"In his second finals appearance of 2013 NaNiwa fell, not without incident, to the Korean Zerg prodigy. As Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park had told us: 'Life finds a way'. Once more his dream of a significant international title remained just a burning desire, boiling over underneath an otherwise frosty cool exterior. The foreign scene's would-be king could still not be truly crowned."
The early EPS scandal and being removed from MYM:
"The significant outcome of the failed German trip was that NaNiwa found himself removed from his team. With a reputation for bad manners, a poor initial offline performance and having been removed from a league for being unable to follow the rules, NaNiwa found himself facing the very real possibility that his StarCraft2 professional gaming career was little more than a brief flare-up."
Rolling over MLG Dallas 2011:
"In Dallas NaNiwa was imperious, running through opponents as if they were made of nothing but the warm Texas wind. From the open bracket to pool play he did not suffer a map loss, tossing aside all who came before him. In the championship bracket he rolled over KiWiKaKi and SeleCT to reach the final. His eventual was the aforementioned KiWiKaKi and, despite suffering two map losses, the Canadian could not stop the force of NaNiwa. The map record for the Swedish Protoss at the end of the tournament was a staggering 26:2, with the only losses being those incurred in the final itself."
Facing NesTea in the MLG Global Invitational Final:
"Such an upset win would have been enough to have caused a stir for any foreign player, but now NaNiwa had to face his own worst match-up in the final, where NesTea awaited. Facing another multiple time GSL champion NaNiwa again repeated the feat, winning 2:1 to take the title. Sadly, for NaNiwa, this specialist event was strong on paper, thanks to the pedigree of the champions in the small field, but it was a mere sideshow in the fact of the MLG championship set to begin the next day. Today was not the right day to beat GSL champions"
Reaching his first GSL Code S Ro8:
"Days later NaNiwa was back in Korea for his Ro16 group. Only three foreigners had ever reached the Ro8 of a GSL, and only HuK had accomplished the feat in the last 12 months. Beating out Genius, who the Swede was proving quite the foil for, he then took down Terran Virus to move on from the group and into the bracket stage. Not only had NaNiwa not lost a series so far in this GSL, but he had managed to steer clear of his kryptonite: Korean Zergs. When the Ro8 was set with only Protoss and Terran one could see how the Swede felt confident he could go all the way."
Facing Jaedong at Dreamhack Stockholm:
"Taking out TLO and SortOf in the playoffs NaNiwa reached the semi-finals, where his opponent was Jaedong. Much like Flash, Jaedong was best known as one of the greatest winners in the history of BW, boasting every kind of title imaginable in SC2's predecessor. Even more intimidating was that, as a member of Alliance, NaNiwa had been training in the EG-TL house, with Alliance being covertly linked to Evil Geniuses' organisation. There he had faced Jaedong and lost to him."
NaNiwa's challenging bracket at IEM VIII New York:
"In many ways this could be NaNiwa's GSL, his chance to win a tournament stacked with only Koreans and with elite level competition barring him from an individual league crown. The chance that his elimination from Code A and inability to enter WCS Korea had seemingly taken from him now sat before him, if he could but seize it."
I posted this on reddit, so I'll just leave it here:
This is absolutely brilliant, the best esports content I've seen in a long time. The way Thoorin crafts the narrative of Naniwa's career is simple magnificent with factual results and the inclusion of quotes taken from the various interviews conducted at the time. This is the type of content SC2 needs right now in order to grow the scene and gain more eye-balls. It's all about storytelling. Simply great stuff.
Alright now I read the article completely. Easily 9,5/10
Excellent read. I especially like this part about the final map between him and Hyun at IEM NY.
With all the pressure in the world on his shoulders, the only one who could prevent an all-Korean final, the Swedish Protoss showed balls that could set off metal detectors at airports, proxying two gateways into HyuN's base, in a spot where the Korean neglected to scout, going for a greedy three hatch opening.
:D
And this is some insanely interesting info I was not really aware even as a naniwa fan.
It's not enough to simply, in passing, mention that NaNiwa has had some ludicrously stacked bracket draws. This is a man who has been eliminated in the bracket stage of offline tournaments 12 times by the eventual champion and six times by the eventual runner-up, totalling 16 eliminations at the hand of an eventual finalist. For all the good fortune some may highlight of his GSL group stage runs avoiding Zergs, NaNiwa has faced masters of their race in each of his Ro8 draws. NaNiwa has not had it easy, but NaNiwa is not looking for easy.
