IEM Katowice was the place to be for StarCraft II esports fans this past weekend, where Eo “soO” Yoon Soo secured first-place and the winner’s share of a $400,000 USD prize pool.
Attendees gathered at the Spodek Arena in Poland, and thousands more viewers tuned in online to see the South Korean Zerg player beat Protoss star Kim “Stats” Dae Yeob 4-2 in the tournament final. Victory for soO meant that he finally ended his run of nine second-place finishes in premier StarCraft II tournaments, and the emotion was clear as he raised the winner’s trophy.
European hopefuls Marc “uThermal” Schlappi from the Netherlands and Julian “Lambo” Brosig from Germany were eliminated in the Round of 24 group stage, while Finnish favorite and reigning WCS World Champion Joona “Serral” Sotala fell to eventual winner soO in the quarterfinals.
