The first WCS Europe Premier League of 2014 started off with a major upset as top non-Korean player [A]NaNiwa was eliminated from the tournament. Despite placing well in non-WCS tournaments in 2013, NaNiwa had struggled in WCS Europe. His troubles continued in 2014 as he was sent down to the Challenger League after losses to MC and Bunny.
The two players who beat NaNiwa would end up advancing to the Ro16. It was no surprise to see MC advance in first place, as the Bosstoss had looked to be in top form in earlier tournaments this year. CW.Bunny advanced in second place, losing his first series to NaNiwa but taking a 2-1 win in the high stakes rematch for the Ro16 spot.
Bunny's series against NaNiwa were characterized by highly aggressive play from the Protoss player, who went for risky one-base all-ins on several occasions. Bunny's factory openers and tank follow-ups proved to be useful in holding off NaNiwa's attacks. Later on, MC and other progamers would point out that NaNiwa seemed out of form, looking uncharacteristically sloppy.
Meanwhile, Russia's VP.BenQ.sLivko finished in last place in the group, despite being able to take a win against MC with his trademark brood lord-infestor style (bolstered by swarm hosts).
MC and Bunny advance to the live Ro16 round while NaNiwa and Slivko fall down to the Challenger League.
On February 19 2014 07:12 Lumi wrote: W... WHAT. NOOOOOOOOOOO NaNi! Wahhh. Guess I've got to go see what this Bunny d00d is all about
Bunny played decent but in the end he just had to defend in every game. It was more Nani playing really really bad. The best two advanced today, no doubt.
Bit sad that Nani basically went for allins every game. I wonder if it would have gone different if he went for a more macro-heavy approach, but who knows...
So glad Naniwa didn't advance, such a horrible horrible person, really dislike him - and the fact he was knocked out by a fellow dane just makes it even better!
MC was expected given the group. A decent Korean Protoss would easily pass through. Naniwa seems to be approaching his twilight. He's had a lot of disappointing performance for a while now. Sad for me since I'm a big fan, too. Congrats to Bunny.
On February 19 2014 09:09 Obeast96 wrote: Bunny is actually sick good. He took out a good EU zerg with an incredibly outdated style. I love marine tank medivac
Pretty sick games vs Slivko. I wouldn't say his comp. is incredibly outdated, and it isn't bad either. Marine/tank is extremely potent still. It's just with the right micro and hits, widow mines are godly against banelings and mutas haha.
On February 19 2014 09:26 shid0x wrote: Naniwa has a better macro game (also P>T end game ) and ended up doing shitty cheeses. I can't understand that...
GG bunny, deserved.Your hard work on ladder paid off.
Maybe he doesn't feel that he does have better late game at the moment. Or he thought that it would be easier to take fast wins.
On February 19 2014 09:26 shid0x wrote: Naniwa has a better macro game (also P>T end game ) and ended up doing shitty cheeses. I can't understand that...
GG bunny, deserved.Your hard work on ladder paid off.
Maybe he doesn't feel that he does have better late game at the moment. Or he thought that it would be easier to take fast wins.
This is weird indeed, PvT is his strongest matchup and last tournaments i saw him on (end 2013) he had a solid macro game. Maybe your right, maybe something came up and he does not feel as confident in it ? But that would be weird since no balance patch went up nor did the terran meta-game evolved that much (well OK, Polt excluded )
Or he was just having a bad day, happens to the best of us.
Btw not saying bunny would not have won anyways, its just surprising from nani's perspective.
On February 19 2014 09:33 Muffloe wrote: The foreigner storyline is literally dead... unless, Bunny is the new zerg bonjwa
What? There are tons of other storylines how is one player the only one that matters?
I think you want to read that again matyo
I get the joke about Bunny, but you seem to think that because Naniwa is out nobody else matters? Unless I am not understanding you
Aight, I pressume "foreign hope" is going to be quite non-existant with Naniwa out, unless someone unexpected like Bunny keep pulling upsets. I actually don't care if foreign or korean, although it tends to be a good storyline
On February 19 2014 09:26 shid0x wrote: Naniwa has a better macro game (also P>T end game ) and ended up doing shitty cheeses. I can't understand that...
GG bunny, deserved.Your hard work on ladder paid off.
Maybe he doesn't feel that he does have better late game at the moment. Or he thought that it would be easier to take fast wins.
This is weird indeed, PvT is his strongest matchup and last tournaments i saw him on (end 2013) he had a solid macro game. Maybe your right, maybe something came up and he does not feel as confident in it ? But that would be weird since no balance patch went up nor did the terran meta-game evolved that much (well OK, Polt excluded )
Or he was just having a bad day, happens to the best of us.
Btw not saying bunny would not have won anyways, its just surprising from nani's perspective.
I agree that it was a surprise considering his past skill but idk something about the way he played today made it seem like he realllllly did not want to progress any further than one base, two base if he absolutely had to. Some are saying he does not care about the game at all and didn't want to advance, but I'm not convinced of that either
On February 19 2014 09:33 Muffloe wrote: The foreigner storyline is literally dead... unless, Bunny is the new zerg bonjwa
What? There are tons of other storylines how is one player the only one that matters?
