Serral Wins StarCraft II at Esports World Cup 2025, Secures $200,000 Prize
- Sagar Mankar
- Jul 28
- 2 min read
Joona "Serral" Sotala from Finland, representing Team BASILISK, has been crowned the champion of the StarCraft II tournament at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025.
The event, held from July 22 to 25 at Boulevard Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia, saw Serral walk away with the $200,000 grand prize and 1,000 Club Championship points for his team after a dominant run.
Serral Wins SC2 at EWC 2025
Serral’s performance throughout the tournament was nothing short of clinical. He remained undefeated across all stages. In the finale, he defeated South Korean Protoss player Kim “Classic” Doh-woo of Team Virtus.pro, by 5-2 in a best-of-nine showdown.
The win marked Serral’s third major world title, following previous championships at IEM Katowice in 2022 and 2024. He was also a top performer in the first SC2 EWC event, but lost to Clem in the finale.
“This is the highest achievement you can get,” Serral said after the match. “I trained hard, I put a lot of effort into it. I’m kind of speechless, just incredibly happy.”
The StarCraft II segment of the Esports World Cup was played on the Legacy of the Void version (Patch 5.0.14), hosted on European servers in an offline format. A total of 18 players competed through a structured format that included a play-in stage, a double-elimination group stage, and a single-elimination playoff bracket. The tournament has a 700k prize pool (30% lower than last edition).
Journey of Both Finalists
In his road to victory, Serral first topped Group B without losing a map, defeating HeRoMaRinE and Classic with clean sweeps. During the playoffs, he edged out Reynor 3-2 in the quarterfinals, crushed Cure 4-0 in the semifinals, and finally overcame Classic again in the grand final.
Classic’s journey to the finals was a redemption arc after his early loss to Serral in the group stage. He later eliminated reigning champion Clem 3-0 in the quarterfinals and beat Solar 4-1 in the semis, securing the $100,000 runner-up prize and 750 Club points.
Cure of Team Liquid took third place and earned $60,000 after defeating Solar 4-0 in the third-place match.
StarCraft II – EWC 2025 Prize Pool Breakdown
Rank | Prize Money (USD) | Club Points | Player | Team |
1st | $200,000 | 1,000 | Serral | BASILISK |
2nd | $100,000 | 750 | Classic | |
3rd | $60,000 | 500 | Cure | Team Liquid |
4th | $40,000 | 300 | Solar | Team Falcons |
5th–8th | $30,000 | 200 | Reynor | BASILISK |
$30,000 | 200 | Maru | Team Vitality | |
$30,000 | 200 | herO | Twisted Minds | |
$30,000 | 200 | Clem | Team Liquid | |
9th–12th | $22,500 | – | Zoun | Team Vitality |
$22,500 | – | SHIN | Weibo Gaming | |
$22,500 | – | ShoWTimE | Sentinels | |
$22,500 | – | Rogue | Team Falcons | |
13th–16th | – | ByuN | Shopify Rebellion | |
$17,500 | – | trigger | BASILISK | |
$17,500 | – | Cyan | JD Gaming | |
$17,500 | – | HeRoMaRinE | MOUZ | |
17th | $12,500 | – | Lambo | Shopify Rebellion |
18th | $7,500 | – | Astrea | — |
Viewership
According to Esports Charts, the tournament drew significant global attention. The event peaked at nearly 80,000 concurrent viewers, with an average viewership of over 40,000 and a total of 1.4 million hours watched. The most-watched match was the group stage clash between Serral and Classic, which peaked at 79,984 viewers.
This was a 31% increase compared to EWC 2024, signaling strong continued interest in Blizzard’s iconic RTS.