this video was highlighting everything he did last year, in 2018. Nothing StarCraft related has really happened in 2019 expect for the qualifier for IEM Katowice
sc2 is pretty low as an esport now, this isn’t the early 2010’s anymore
@@brianbaez5283 It's getting closer to those numbers.
It’s a joke tbh he had undoubtedly the best 2018 of anyone possible the best year ever
was wondering when this vid was going to come.
I had quit sc2 going back to broodwar years ago.
Serral's GSL vs The world run was the first time since then that I looked at someone's run in any esport game. I cried.
Being someone who grew up with starcraft, Serral's achievements are mind blowing. Non-starcraft players will never understand just how big a deal what he did last year is.
Thanks for bringing attention to this.
I'm not even a Starcraft player at all, but having heard of Koreans basically dominating and owning whichever esport they're in... It's amazing to see and hear someone break a Korean esport dynasty in one front. Not just any esport, the very esport that Koreans were meme'd or stereotyped to be so dedicated to, Starcraft. It gave me so much chills.
@@wunzeptepwun6175 Yupp. Starcraft is like boxing. It´s the old esport. The granddaddy. The Esport that gave Koreans esports. This is a very big deal.
@@wunzeptepwun6175 well at least it was sc2 not the good ol sc1 which was almost from the start (maybe around 1998-2000 was close) comically disproportionate
Probably the most incredible individual achievement I have ever seen in the 10+ years I've been following various esports. Truly breaking history. OG's TI achievement last year was great and all but this was on a different level entirely if you ask me
Nah, serral was perfoming like a god months before wcs started, i cant put serral over ogs ti run. Lets do this, if serral had begun to play sc2 2 months before wcs finals, and then, win it, he could win my first place, because og did do that.
@@pieroluque6979 There's some truth about what you're saying but Serral ended a fucking 20 years dynasty. He took out every major event winner. He took 1st place at every 2018 event he attended except for 2018 WCS Leipzig - Europe Qualifier - IEM Season XII - World Championship - World Electronic Sports Games 2017 which makes it a 12/15 overall.
It is indeed the most incredible achievement in any esport ever.
Major Buisson, maître de la buissonnade incurvée. Yea in a time where koreans dont care about sc2 anymore.
Congratulations to serral the king of dead sc2.
@@Qwert_567 They occupy the top 8 at every event they attend. SC2 may be less popular nowadays but it's still impressive to do what he has done.
It is still the greatest achievement ever.
@@Qwert_567 yeah sc2 is dead, anything else?
This is the greatest achievement of 2018 in Esports if you know how insane this actually is. SC2 is such a resource intensive game.
Huh? You can run SC2 on a 6-8 year old machine on highest settings using a modest GPU.
@@dannygjk not computer resource
@@mareksicinski3726 Huh? What is not computer resource?
@@dannygjk most attentive youtube commenter
wow that's actually insane. He's a God and I never played starcraft. His story is truly legendary.
The Finnisher!
Thats a good one =D
Oh wow did you come up with that by yourself ?
@@knowledgeispower3212 Nah i heard Winter say it.
@@knowledgeispower3212 It's all over the Starcraft community, no need to get triggered over him using it. Almost everyone in the Starcraft community calls Serral the Finnisher
great short doc. EVERYtime i see/hear Jeff (INcontroL) Robinson I tear up. A true legend to online commentary. friendships, comedy, information (gaming and otherwise). YOU ARE MISSED MY FRIEND!
Such a great video. This is possibly the most incredible thing to ever have Happened in esports
Edit: For anyone wanting to know more about Serral, watch the WCS Signature series on him. It's an amazing and emotionel story.
GAMER OF THE YEAR!!!!!!! no even nominated :'(
Those titles are senseless anyway
@Fiif not really, he doesn't need to do that. it's not "mOre imPrEssIvE" or anything, it's just a different format for a tournament.
You can't deny that Serral is a top tier athlete, his mind and reflexes honed to a razor edge to compete. SC2 is still a fantastic competitive Esport, it might not have the massive following of other games but it has been going the longest and that's a testament to how good the game is for competition.
