Joona “Serral” Sotala has been crowned the StarCraft II at 2025 Esports World Cup champion, following a 5-2 victory over Virtus.Pro’s Doh-Woo “Classic” Kim in a dominant Best-of-Nine series. 

After a tough result in 2024, Serral returned stronger to take the title. With his 2024 rival Clement “Clem” Desplanches exiting earlier in the event, Serral entered the final as the clear favourite following a flawless 4-0 fight in his semi final bout.

While Serral was expected to perform well, the level of control and dominance across the series caught many off guard. Serral started strong, claiming the first two maps of the series, with Classic able to fight back to claim two games. With the scores at 3-2, however, Serral was able to push on to claim the final two maps and secure the series win.

This victory in StarCraft II at EWC 25, confirmed his place as one of the greatest players in the game’s history. En route to the final, Serral remained unbeaten, dropping only two maps across the entire event. This also marks his third world championship title – he won his first world championship at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice in 2022 and successfully defended that crown in 2024.

“To be honest, after a 2-0 start, I was extremely confident. A couple of hiccups did not bother me too much,” said Joona “Serral” Sotala. “It feels absolutely fantastic, this is what I came for, and this is what I got. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

Joona “Serral” Sotal earns 1000 Club Championship points for BASILISK with his victory. The win moves BASILISK up to joint eighth place as Serral manages to secure the side their first points of the Esports World Cup 2025.

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Innovative Technology (ITL) are delighted to welcome Stephane Bourdin as Business Development Manager. Stephane is based in Paris and is responsible for all ITL sales in France and The Benelux region. ITL are headquartered in the UK with several international offices and have two main divisions; cash validation equipment and age & identity biometric technology.

Commenting on his new position Stephane said, “I joined Innovative Technology at the end of April and am currently responsible for developing and strengthening our customer base in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. I manage business development and client relationships in the gaming, banking, and retail sectors.”

Welcoming Stephane to ITL, Thorsten Labusch, VP of Sales & Business Development said, “I would like to extend a warm welcome to Stephane. This region is important to our business and with his experience and local knowledge he is perfectly placed to communicate the benefits of implementing our solutions to potential customers. He is responsible for growing our presence in France & The Benelux for all our target sectors so his role is very wide-ranging. Stephane has worked in the cash validation industry for some time and already has in-depth knowledge of our solutions, and most importantly, he is familiar to many of our customers.”

Stephane added, “I’ve always worked in cash handling for automated machines (vending, ticketing, gaming), so for 27 years I’ve been part of this industry in one way or another! My background enables me to offer customers the most effective solutions and I’m really looking forward to seeing some successful installs throughout the region. Regarding our biometrics solutions, I am regularly in contact with Stephan Rosseneu from Bergens our dedicated Trading Partner for France, and together we aim to achieve the best possible results for our age estimation and facial recognition side on the business. I also look forward to working with Moneytronic, our biometrics Trading Partner for the Netherlands.”

Thorsten concluded, “Stephane has an impressive knowledge of the cash handling market and I look forward to working with him to extend our reach and maintain a secure and productive customer base for ITL.”