IEM Season IX World Championship 2015: Results, Prize for StarCraft II Event
The eSports world had a bit of March Madness of its own Sunday. Joo "Zest" Sung Wook reigned supreme in the StarCraft 2 Intel Extreme Masters Season IX World Championship in Katowice, Poland. He battled through a field of 16 of the best Protoss, Terran and Zerg players in the world.
The official StarCraft Twitter account couldn't resist the name pun in their congratulatory tweet:
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In the final match Zest defeated fellow South Korean Protoss player Cho "Trap" Sung Ho, 4-1, per intelextrememasters.com. You can take a look at the final match between Zest and Trap in the video below.
Zest dropped only the Vaani Research Station portion of the match. The only real tests for Zest came in the first two rounds of competition when he knocked off Lee "INnoVation" Shin Hyung and Shin "Hydra" Dong Won by a score of 3-2.
In the final two rounds, Zest outscored his opposition, 7-2. For his efforts, he took home a handsome first-place prize of $68,707. It was Zest's fourth win in a premier tournament, and all of them have come within the last 11 months. His emergence as an elite StarCraft 2 player has been amazing to witness.
With teammates like 18-year-old Lee "Life" Seung Hyun, the KT Rolster squad is looking like a juggernaut.
Zest also earned 1,500 World Championship points. The win put him in fifth place in the WCS standings.
Sunday's victory brought Zest the biggest single payday of his gaming career. It bested his haul at the 2014 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 by $2,095.
Here's a look at the rest of the payout structure for the World Championships.
| 1st | $68,707 | +1,500 | South Korea - Protoss - Zest | KT Rolster KT Rolster |
| 2nd | $15,000 | +800 | South Korea - Protoss - Trap | Jin Air Green Wings Jin Air Green Wings |
| 3rd-4th | $7,000 | +550 | South Korea - Terran - Bbyong | CJ Entus CJ Entus |
The 22-year-old champion has solidified himself as the best big-game player in the StarCraft universe. He turned back four serious challenges en route to his latest victory. Moving forward, he'll have a major target on his back in every tournament he plays in. He's done enough in just a year to be considered an eSports legend.
It'll be fun to watch where his career goes from here.
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