Ending a 20+year dynasty of korean dominance..CRAZY!
8 years, serral won because no korean takes SC2 seriously anymore
@@elisabettajdj335 Thank you! I came here to say this. Not trying to take any of his accomplishments away but Brood War and SC2 are different games. Yes, they both are RTS's taking place in the StarCraft universe and share the same races but BW is a completely different beast than SC2. BW is what set the bar and the legacy of Korea in eSports not SC2. Beating Korea in SC2 is not the same as BW especially when you take into account that BW had a resurgence with remastered being released at the end of 2017. A lot of the top pros went back to the "harder" game with the hd update. He is very good at SC2, no one is doubting that but to say say he "ended a 20+ year dynasty of korean dominance" is crazy.
@@Ryan-vt3be yes somebody finally said it!
Ryan Ebanks that is not why the old Korean pros went back to BW, they went back to BW cause they sucked at sc2 not cause it was harder. Jaedong, Flash, and Bisu all said themselves they went back to BW cause the new Koreans were better than them. Jaedong himself said he liked BW cause he can do his broken micro trick that was a glitch in the program.
@@KCal25 I'm a Korean and I can confidently say "they went back to BW cause they sucked at sc2" is not true. Many BW pros did very well. Some of them have built a stereotype of themselves where they seem like they suck and people are easily manipulated by this. E.g. Flash had very high win rate in Proleague but people think he wasn't very good. He was taking series off many old SC2 veterans consistently and was top 5 SC2 player in Proleague. Rain, Soulkey and many others had a very successful "career" in SC2 as well.
The biggest reason is the profit. They get easily 4000~10000 viewers streaming BW (the numbers may have declined a little for the past few years but compared to SC2, still way bigger numbers) where as SC2 only attracts few hundreds. Remember, they are making a LIVING out of playing games. Jaedong also said that he thinks SC2 is an awesome and fun game.
It annoys me when people "assume" things after hearing something from their friends or on the comment section of whatever they are watching.
Yes! Serral deserves a video of the biggest achievement ever in SC(2)! I'm still disappointed that he didn't get nominated for an eSports award by theScore though...
Even after 3 years, this video still gives me chills
SERRAL
And now 2019!
I'm just happy that INControL was alive to witness this momentous event!
It's amazing how Finland, with a population of only 5.5 M people (9 times fewer than South Korea for example), can provide so many insanely talented players :
- Serral, the only non-Korean to have won SC2 Blizzcon
- Matumbaman, who won Dota 2 TI 2017 with Team Liquid*
- Topson & JerAx, who won Dota 2 TI 2018 with OG
- Cyanide, who won LoL worlds 2011 with Fnatic
- Paragon, a 25-players Finnish guild who dominated World of Warcraft from Lich King 25 HM to Ragnaros 25 HM (the only 1-country guild to have done so, most other dominating guilds having members from all Europe)
matumba won with liquid not alliance
That is sort of like Canada when it comes to Hockey & Comedians/Actors.
Then you have Taimou, Linkzr, Fragi, Shaz, BigGoose, Masaa, rCk, Ripa & LhCloudy playing in Overwatch League (highest "league" in Overwatch eSports).
Then you have Milkyman, Zappis, Zuppeh, Davin who just won EU Contenders (Overwatch).
and ofc you have ex leader of Paragon Seita, who now coaches Overwatch League team called Paris Eternal.
@@user-ui5eu Was about to say that
Don't forget the legend metsanauris and mognus from rl
It is a glorious time to be a starcraft freak.
I'm not crying you're crying.
Ska
1:58 - Proud of you Special, you've come a long way!
I remember the moment Serral won Blizzcon. Barely stoped tears. Even watching this video i almost cried from happiness. The fact he wasn't nominated for TGA is joke.
SUOMI MAINITTU TORILLA TAVATAAN!!!
suomi perkele
Lani bileet pornaisessa?
Tuon zergit
Suomi suoamoto sumo?
