Blizzard’s Battle.net World Championship StarCraft II tournament in Shanghai came to an epic close over the weekend when  Won “PartinG” Lee Sak beat  Jang “Creator” Hyun Woo 4-2 in the Grand Finals for the trophy.

This was the first big tournament win for PartinG, who has frequently placed in the Top 4 and Top 8 of tournaments. He had also made major contributions for StarTale in GSTL team matches, including a recent “all-kill” against team LG_IM, but he had never quite stood solo on the winner’s podium. The sum of $100,000 (€78,217) he won is more than 10 times his previous record of $9,000 (€7,039) from coming in second place at the WCS Asia qualifiers.

“It doesn’t feel real,” PartinG said in an interview before asking the Korean translator to pinch him to make sure he was awake. “It feels like a dream.”

Throughout the tournament, PartinG showed his colors not just as a skilled Protoss player, but as a playful human being as well. Well before the pinch joke, he started his matched against Sen, a Taiwanese player, by telling how much he loved Sen’s country. He opened up his first match in the finals with ““Obban Champion STYLE~~! GLGLGL HFHF!” And when he was given the official trophy after becoming the world champion of StarCraft II, the first thing he did was dance like Psy in Gangnam Style.

PartinG had to play a total of five matches to earn his victory. Up first was a best-of-three Protoss vs. Protoss match against  Giacomo “Socke” Thüs, where his superior micro earned him huge army advantages against armies similar in size to his own. Most notably was in the first game, when the two armies were comprised of Zealots, Stalkers, Sentries, Immortals and Colossi. The armies were similar, except that Socke had fewer Colossi and far more Zealots. PartinG countered this by creating three Archons and used their splash damage to chew away the Zealots almost as soon as the battle began.

Next up was against  Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn, a Zerg player known for her powerful creep spread. The first game saw Scarlett’s mass Roach army fall to PartinG’s Gateway units supported by three Immortals in the mid game. The second game was closer until PartinG’s Colossi and Force Field micro tore a huge gap between two even army supply counts. PartinG took the third game in 10 minutes with a modified “4-Gate” all-in push

PartinG’s third match would not be so easy. Matched with Zerg player  Conan “Suppy” Liu, PartinG lost his first match after a three minute-long battle in Suppy’s main he reached via Warp Prism elevator. After trading lots of units, Suppy finally came out ahead and was able to recover his losses much faster than his Protoss opponent, who GG’d as Suppy’s Infestors approached his ramp. The second game was a simpler loss for PartinG, who attacked with a weaker army against mass Roaches. Lacking Immortals and with some Force Field mismanagement, PartinG’s army was consumed by Suppy’s Roaches in a powerful arc formation.

PartinG would recall this loss in a later interview with Blizzard. “I was down 2-0. It was really hard for me to control my mindset. But I came back because [StarTale’s coach Mr. Won] gave me the advice that I don’t want to regret this day by losing.

It was clear that the coach’s words meant something to PartinG when he ripped apart Suppy’s third base with early aggression and picked off Spine Crawlers at his natural expansion while Force Fields left Suppy’s army with nothing to do but watch through the psionic windows. PartinGmaxed out with a blink-enabled Stalker army and destroyed the Zerg player’s Zergling-Mutalisk-Infestor army for a GG.

PartinG was even more aggressive in the next game with an early timing attack supported by Warp Prism that took out Suppy’s natural expansion. He used his economic advantage to build a superior army with range-upgraded Colossi to melt Infestors and Spine Crawlers from a distance and win. PartinG tried early aggression on the final game and failed to take out a base, but with strong positional play using Blink-enabled Stalkers and Colossi along the cliffs of Suppy’s main, PartinG took down his opponent’s bases into a GG.

In the Semifinals, PartinG faced  Yang “Sen” Chia Cheng, yet another Zerg player and this time a major crowd favorite. Sen is known all around the world for his macro abilities and his early aggression. As the game started, the crowd cheered his name. But PartinG’s newfound confidence lasted through it.

“Although most of the fans cheered for Sen, I wasn’t scared or anything,” he later said at the Blizzard interview. “I figured I could beat him and get them to cheer for me in the finals.” His confidence was apparent when he used three almost identical builds to put heavy pressure on Sen at the start of the midgame, each time assaulting with lots of Sentries, three Immortals, other assorted Gateway units and Warp Prism support for lifting units into safety. PartinG took the first game after his initial push delayed Sen and he could bring range-upgraded Colossi into the mix. But the Protoss player’s initial push worked even better in the second and third games, causing Sen to GG before the 12 minute mark both times.

