StarCraft II Esports in 2026: Serral, Clem and the GSL That Refused to Die

At the Esports World Cup in Paris this summer, Team Liquid's French Terran Clem did something almost nobody manages. He beat Joona "Serral" Sotala in the StarCraft II final, and he did it 5-0. The win was worth $400,000 from a $1 million prize pool.

Sixteen years after its release, StarCraft II no longer fills Korean TV schedules the way Brood War once did. But it still produces some of the sharpest one-versus-one competition in esports, and its story since 2010 is one of decline, scandal and an unlikely second life.

From Brood War to StarCraft II

Korea's Brood War scene did not move to the sequel overnight. Some stars made the jump early: in November 2010, Lim "BoxeR" Yo-hwan founded the StarCraft II team SlayerS. Others stayed with the original until KeSPA's Proleague itself switched games. The league moved to StarCraft II for the season that started in December 2012.

Some Brood War legends carried their form across. Lee "Flash" Young-ho won IEM Toronto in 2014 and lifted the 2014 Proleague trophy with KT. Readers who want the earlier chapter can start with our Brood War legends feature.

The end of the Proleague

On 18 October 2016, KeSPA announced that the Proleague would end after 14 years. Teams run by SK Telecom, KT, CJ, MVP and Samsung disbanded; only Jin Air kept its StarCraft II team.

The reasons were blunt. Match-fixing cases in 2015 and 2016 had damaged trust. Streams of StarCraft II matches rarely topped 500 viewers, and the game accounted for less than 5% of play in Korean PC bangs. The most painful case was Lee "Life" Seung-hyun, a former world champion who was banned for match-fixing in 2016. The scandal echoed the Brood War match-fixing case of 2010.

Serral breaks the Korean wall

For most of the decade, StarCraft II world titles went to Korea. That changed in 2018. Serral, a Finnish Zerg born on 22 March 1998, won the WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon 2018, becoming the first non-Korean world champion. He also completed the 2018 WCS Grand Slam.

Serral played for ENCE from 2016 to 2023 and for BASILISK since 2023. He has won IEM Katowice twice, in 2022 and 2024, and won the Esports World Cup in 2025. His 2024 Katowice run was close to perfect.

That is why Clem's 5-0 in Paris made headlines. Beating Serral is hard at any stage. Sweeping him in a world final is something else.

The GSL in 2026

Korea's GSL never stopped. In 2026 Season 1, Protoss Kim "herO" Jun-ho beat Zerg Shin Hee-bum 4-2 in the final at the Freec Up Studio in Daechi-dong, Seoul. For Season 2, streaming platform SOOP hosted the semifinals and the final on 7 June 2026, with herO facing Rogue and Maru facing Cure, Intel as main sponsor and the team Onside among the sponsors.

The lineup tells its own story. herO, Maru and Rogue are veterans who have been at the top for more than a decade, and Korean StarCraft II now depends on a small group of long-serving players.

What to watch

The big question for 2027 is whether StarCraft II keeps its place at the Esports World Cup, which has become the game's richest stage. Watch whether Clem can follow his Paris title with another big win, whether Serral answers back, and whether the GSL can find new Korean players to join its veterans.

WGC's take: StarCraft II is free to play, and pro matches are easy to follow once you know the three races. If Brood War history interests you, the modern GSL is the closest living link to it.