I have no idea what you're talking about 😊
TORTILLA SATANA LAKKU PERKELE
Perkele?
PERKELE!
PERRRRRRRRRRRKELE!
Sauna satana Kekkonen (I'm actually Irish but don't spoil my fun).
Another story that I like from Serral's 2018 run is
There are actually korean pros who could not acknowledge Serral as best player like soO, Rogue, Dark, Maru, etc... but somehow, Serral have chances to beat them all in GSL vs Worlds, Blizzcon, and Homestory cup..
In the end of the year, all of their interviews are about how to beat Serral in 2019
He changed the world and the whole scenes truly
I do not play starcraft but i watch games. Been waiting for this
would love to see a vid on soO finally winning a championship after coming in 2nd place for so long
The man that made me play sc2 again
lord emco just bcuz hes white?
Johann S are you dumb? Of course not, it’s because history was made (I don’t know why that made him go back to sc2 but it isn’t because he is white)
@@Qwert_567 You must think cows are racist because their milk is white.
@@Qwert_567 If Serral was black and from a small village in Africa it would have the same effect, it's an underdog story, years of hard work and dedication and will to improve and will to achieve the highest level of play paying off. If you are not motivated by that, you are totally lost.
Seppo Pihlajamäki wtf are you talkin boy?
Do you think the champions from before didnt put as much effort into it?
Do you think koreans are born with the ability to play perfect starcraft and serral is the only one who has to practise?
No man. If you wanna get motovated you should be also be inspired by the champions from all the years before too.
But your comment shows me that you only appreciate serrals hard work and not from those before.
He Finnished what he started.
I have been waiting for this since the moment. You guys were my first thought about covering this topic.
2018 was THE YEAR of the Underdogs in eSports. From Cinderalla comebacks to Dynasties shattered, if this year's eSports events were missed by someone, I feel sorry for them.
The irony of your statement is that if you remember through 2018, and just how dominant he was, not even dropping an offline series in what, 10-11 months towards the end? Iirc, it seemed like he wasn't an underdog cinderalla story at the end. More like the final boss everyone more or less expected to win. Because he simply looked better, and at another level of play than anyone else that year, he was just that good. Most 'good' opponents didn't even take matches off of him. And it was only two of the koreans who even could, and even the final stats one was one where serral heavily dominated from start to finish when you look at the whole series in context.
It didn't seem like he was an underdog. I guess the thing that more was groundbreaking was the fact anyone outside of korea got that good. It was like 'how the hell did this guy get this good?, damn, he is GOOD. A non korean at last, can he finally do it?". Even though most knew he could, but he simply had to prove it by doing it, because no one else had been able to for 20 years.
Also note that... it's the year Starcraft Remastered came out. Koreans weren't playing SC2
Miss seeing these guys playing in TB's tournaments. It's awesome hearing about serral going so far in these big tournaments.
That's lit I haven't played Starcraft in my life
playing starcraft since 97 man. good to see vids like this
Love your work! Everything you do is so inspiring. Keep up the outstanding labor you've been doing so far!
4 years passed! Serral is still dominating……..
People who don't watch sc2 just won't understand the excitement and unbelievableness for those who watched (especially non-koreans) serral getting into the wcs grand final. You knew it's a prophecy being fulfilled, that experience was transcendent.
If you are a good story teller you can make others get excited as well, it is a great story.
Really great video, love the production value almost as much as I love StarCraft! :D
Same as Topson of Dota 2.
Finnish and seemed like from the far end of the world.
Just swoop in like a phoenix and took championship.
Amazing people
Before Blizcon he had more WCS points than second, third, fourth and fifth place together.
He is a Legend
More starcraft pls
Very cool roundup. 2018 was an AMAZING year for Starcraft. Loved every single tounamant and everything was so high quality... looking forward for a great season 2019!!! Maybe i visit Katowice. :D
Serral looks like he doesn't give a shit everytime he wins. King of pokerface!
Can’t wait to see what he’ll accomplish this year
Yes!!!! More SC2 and Serral coverage!!!!
