Finland850 Posts
He has applied and been accepted to a special unit that’s made for professional and high level athletes so they can have a chance of keeping up with their careers during their service. Serral can apply to travel to various events, and these will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. His normal weekly schedule will have more extra free time than a normal conscript so he can keep practicing. There’s still a very real chance he’ll miss some events in 2024, possibly even in 2025. Normally the service lasts either 165 or 347 days.
Serral is only the third esports player to be selected into the unit. The other two have been Erik “EKI” Tammenpää, who plays NHL, and nowadays also streams a lot, and Lasse “ZOREE” Uronen, who has since retired from CS.
One of the more famous recent non-esports players in the unit was the basketball player Lauri Markkanen
2664 Posts
Finland850 Posts
On December 09 2023 22:28 tigera6 wrote:
wait, so he cant play in DH Dallas and the Wolrd Championship? That would suck then.
He might still get to play those events, he’ll just have to apply separately each time he wants to travel to an event. There’s also a chance that his application will be turned down.
Edited the OP for some clarificiation.
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Serral missing one of the major offline events would suck though. Scheduling time for online tournaments will also be difficult, I imagine.
United States9841 Posts
United States13704 Posts
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427 Posts
If that is the case ESL really shafted him with their “YOLO, we prolong the season for half a year so we can fit it into Gamers8”-move.
321 Posts
On December 10 2023 02:29 HolydaKing wrote:
OK, so that will probably be the end of SC2 watching to me, or at least it will largely destroy my interest in the esporst scene. I love Serral dominating and playing. Sad but unavoidable.
Don’t be so hasty. Whole purpose of Serral’s entry to sports corps is to be able to continue his career somewhat uninterrupted. Finnish Defense Forces saw the value of his efforts in Esports when accepting him in to the Sports School. They also saw the PR-potential of SC2 GOAT.
Hell, it’s practically unavoidable Serral will get Commands to participate and represent Finland when he is doing his military duty, as a part of that duty.
If there are any wise brass in the Finnish Army, multitasking Serral will spend and multitask most of his time with:
1) Practicing Drone operations command and control, and drone tech
2) Practicing StarCraft 2 and taking part to SC2 tournaments
Please delay your “end of SC2” at least some year, so you won’t miss any GI Serral’s match.
Spain4567 Posts
321 Posts
On December 10 2023 03:02 Argonauta wrote:
Serral is the definitive korean starcraft player isnt he?
Merely the definitive “foreing” Starcraft player, but
from Finnish military’s perspective, rifle shooting, moose hunting outdoors man, highly capable to handle with ‘fog of war’ and concentrating to multitask rabidly from a tactical level actions, through an operational level considerations all the way to a strategic level planning while keeping eye closely on a war economy, conscript Sotala* seems to be rather desirable type of personnel materiel for needs of the army.
* roughly translated as “a place of war”, or “warsby”, or “site of war” or “site where the war dwells”.
Not that foreign for the Army.
Poland3553 Posts
RIP European SC2 
234 Posts
Finland722 Posts
LOL! What absolute insanity.
RIP European SC2
how is this “insanity” ?
2664 Posts
On December 10 2023 04:56 TossHeroes wrote:
GOAT Serral decided to let someone else in the SC2 scene to win
Pretty sure Reynor has won a lot of tournaments in the last couple years.
United States196 Posts
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Canada294 Posts
On December 10 2023 07:47 lechatnoir wrote:
huh, didn’t know finland had mandatory service.
With Russia right next door it’s not surprising.
Poland3553 Posts
LOL! What absolute insanity.
RIP European SC2
how is this “insanity” ?
considering his career ofc
+ i was not aware that FIN had mandatory service laws. Is this a recent idea because of the RUS/UKR war or something I just missed about the country before?
Denmark10265 Posts
On December 09 2023 23:39 Cricketer12 wrote:
TIL Finland has mandatory service
Same. I was 100% that the post was a wierd April Fools joke
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- Source: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/618837-serral-to-start-military-service-april-2024
