A new StarCraft II champion has been crowned

Four absolutely amazing days of StarCraft II have come to an end after Kim "herO" Joon Ho took on Kim "sOs" Yoo Jin in the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship Final. The two Korean Protoss players battled it out in a best of seven final to decide who would leave Poland with US$100,000 and who would leave with nothing. 

Crowned the Intel Extreme Masters "Sickest Nerd Baller" by community vote (having already won this title previously in Sao Paulo, Brazil) herO was the favorite going into the Final. four out of six commentators had him pegged as the season eight champion with the community in full agreement. However, it seems Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Yoan "ToD" Merlo knew something we didn't. 

It took sOs just five maps to overpower the Smiling Assassin and take home the title and all of the prize money. The Trickster proxy gated herO in the first map and again in the second, picking up a 2-0 lead. A visibly shaken herO got lucky in the third map when sOs went for a blink stalker build with no detection and herO built Dark Templars. It seemed as though the series might feature The Return of the Comeback King with herO now back in the series, albeit 2-1 behind, but it wasn't meant to be. The 2013 WCS Global Finals champion reigned supreme, taking home the victory with a 4-1 victory. Watch the VOD here.  


More photos from Helena Kristiansson on Flickr

Congratulations to sOs in particular, but a big well done to all players who took part in the competition for providing us with some brilliant games and fantastic entertainment. Make sure you check out our writeups from the previous days if you missed out on any of the action. We've summed up the Open Bracket, Quarterfinals day and Semifinals day for you with a selection of what we think were the best games. 

Don't forget that you can now download in-game replays from all of the Intel Extreme Masters StarCraft II games! However, if you'd rather just watch the VODs, check out the ESL TV YouTube channel for all the games. 

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