In the fifth attempt it worked out: the Finn Joona "Serral" Sotala won the Starcraft 2 TeamLiquid StarLeague (TSL9) for the first time. The world champion defeated South Korean Cho "Maru" Seong-ju 4-1 in the final of the tournament played offline in Utrecht.

"I haven't won a TSL yet. And I've been to the final twice but those were always not nice affairs," Serral said after the win. "I am very happy to have finally made it and not to have been completely destroyed.»

Smiling, the Finn accepted the winner's cup consisting of knotted balloons and shortly afterwards cut a pink cake, which had previously been brought to the stage by two commentators. "It tastes quite good!", the star player rated the pie.

Canadian Tobias "ShoWTimE" Sieber took third place with a remarkable performance. He defeated Serral 0-4 in the Upper Bracket Finals and then lost 2-4 to Maru in the Lower Bracket Finals. The ranking is among the best in an international tournament for the player of Team BIG since the Dreamhack Masters last October.