Grudge Match: Naniwa drops Nestea to loser's bracket

Naniwa contemplates the outcome of game two. Courtesy photo from MLG stream.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- With a thumbs down to his opponent, Naniwa, Complexity Gaming, celebrated his win over Nestea, Incredible Miracle, by egging on chants from the crowd on the main stage.

In game one, Naniwa opened with a forge fast expand to Nestea's spawning pool first build. After clearing Naniwa's plyon to secure his natural expansion, Nestea built six roaches and a flood of zerglings. Nestea attacked into Naniwa's natural expansion, but Naniwa's crisis management gave him a timely sentry to forcefield the ramp into his main before Nestea could manage to walk up.

Nestea droned at home and continued his harassment on Naniwa's natural, while Naniwa transitioned into six gates with a plus one attack upgrade. Nestea's spire finished in time to counter attack Naniwa's main base while Naniwa forced a cancel on the third hatchery and walked into the main base forcefielding the ramp behind him. Naniwa killed off the main hatchery and tech buildings of Nestea to grab a win in game one.

Game two offered a near exact replica to game two of the Global Invitationals between the two players on Tal'darim Altar as Nestea built an early spawning pool against Naniwa's greedy nexus first play in the opening stages. Nestea delayed Naniwa's expansion with three lings while Naniwa built two stargates and chronoboosted three voidrays followed by a flock of phoenixes which killed two queens and the hydralisk den, but Nestea's counter attack with a swarm of roaches and zerglings forced Naniwa back to his main base to defend.

Naniwa's phoenix killed the hydralisk reinforcements, and his warp gate finished at the 15 minute mark to hold off the first spark of aggression, but Nestea's corruptor, zergling, roach and hydralisk reinforcements were too much for Naniwa to handle as Nestea took game two.

Game three saw Naniwa playing safer on Shakuras Plateau with a forge first expand. Nestea opened with a hatchery first and Naniwa punished it with a mild cannon rush which forced 8 zerglings and killed one drone. Nestea expaned to a third base while Naniwa built a warp prism, picked up four sentries from his natural during Nestea's attack on his natural ramp, and counter attacked with an additional warp-in of zealots to take out Nestea's lair. Naniwa held the attack at his natural expansion with a set of forcefields, a few zealots and an immortal which forced Nestea to clean out his main base. Despite an encouraged queen, Naniwa saved two zealots as well as the warp prism.

Naniwa continued to invest in technology grabbing two colossus and six gates while Nestea's spire completed. Naniwa attacked directly into Nestea's natural expansion with a plus one attack timing push and a warp-in from the saved warp prism, killing both the natural and main bases of Nestea. During that time, Nestea counter-attacked into Naniwa's base with roaches and Mutalisks, but Naniwa had warped in cannons and stalkers to defend the attack. Nestea planted a handful of spinecrawlers at his third base in a last ditch effort to hold his remaining hatchery, but it was not enough to stop the Protoss army from rolling through to advance Naniwa to round five.

EDIT: I added an Imgur link to a photo I took from the stream after game two at the top of the post to show Naniwa's emotion after losing game two.