Person of Interest: Nestea

By: Waxangel

Thanks to DeMusliM, Nestea must begin day two from the bottom of the losers bracket. The road back to title contention will be long and arduous, and he's sure to meet some interesting individuals along the way. Let's take a look at what might ensue.

Confirmed: vs IdrA

The actual match is not so interesting, it being a ZvZ and all. Also, there's not much beef between IdrA and NesTea, if any. However, there are so many storylines in play depending on the outcome, it makes one's head spin. Have your pick of these:

If IdrA wins....

• Evil Geniuses sends Nestea home without a single series win.
  
• IdrA takes the victory he should have had at the Global Invitational, when he had Nestea against the ropes but choked with his advantage.
  
• Nestea's reputation as the best ZvZ player is finally shattered for good.
  
• IdrA gets the victory he needed so badly against an A-list Korean, after coming so close against Oz the day before.

If NesTea wins....

• More fuel on the IdrA hate-fest fire.
  
• Further solidifies IdrA's reputation of being unable to beat Koreans.
  
• Restarts the ZvZ = NesTea bandwagon.
  
• Sets NesTea up to play NaNiwa down the line... (more on this later).

People might choose to watch a different match on the stream, but they'll definitely be most interested in this match's result.


The suspiciously likely: vs NaNiwa

If NesTea gets through IdrA, then it seems quite likely he will face NaNiwa down the line. NaNiwa would have to beat the winner of Sheth vs dde, while NesTea would have to take down SjoW. Not exactly guaranteed, but you can definitely see it happening.

What's at stake? Well, NaNiwa mentioned that he waved to NesTea at the airport, and that NesTea waved back, suggesting that the professor may have forgiven him for BMing and defeating him at MLG Providence, and then robbing him of his revenge with a probe rush at the Blizzard Cup.

Or, maybe NesTea is lulling NaNiwa into a fake sense of security where the Swedish Protoss will believe past events are truly water under the bridge, while Nestea secretly plots to crush him at MLG Winter Arena and perform the most epic of epic ceremonies. We all know which would be more interesting.


Should it go so far...: vs Leenock

If I'm reading this bracket correctly, Nestea would face the loser of Leenock vs Oz should he make it past NaNiwa. Seeing that Leenock's ZvP is very shaky, this is also not so unlikely.

Leenock gave NesTea a real run for his money towards the end of last year. First, he won MLG Providence, even defeating NaNiwa – the player who gave Nestea so much trouble – in the finals. At the following Blizzard Cup, Leenock defeated Nestea in a head on duel, knocking Nestea out of the tournament while he himself advanced. For brief moment, it looked like Leenock was going to supplant Nestea and become the new Zerg king.

However, things rapidly unraveled for Leenock, as he was knocked out of the next Code S tournament with haste, while his ZvP was exposed as a significant weakness. At the same time, DongRaeGu went on a monster run in tournaments, effectively supplanting both Nestea and Leenock in the minds of many.

Leenock is down, and should he drop to the Losers Bracket, Nestea will have a chance to put him out. Though it won't restore Nestea back to his previous position, a victory against the kid from FXO would reduce the competition for the Zerg crown to a two horse race between himself and DongRaeGu.


And as long as we're grasping for straws: vs DongRaeGu

Right now, DongRaeGu has taken Nestea's title of best Zerg in the world. That doesn't mean the most accomplished Zerg in the world, but the straight out most skilled player. Though DongRaeGu's monster tournament performances made the fact pretty self-evident, it was his 2 – 1 victory over Nestea in Code S that gave it final confirmation. Nestea lost that series by narrowest of margins, in games where he was marvelous 99% of the time, and lost because of that 1% where he was not. He knows that if he faces DongRaeGu again, he can take him.

IdrA - NaNiwa - Leenock - DongRaeGu? The funny thing is, it's not even that speculative. If you look at who everyone is playing, then those four players are not terribly unlikely to line up in that fashion. It's actually up to Nestea to defeat each challenge and move onto the next. In one run, he could exorcise his NaNiwa demons, knock the insolent kid who dared make him look bad down a few notches, and finally remove the usurper from his rightful Zerg throne. It's all up to him.