Early career Serral started competing at
StarCraft II in 2012, but did not initially make a big splash. His first major tournament win would come in 2017 with the
World Championship Series (WCS) Jönköping European Qualifier win, beating Zanster, Mana, ShoWTimE, Namshar and Elazer. He took second place in the main event after beating Stephano, PtitDrogo and Elazer, but lost 3–4 to Neeb in the Finals. In 2017, he also won the European Qualifier for WCS Valencia, taking out Stephano, Bly, HeRoMaRinE and Elazer twice. During the main event, he was knocked out in the quarter-finals by TRUE. Serral won the European Qualifier for
World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) by beating Clem, NightEnD, Starbuck, Majestic, uThermal, Elazer and Nerchio. In the main event, he did not lose a map during group play, beating ShoWTimE, Minato, Has, Elazer, Bly and Lambo. During playoffs, he beat Neeb in the quarterfinals, but lost 0–3 to the eventual champion Maru.
2018: First Grand Slam in WCS history His first premier tournament win came in 2018 when he won WCS Leipzig, beating MaSa, Nerchio, SpeCial and ShoWTimE. He went on to win all 3 other major WCS tournaments in 2018, getting the first clean sweep, or Grand Slam, in WCS history. Despite being one of the main favorites to win The Blizzcon 2019 he lost the semifinal match against his season long rival Reynor 2–3, the eventual tournament runner-up, after tight series of best of 5. In the season's last premier tournament HomeStory Cup XX held at
Tropical Islands Resort in Germany, Serral came back to the winning ways defeating Reynor twice (2–1 and 3–2) in the finals after winning the double-elimination loser bracket final against Innovation 0–3, to which he was first relegated from winners' round 2 by him with map score 3–1. Serral played a crucial role in the Nationwars 2019 tournament when Team Finland (ZhuGeLiang, Serral, TheMusZero) defeated Team Korea in the final match 5–3. For recognition and honor of Serral's accomplishments and continued success in
StarCraft II esports, the
President of Finland invited him to take part to the traditional
Independence Day Reception in the Presidential Palace, Helsinki, 6 December 2019.
2020 Serral started off the year with a 4th place finish at IEM Katowice 2020, losing 2-3 to Zest after a convincing 3-1 victory over INnoVation, something he would follow up by winning the first StayAtHome Story Cup, an online replacement for the HomeStory Cup, winning the finals against INnoVation 4-1. After a 13th place finish he won the 2nd StayAtHome Story Cup, this time against Solar 3-2. Serral carried on winning small online tournaments as many events got cancelled in the face of COVID-19. Notable performances for the rest of 2020 included a 2nd place finish in the Douyu Cup, losing the finals to Reynor, a 2nd place finish in the Warchest Team League where he played with Special, Armani and Dream on team
War Pigs. He mentioned in an interview with RedBull's Ben Sillis that he had started playing
golf to take his mind of StarCraft, he explained that "Golf fills the role of doing something else than playing StarCraft really well". After a 1st place finish against Stats in the season finals of DH SC2 Masters 2020 Winter Serral ended the year in a face off against Dark in the TSL6 finals which he lost 0–4.
2022: First world championship title Serral faced former Italian world champion Reynor in the IEM Katowice Finals and beat him 4–3.
2023 Serral faced GuMiho in the ESL Masters Summer 2023 Finals and beat him 4–2. 2023 would also be the year where Serral left his long time team
ENCE for BASILISK. Serral faced Cure in the finals of Master's Coliseum 6 and beat him 4–1. On 19 November 2023, Serral won the Grand Final of the ESL SC2 Masters 2023 Winter: Europe, beating Clem 4–1. As such, he has earned a direct spot at IEM Katowice 2024. The Winter Regionals Champion for Europe receives an IEM invite, according to ESL's slots distribution rules. Serral faced Clem in the finals of HomeStory Cup XXIV and beat him 3–1, becoming the first person to ever win 5 homestory cups. He gave an interview for the YouTube channel
Starcraft Historian, where he discussed his career and the
StarCraft scene in general. At the end of the year, Serral competed in the ESL SC2 Masters: Winter 2023 Finals, at
DreamHack Atlanta, where he stopped in the semifinals, losing to Clem 3-1.
2024: Second world championship title At the start of the year, Serral competed in Master's Coliseum 7. As of 25 January 2024, he has made it to the upper bracket finals and won against his teammate, Reynor, 4-0. In the grand finals of Master's Coliseum 7, in a best of 9, Serral competed against Hero and beat him 5-1. In February 2024, Serral reached the Grand Final of IEM Katowice 2024 and won 4-0 against Maru. This was considered the most dominant championship performance ever, with Serral lifting his second title on the back of a 20-1 combined map score and a clean sweep of 8-0 in matches. On 2 June 2024, Serral reached the Grand Final of ESL SC2 Masters: Spring and won 4-0 against Maru. == References ==