I think you want to read that again matyo
I get the joke about Bunny, but you seem to think that because Naniwa is out nobody else matters? Unless I am not understanding you
Aight, I pressume "foreign hope" is going to be quite non-existant with Naniwa out, unless someone unexpected like Bunny keep pulling upsets. I actually don't care if foreign or korean, although it tends to be a good storyline
Ok I gotcha. I still think there are many strong players left and with not to many Koreans and some fortunate group/bracket placements we could possibly see a European champion (something that I do not see happening in NA)
On February 19 2014 09:33 Muffloe wrote: The foreigner storyline is literally dead... unless, Bunny is the new zerg bonjwa
What? There are tons of other storylines how is one player the only one that matters?
I think you want to read that again matyo
I get the joke about Bunny, but you seem to think that because Naniwa is out nobody else matters? Unless I am not understanding you
Aight, I pressume "foreign hope" is going to be quite non-existant with Naniwa out, unless someone unexpected like Bunny keep pulling upsets. I actually don't care if foreign or korean, although it tends to be a good storyline
The actual foreign hope is playing tomorrow in WCS America, group B. Unfortunately, she's had iffy ZvZ in the past few series I've seen, and Heart is certainly capable of a crazy cheese to make her unexpectedly lose her best matchup of ZvT.
The nice thing about Bunny advancing is that now he gets to prove that he's a top-level European Terran for the first time since the Hellbat nerf.
On February 19 2014 09:33 Muffloe wrote: The foreigner storyline is literally dead... unless, Bunny is the new zerg bonjwa
What? There are tons of other storylines how is one player the only one that matters?
I think you want to read that again matyo
I get the joke about Bunny, but you seem to think that because Naniwa is out nobody else matters? Unless I am not understanding you
Aight, I pressume "foreign hope" is going to be quite non-existant with Naniwa out, unless someone unexpected like Bunny keep pulling upsets. I actually don't care if foreign or korean, although it tends to be a good storyline
The actual foreign hope is playing tomorrow in WCS America, group B. Unfortunately, she's had iffy ZvZ in the past few series I've seen, and Heart is certainly capable of a crazy cheese to make her unexpectedly lose her best matchup of ZvT.
The nice thing about Bunny advancing is that now he gets to prove that he's a top-level European Terran for the first time since the Hellbat nerf.
Your 'foreign hope' dropped a map to The Dark Horse 10 days ago.
On February 19 2014 09:26 shid0x wrote: Naniwa has a better macro game (also P>T end game ) and ended up doing shitty cheeses. I can't understand that...
GG bunny, deserved.Your hard work on ladder paid off.
I was wondering if Naniwa is quitting or something...because those were some awful games and just not even thought out builds (ie all parts of a timing not lining up, etc)
On February 19 2014 07:22 Cinim wrote: So glad Naniwa didn't advance, such a horrible horrible person, really dislike him - and the fact he was knocked out by a fellow dane just makes it even better!
On February 19 2014 09:26 shid0x wrote: Naniwa has a better macro game (also P>T end game ) and ended up doing shitty cheeses. I can't understand that...
GG bunny, deserved.Your hard work on ladder paid off.
I was wondering if Naniwa is quitting or something...because those were some awful games and just not even thought out builds (ie all parts of a timing not lining up, etc)
They were wondering on Take's stream if Naniwa was playing from Korea? No idea if it is true, but it could explain the bad games he showed yesterday. He would not be the first one to loose against the great european wall of lag.
On February 19 2014 09:26 shid0x wrote: Naniwa has a better macro game (also P>T end game ) and ended up doing shitty cheeses. I can't understand that...
GG bunny, deserved.Your hard work on ladder paid off.
I was wondering if Naniwa is quitting or something...because those were some awful games and just not even thought out builds (ie all parts of a timing not lining up, etc)
They were wondering on Take's stream if Naniwa was playing from Korea? No idea if it is true, but it could explain the bad games he showed yesterday. He would not be the first one to loose against the great european wall of lag.
I was wondering the same, but some people in the LR mentioned that he has been in Sweden for some time. Some of the builds he used definitely looked like some other players' builds when they play KR->EU and try to win by trickery. On the other hand, blink play is not the best choice for laggy enviroment, as it is highly micro-dependent. On yet another hand, he made a lot of micro mistakes during the fights.
Naniwa just defeats himself. He did that against Bunny. All games yesterday looked similar - Naniwa intentionally breaking his head against the wall using extremely aggressive builds. Painful to watch.
It's up to him, if he will be able to fix his mindset. I feel like this community actually doesn't help it. Who is the best foreigner if not Naniwa? Without Naniwa, in the last two stacked tournaments (RoG & IEM Cologne) there was no foreigner in top8, in IEM Sao Paulo TLO reached top4 (just because there was only one Korean on his way).