Serral is amazing! He looks unbeatable! I'm not a huge zerg fan but Serral is the man!
Serral vs DeepMind !!
wth i never knew serral was from a farming village... that's amazing.
I'm Korean but I am a Serral fan and hope he maintains his #1 dominance. Watching him play, he's like a machine!
Tbh the reason why Serral became dominant is there's no young Korean SC2 gamers coming out. Most of them are over 25
thanks for the coverage.
Always such a fan of your starcraft videos! You guys bring such hype!
2:09 incontrol rest in pece bro
It's so sad seeing Incontrol again.
RIP man
idd rip you beautiful man
did you know that Starcraft 2 is free to play now and you could literally download it this very instant and play?
Serral is so damn good it doesn't even feel real.
Rest in Peace, InControL.
the embodiment of a true champion
I like the poker face when he lifts the trophy :D classic.
loved how i watched this like i know what's going on
just started watching serral's game and you can see how good he can be with micromanaging his units
Serral is a beast even top korean fear him
Keep the content coming 👀 Goodluck 🙏
Happy this video arrived. I don't care what RUclips commenters say this man is a bonjwa.
Can we get a similar video about SK's absolute dominance in cs 1.6 in the early 2000's?
If you have followed or played Starcraft you have to appreciate this win. It wasn't the result of exploitation or cheese, he truly outplayed everyone.
Amazing feat, amazing gamer. Withdrawn and shy in true nordic fashion. I can re-watch this for days, stay true Serral.
that mothership pick. hands down my favorite moment in gaming history. That pick was the winning manuever. I'm pretty sure I cried watching that.
Look at his supplies. Look at the bank. Serral could have rebuilt that army in a single larvae rotation from his hatches. He had won the game 10 minutes ago. That´s the thing about Serral, he takes a lead and just walks em down, slowly and methodically. He plays SC2 late game like an AI plays chess late game. Fucking insane!
It is not that special or even super rare tbh, it’s just the killing blow
First non-korean (and only one until Serral) was actually a canadian player named "Grrrr..." who won the 2000 Hanaro OSL (the first official OSL and the 2nd official ongamenet Starcraft tournament). So Serral is not the first, but.. it's nonetheless still mega impressive how much he dominates Starcraft now. 17 years of domination finally come to an end.
The GOAT.
I was waiting for this video for so long
And he has gotten better.
This still hits
Hell yes I’ve been waiting for this !!
He won homestory cup too
Everyone forgets about my boy Neeb, he is the first one to knock the gate of the Korean Empire when he won the first Korean Tournament in SOUTH KOREA back in 2016.
For you non starcraft fans, let me put that into perspective. Remember how Faker cried after SKT lost worlds? Well, they had held that title for 2 years. Now imagine that there was a LoL1 and LoL2, and for all the 20 years history of LoL one korean team had dominated every single year. Sure, players rotate in and out sometimes even an old team mate pops back in, but they clean sweep every single worlds. Now imagine that some Finish dude is the mid laner for an EU team, and he CRUSHES lane every. Single. Game. The final of worlds comes, and he crushes Faker in lane. Makes him feed. Every. Single. Game. THIS is the level of upset we are talking about. Names like Dark, Stats, Rogue and Innovation are like Fakers on steroids in the Starcraft scene. You just do not beat those guys, even if you are korean. Do you know how many people have clean swept fucking Innovation in a professional tournament? Not sure, but I am willing to bet an arm and a leg that they can be counted on one hand.
Yo I love whoever runs your IG account. Thanks for that video of Colin 😉
thanks for making a video out of this.
U TOOK UR FKING TIME! BUT DAMN I FORGIVE U FOR DOING THIS VID, LOVE U GUYS!
Holy crap. Both Serral and CyanideFI live within 10km of my childhood home at my small town.
I was world's best at Rift with a lot of competition. I should've played something worth money because clearly there must be something magic within my hometown...
After 4 more years we can safely say: Serral = GOAT.
damn.. goosebumps when Serral was sniping those carriers!
You do good videos, I keep coming across them.
Serral is a robot undercovered