[A]NaNiwa - Road to Blizzcon #15 - Page 15

On November 08 2013 20:15 hansonslee wrote:
Here's my take on NaNiwa:

I was about to make a thread, but I did not want to create a scene, so I will post my article here!



Naniwa: "There's No Greater Price and Reward Than Victory!"

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There is more to NaNiwa than being the "foreign hope" of BlizzCon. He represents many other archetypes that cannot be simply listed. When Starcraft 2 was at its infancy, NaNiwa was notorious for being a dangerous 1 base cheeser with a very obnoxious attitude. Such behavior has forced NaNiwa to exhibit commitment issues with different teams. But then, when MLG Dallas 2011 was looming in the corner, the State of the Game hosts such as Nony saw NaNiwa's play on stream and quivered in fear. How can this random kid be so good?

Even with his clean victory in MLG Dallas 2011, NaNiwa was not satisfied with his victory, and the Koreans were next on his hit list. When MLG Providence arrived, NaNiwa defeated the two Incredible Miracle kings of Liberty Mvp and Nestea. Due to NaNiwa's impressive play that placed him 2nd against Leenock, GOMtv has decided to invite him Blizzard Cup.

However, every glorious victory comes at a price. NaNiwa's obsessive ambition to win has cemented his downfall time to time. When he had no chance of advancing from the group stages, NaNiwa decided to insult his integrity by probe rushing against Nestea. People were shocked not only because of NaNiwa's blatant disrespect of his opponent but also because of how the anticipated rivalry between Nestea and NaNiwa had an extremely anti-climatic ending.

In addition to NaNiwa's bad sportsmanship, NaNiwa might have developed some sort of overconfidence resulting from his bounty kills of famous Koreans and paid the price. NaNiwa had an extreme grudge against the Zerg match up and dismissed a lot of the Zerg players he lost against for playing an "OP race". This mentality has compelled NaNiwa to underestimate his Zerg opponents and lost when he was considered to be the heavy favorite. NaNiwa also has shown some stubbornness in some of his games. He sometimes would scout late and lose to Mvp's and Flash's 1 base cheese. His mantra "Forge Fast Expand or Die", which was considered to be his favorite build, was also exploited when he played against Leenock. In a sense, Bane would be correct to say to NaNiwa that "victory has defeated you".

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Despite the costs of his toxic mentality, NaNiwa was still an inspiring figure to some people not just because he beats Koreans, but because NaNiwa wanted to win despite all odds against him. Unlike EG legends like HuK, Idra, Stephano, and ThorZain, NaNiwa continued to train in Korea and change up his playstyle whenever he needed to. Throughout his WCS journey, NaNiwa has shown a diverse set of builds with crisp execution. For example, NaNiwa's void ray composition is considered unthinkable against the Zerg's hydralisk composition. Yet, NaNiwa makes it work and has introduced Void Rays as a versatile unit and less of a corruptor buster. Since NaNiwa is not much of a socializer, we can assume that such extraordinary gameplay comes from NaNiwa's dedication and determination to win, which rivals to those of his Korean counterparts.

Furthermore, NaNiwa's strength is to his ability to analyze his players and come up with different tactics to show us memorable games. For example, in his recent games against Hyun, NaNiwa has opened a cheese against Hyun in the ace match. The reason for his decision was NaNiwa wanted to use a different build order to punish Hyun's greedy playstyle, which NaNiwa guessed correctly. This depth of analysis reminds us of how foreigners like Stephano can become clutch players and make epic comebacks against massive deficits.

Finally, his chances of getting into BlizzCon epitomize how NaNiwa is the player who dares to challenges against all odds. When NaNiwa lost disgracefully against Targa, his chances to BlizzCon were slim. Even, the Starcraft 2 community believed that NaNiwa should place well in Dreamhack Bucharest and IEM New York to secure his spot. However, instead of rushing for the points, NaNiwa ditch Dreamhack and carefully and intensively prepared for his IEM New York. This sacrifice earned him second place, which did not give him the amount of points to stay on the safe zone. However, it seems that the stars smiled upon NaNiwa's diligence and granted him the opportunity to prove himself against Revival. NaNiwa did not disappoint and crushed Revival with constant two base aggression, which demonstrates his flexibility as a player.

As seen from his journey from the Wings of Liberty to the BlizzCon, it is not enough to depict NaNiwa as the foreign hope. NaNiwa is hope! With a tarnished resume displaying his unprofessional behavior and occasional mediocre play, NaNiwa has achieved the unthinkable by storming tournaments with miraculous victories and finally found an Alliance that would welcome him with open arms and maintain his relevance in the progaming scene. As of now, we see that NaNiwa has began to exhibit a better attitude and approach to the game. Although the winning mentality has mortally cursed NaNiwa, that same spell has empowered NaNiwa to become the very reason to perhaps hope that he will realize the ultimate rewards of absolute victory.