Get real. Naniwa is the best foreigner by far since over a half a year. It's sad, that the best foreigner is so inconsistent and self-defeating. He needs to keep working on his mentality and receive support from the community. New talents appearing in the foreigner scene would also help.
On February 19 2014 20:58 pms wrote: Naniwa just defeats himself. He did that against Bunny. All games yesterday looked similar - Naniwa intentionally breaking his head against the wall using extremely aggressive builds. Painful to watch.
It's up to him, if he will be able to fix his mindset. I feel like this community actually doesn't help it. Who is the best foreigner if not Naniwa? Without Naniwa, in the last two stacked tournaments (RoG & IEM Cologne) there was no foreigner in top8, in IEM Sao Paulo TLO reached top4 (just because there was only one Korean on his way).
Get real. Naniwa is the best foreigner by far since over a half a year. It's sad, that the best foreigner is so inconsistent and self-defeating. He needs to keep working on his mentality and receive support from the community. New talents appearing in the foreigner scene would also help.
On February 19 2014 20:58 pms wrote: Naniwa just defeats himself. He did that against Bunny. All games yesterday looked similar - Naniwa intentionally breaking his head against the wall using extremely aggressive builds. Painful to watch.
It's up to him, if he will be able to fix his mindset. I feel like this community actually doesn't help it. Who is the best foreigner if not Naniwa? Without Naniwa, in the last two stacked tournaments (RoG & IEM Cologne) there was no foreigner in top8, in IEM Sao Paulo TLO reached top4 (just because there was only one Korean on his way).
Get real. Naniwa is the best foreigner by far since over a half a year. It's sad, that the best foreigner is so inconsistent and self-defeating. He needs to keep working on his mentality and receive support from the community. New talents appearing in the foreigner scene would also help.
I think Scarlett is better.
She lost to him in the Bitcoin show-match. She didn't end higher in tournaments in 2013, nor in WCS points. Maybe now, in this moment, she is better, because Naniwa just lost in a very bad style. The second half of 2013 was clearly for Naniwa though.
On February 19 2014 20:58 pms wrote: Naniwa just defeats himself. He did that against Bunny. All games yesterday looked similar - Naniwa intentionally breaking his head against the wall using extremely aggressive builds. Painful to watch.
It's up to him, if he will be able to fix his mindset. I feel like this community actually doesn't help it. Who is the best foreigner if not Naniwa? Without Naniwa, in the last two stacked tournaments (RoG & IEM Cologne) there was no foreigner in top8, in IEM Sao Paulo TLO reached top4 (just because there was only one Korean on his way).
Get real. Naniwa is the best foreigner by far since over a half a year. It's sad, that the best foreigner is so inconsistent and self-defeating. He needs to keep working on his mentality and receive support from the community. New talents appearing in the foreigner scene would also help.
Well, anyway. I guess I'm too dramatic. Naniwa posted this in his fanclub 1 month ago:
"hi guys ! sorry for the late update. ill write here and in my blog a bit more thoroughly ^ Lately ive been really depressed about things that i rather not share in public but i am working on fixing them which lead me to have quite bad practice results lately and that shakes my confidence obviously . that plus all the drama at the same time and some other bad news regarding my team is making me really sad at the moment. But never the less i will come back stronger eventually so i guess all i ask is that you remember that im human too ^ As of right now in terms of my own plans there's korea plans and there's living on my own in sweden plans aswell both of which i find nice because i really feel i need a change in my life right now so that i can continue gaming alot of people really think its easy to be a foreigner pro and i guess this bothers me a litlte bit, sure if you dont care about results and you only want to stream then its a piece of cake but if you really want to win and try to better your game all the time it can be super frustrating when you have subpar practice possibilitys compared to the korean players who you have to play in tournaments. basically i guess all im saying is that i feel alot of pressure and stress etc etc. but oh well ill find a way to cope ! Sorry for saying so many different things in this post but my head is a mess right now , I do however want you guys to know that i check this thread quite regularly and i do appriciate your support "
This explains a lot. I hope you'll recover Nani! Best of luck!
Even though Naniwa as MC said didn't practice to much, if it's true. I still expected him to advance. Sad for him it wasn't that case. But Bunny showed some great macro, so gg wp. And congrats to MC too!
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/WCS2014/Europe_1/euofficial.jpg)
[A]NaNiwa was eliminated from the tournament. Despite placing well in non-WCS tournaments in 2013, NaNiwa had struggled in WCS Europe. His troubles continued in 2014 as he was sent down to the Challenger League after losses to MC and Bunny.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/WCS2014/Europe_1/ro32grouparesult.png)
CW.Bunny advanced in second place, losing his first series to NaNiwa but taking a 2-1 win in the high stakes rematch for the Ro16 spot.
VP.BenQ.sLivko finished in last place in the group, despite being able to take a win against MC with his trademark brood lord-infestor style (bolstered by swarm hosts). 
![[image loading]](http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/839739832.gif?1392747214)