The final match was against a fellow Korean Protoss player,  Jang “Creator” Hyun Woo. In the Asian qualifiers for the tournament, Creator placed first, with PartinG and others falling beneath him but still high enough to qualify. PartinG opened up with the aforementioned “Oppan Champion STYLE~~!” and the grand finals were underway.

The first match gave meaning to the term “mirror matchup.” The Protoss players had nearly identical openings, with only slightly different unit counts throughout the match. Each player did some light harassment until finally PartinG attacked. At the start of the push the armies were still very similar, and PartinG was able to snipe some pylons and the occasional unit. But Creator’s close proximity to his own base meant he could bring two more Colossi into play, in a matchup where even a single extra Colossus can be a game changer. When at last the armies clashed, Creator came out the winner.

The next game saw both players open without expanding. Creator got an early Stargate and started making Phoenixes to harass. However, PartinG had chosen to do a timing attack with Blink-enabled Stalkers seven minutes in when Creator had almost no Gateway units and had just started his Robotics Facility. Creator pulled his probes to defend, but it wasn’t enough.

PartinG opened up the next game with a “4-Gate” all-in with a proxy Robotics Facility. The early attack failed to win the game, but it whittled down enough of Creator’s forces to prevent a quick counter-attack. Both sides held off on attacks long enough for the game to normalize, with each building a typical late game Colossi-heavy army. The armies came together at PartinG’s second expansion. Creator was up a Colossus and had two Archons, but his Colossi were bunched up on the ramp while PartinG’s Colossi lined up in an extremely effective arc that cut down lots of Gateway units and Creator to back off. PartinG replenished his Colossi and phased in Archons faster than his opponent, so when the armies met again, PartinG obliterated Creator’s army for a GG.

2-1, and it was Creater’s turn to cheese. He did a basic “4-Gate” all-in and won, with PartinG having to pull and lose too many Probes to hold off Creator’s Gateway units.

2-2, and both players used fairly standard openings, with PartinG expanding a bit sooner than Creator. PartinG used a Warp Prism to drop two Immortals in Creator’s base to snipe some probes, but Creator’s army was too close for PartinG to do any real damage. He escaped with the Immortals waiting in the Warp Prism.

The armies were similar, two Colossi each with plenty of Sentries to go around for Force Fields, but with Creator having a bunch more Zealots. Creator moved out to destroy PartinG’s natural expansion. The fight was even, until PartinG dropped the two Immortals from the earlier harass on a cliff close enough to safely snipe both of Creator’s Colossi, swinging the battle in PartinG’s favor. After melting a few more Zealots for good measure and marching over to Creator’s base, Creator conceded.

3-2, match point, and for once the builds were different. Creator did a standard Robotics Facility build, but PartinG made Stalkers almost exclusively early on, cutting off his tech completely in favor of more Stalkers. This was deadly, as by the time PartinG attacked at seven minutes, Creator already had two Immortals, a hard counter to Stalkers.

But PartinG had a plan. He kept his maneuverable Stalkers at Creator’s main choke point. With a few Sentries, PartinG would be able to trap and kill a good bunch of units if Creator attacked, making it a bad decision even with two Immortals. This meant Creator was now unable to expand, and PartinG used this to make an expansion of his own, as well as additional proxy Pylons and Blink research for his Stalkers.

After Creator got two more Immortals, PartinG finally had to back off. But by then his expansion was up and running and he had a full 12 worker advantage. He circled his Stalkers around the map, picking off the occasional unit and losing a few to stall. But when Creator finally moved to attack PartinG’s base, a wall of Charge-enabled Zealots, an Archon, and many more units were waiting for it.

PartinG only took a slight lead before Creator retreated, but he attacked again after replenishing his forces. Both sides targeted every unit that wasn’t a Stalker until each player had a Red Rover-style line facing the other. But PartinG had two bases to Creator’s one, so he could warp in Stalkers faster and had a much more secure economy than Creator. After losing most of his Stalkers, Creator finally GG’d.

PartinG left the booth ecstatic. Not only was it his first major tournament win, but he was now the world’s grand champion.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a big tournament win within the year. But winning this tournament, which was held by Blizzard, really a global tournament, it’s really great for me. The fans are Korean, Chinese and from the U.S. Thank you.”