On October 16 2013 05:45 sang wrote: I posted this on reddit, so I'll just leave it here:
This is absolutely brilliant, the best esports content I've seen in a long time. The way Thoorin crafts the narrative of Naniwa's career is simple magnificent with factual results and the inclusion of quotes taken from the various interviews conducted at the time. This is the type of content SC2 needs right now in order to grow the scene and gain more eye-balls. It's all about storytelling. Simply great stuff.
Completely agree, Thorin always takes it on step further when writing articles/interviewing players than other do
Thorin's really a good writer! kudos to him. With regard to naniwa: this article outlines the strength of naniwa: his unbreakabe will to improve in order to become the best. Aside from his hard to bear personality, he is an astounding player.
One of the best Starcraft articles I've read. It provided me with a nice dose of nostalgia too. Hope Naniwa finally gets his big tournament win against a world class field. He's been close so many times now, I think it's only a matter of time.
NaNiwa wants to win a tournament with top tier Koreans, imagine if he qualifies for Blizzcon and wins it. That would make for an epic story. (Unlikely though)
Very good write-up but some of the articles such as the GSL one couldve been more detailed and more hyped seeing how only 3 foreigners have so far made it up to the ro8 of what was the most prestigious tournament at the time.
Great write up, but to be honest there are plenty of other progamers that give more to community than naniwhine. Seriously, we should not celebrate the bm grandmaster. Just saying...probe rush, hand shakes, no gg, smack talking nestea, need I go on?
On October 17 2013 17:14 Chinnro wrote: Great write up, but to be honest there are plenty of other progamers that give more to community than naniwhine. Seriously, we should not celebrate the bm grandmaster. Just saying...probe rush, hand shakes, no gg, smack talking nestea, need I go on?
On October 17 2013 17:14 Chinnro wrote: Great write up, but to be honest there are plenty of other progamers that give more to community than naniwhine. Seriously, we should not celebrate the bm grandmaster. Just saying...probe rush, hand shakes, no gg, smack talking nestea, need I go on?
Well "naniwhine" have become an egregore. You want him to be bm, and therefore you see bm. I'm convinced that there are more personal characteristics to Naniwa than being bm.
Thanks for the write-up! I think it could be even more interesting if you included some of his personal struggles (I've read somewhere, perhaps on wiki, that he had serious family problems because of playing Warcraft 3, etc.). I guess it's hard to get original/authorized information on this, but it would add so much more depth to Naniwa's perseverance and strength.
On October 17 2013 13:42 Marchinko wrote: NaNiwa wants to win a tournament with top tier Koreans, imagine if he qualifies for Blizzcon and wins it. That would make for an epic story. (Unlikely though)
I wonder what would happen... If only he qualifies :D
On October 17 2013 17:14 Chinnro wrote: Great write up, but to be honest there are plenty of other progamers that give more to community than naniwhine. Seriously, we should not celebrate the bm grandmaster. Just saying...probe rush, hand shakes, no gg, smack talking nestea, need I go on?
Yup, let's ignore one of the few real foreign progamers ever because of superficial nonsense.
We should celebrate those who try hard for a year, and then start streaming, casting, and selling pizza and overpriced hardware.
On October 17 2013 17:14 Chinnro wrote: Great write up, but to be honest there are plenty of other progamers that give more to community than naniwhine. Seriously, we should not celebrate the bm grandmaster. Just saying...probe rush, hand shakes, no gg, smack talking nestea, need I go on?
right now there is nothing better to give to this community than hope, and thats what nani is doing, so go back to your hole
On October 17 2013 17:14 Chinnro wrote: Great write up, but to be honest there are plenty of other progamers that give more to community than naniwhine. Seriously, we should not celebrate the bm grandmaster. Just saying...probe rush, hand shakes, no gg, smack talking nestea, need I go on?
Well "naniwhine" have become an egregore. You want him to be bm, and therefore you see bm. I'm convinced that there are more personal characteristics to Naniwa than being bm.
On October 18 2013 10:32 volta1 wrote: I'm not fully up to speed with the proscene.. Why does Acer's site have a writeup about Naniwa? Is Alliance affiliated with Acer somehow?
Because Thorin is hired as some kind of journalist, and I imagine that he's free to do whatever journalistic content that delivers views.
"Well, it's ok. My goal is to win the big final of the MLG (MLG Providence). Not this one, but I'll win this one too." -NaNiwa, speaking on stage, moments after winning MLG Dallas 2011.
I'm pretty sure he said this before the finals (maybe after the WB Finals) - otherwise it wouldn't make sense.
