Giuseppe and his skillful bakes and skinny headband have done it. After completing a carrot cake Signature, a Belgium buns Technical, and a Mad Hatter's Tea Party Showstopper, Giuseppe has won The Great British Bake Off. Leading up to it, it seemed it was anyone's game with Crystelle's consistently elegant bakes and Chigs's continued improvement. But now that the winner of GBBO Collection 9 has been announced, it's more clear than ever that it was always going to be Giuseppe who won... especially once Jürgen was out of the picture.

"The first time I walked into the tent and in the first Signature I saw his mini rolls, I thought that looks like our winner," judge Paul Hollywood said after Giuseppe was crowned the winner. "You could see the heart and soul going into his baking." And since Paul's vote clearly counts quadruple of Prue Leith's (jk, but not jk), that's probably all you need to hear to know that Giuseppe had it in the bag. But even though Giuseppe comes from not-so-humble baking beginnings (his dad was a professional chef), he did earn this win when you look back week to week. Just look at this very-official elimination chart, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The darker blue marks when a "Baker was one of the judges' favorite bakers that week, but was not the Star Baker." In this highly-official chart, Giuseppe earned five of those dark blues — more than any other contestant. (Chigs, Crystelle, and Jürgen were all tied for second with three dark blue weeks.) Except for in Weeks 8 and 9, if Giuseppe wasn't Star Baker, he was at the top of the tent. And ahead of being named winner, he did earn Star Baker twice. Sure, it wasn't as many as Jürgen. But when you look at how seven out of nine weeks he was one of the best — something even Jürgen couldn't have claimed — his final win makes a lot of sense.