Not trying to be rude, just helpful. You should really check over the grammar and sentence structure of an article before it becomes a published work. There are a lot of parts of this article which just don't make grammatical sense which hurts your credibility as a journalist. Being a journalist myself these things stick out to me. Other than that it was a great read!
Forever a king without a crown. This king rules the north. Slaying dragons without a frown. He goes by a moniker on this Earth. A name that many legends have fallen to He is naniwa
On October 17 2013 17:14 Chinnro wrote: Great write up, but to be honest there are plenty of other progamers that give more to community than naniwhine. Seriously, we should not celebrate the bm grandmaster. Just saying...probe rush, hand shakes, no gg, smack talking nestea, need I go on?
Yeah, no. Pretty sure being the best foreigner in the game is providing more to the game than mannered masters level players.
For NaniWa to advance to BlizzConn (at least 1 foreigner vs 15 Koreans please Blizzard!!!)
- - This is before WCS A RO4 was played.- -
SEASON 3 FINALS Placements needed in WCS S3 Finals to surpass NaniWa's 3.200p/to get to BlizzConn (remember that one can surpass, it's ok, Nani is in 15th place atm..)
Need 1st place : Trap, Genius, Heart*,Hack* %=2-5-2-2
Need 2nd place : Vortix, Macsed* %=1-2
Need 3-4th place : Dear, Soo, Oz** (if 2-4th place in wcs A) %=20-40-10
Need 5-8th place :
Need 9-12th place : Oz** (if first place in wcs A) %=80
*= not played yet when posting this **=pending on coming first or 2-4th in WCS A The % is my rating of their chances, basically it's all about :
RESUME - The Deal-breakers : Oz : not winning the WCS A - if so high risk for passing S3 Finals : max one of Oz, Dear, Soo gets into RO 4
Edit : Revival ! : if getting 1st or 2nd in group in Challenger he ties with Nani. wonder how Blizz might handle a tie..
Crazy it should become this close... crossing my fingers... go Nani - HF !
This is maybe off topic but I got warned for calling Naniwa with "whine", and it is really common to me, even reading TL, so what is going on? Something against me or did I just get bad luck and some "mod" dislikes me? Feels bad being warned for doing things others do without problem ;S
And I still don't like Naniwa (I can't say it with "whine" because of ban?), even if I recognize he is a really good player and one of the best foreigners right now, I simply dislike it so much that I always cheer his opponents no matter who they are, unless I dislike them more than him lol
On October 20 2013 19:26 Sogetsu wrote: This is maybe off topic but I got warned for calling Naniwa with "whine", and it is really common to me, even reading TL, so what is going on? Something against me or did I just get bad luck and some "mod" dislikes me? Feels bad being warned for doing things others do without problem ;S
And I still don't like Naniwa (I can't say it with "whine" because of ban?), even if I recognize he is a really good player and one of the best foreigners right now, I simply dislike it so much that I always cheer his opponents no matter who they are, unless I dislike them more than him lol
On October 20 2013 20:31 SoniC_eu wrote: This was a fantastic article, I sat glued to the screen. Amazing work, I really hope you work on some more. Here is to Naniwa winning a major title!
I told you man, forever our king without a crown :p
On October 20 2013 19:26 Sogetsu wrote: This is maybe off topic but I got warned for calling Naniwa with "whine", and it is really common to me, even reading TL, so what is going on? Something against me or did I just get bad luck and some "mod" dislikes me? Feels bad being warned for doing things others do without problem ;S
And I still don't like Naniwa (I can't say it with "whine" because of ban?), even if I recognize he is a really good player and one of the best foreigners right now, I simply dislike it so much that I always cheer his opponents no matter who they are, unless I dislike them more than him lol
Go create an anti-fan page of Naniwa instead of spoiling threads about him. Your tears aren't that good any more
I've never really liked Naniwa because of the things he says, i feel like he showcases very poor sportsamanship. But in truth after reading this article its very hard not to root for him, if he works half as hard as this article makes him out to, than he realy deserves a big tournament win, he has come close so many times o_O
In the paragraph Facing Jaedong at Dreamhack Stockholm, the last sentence says: "There he had faced Jaedong and lost to him." Naniwa won against Jaedong, so it's maybe a mistake in the article, if he didn't mean something else. Beside this, still a great article!
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KyxcmpK.jpg)
NaNiwa's StarCraft2 career, from the beta up until his runner-up finish at IEM VIII New York on Sunday.
![[image loading]](http://assets.diylol.com/hfs/3e0/409/5f0/resized/creepy-willy-wonka-meme-generator-so-you-are-very-bright-i-gather-please-do-tell-me-more-about-this-3a3947.jpg)
