Greatest Rivalries of SC2: NaNiwa vs ThorZaIN

Almost all of the great rivalries are either foreigner vs Korean or Korean vs Korean. The reason is simple. In general only a handful of foreigners and Koreans ever make it to the top. And even among that elite group, a majority of players only have a limited amount of time at the top from which they can form meaningful rivalries against other top players. There have been a few Foreigner vs Foreigner rivalries such as Idra vs Jinro or Idra vs HuK, but nothing came of it. Jinro peaked early on and was never able to reclaim his form. HuK joining EG killed the rivalry and they never played any meaningful series after the team switch. That is part of what makes this rivalry unique.

Here were two players from Sweden, two of the best SC2 players Sweden had ever produced, but you could not have had more contrasting approaches or personalities. On one side was ThorZaIN, a mild mannered, calm, methodical player whose only interest seemed to be playing the best he could. On the other side was NaNiwa, a player whose attitude swung from affably awkward to intensely silent (and sometimes not so silent) rage, a player who believed the only virtue worth pursuing in life was to be the best SC2 player in the world.



I once wrote the name NaNiwa alone could incite conflict. When he returned after his year's hiatus into professional SC2, he started more rivalries in one day than the foreign scene had seen combined during his absence. But for NaNiwa, the only foreigner that could be called his rival for any length of time was ThorZaIN. And the same could be said of ThorZaIN. ThorZaIN was the type of player who underplayed his own skill and was generally humble, unless it came to NaNiwa. In which case he’d casually tell NaNiwa to stop harassing him and then remind NaNiwa of their head-to-head score (which for most of their career was in ThorZaIN’s favor and is even now 15-15 in map score).

• ThorZaIN - 4-3 TSL 3
  
• NaNiwa - 2-1 Blizzard EU Battle.net Invitational
  
• ThorZaIN - 1-0 2012 IPL TAC 2
  
• NaNiwa - 2-0 Red Bull
  
• ThorZaIN - 2-0 WCS 2012 Sweden Nationals
  
• NaNiwa - 4-2 MLG Proleague Invitational
  
• ThorZaIN - 2-0 DH Winter Open
  
• ThorZaIN - 2-1 eSports-SM (group stage)
  
• NaNiwa - 3-1 eSports-SM

When TSL Open 3 was announced at midnight on Dec 31, 2010, the plan was to open up SC2 with a bang and get one of the first major meetings of the Korean and foreign world in an online tournament. It was and still is unique for the scope of the tournament, the format of the qualifiers (still one of the best formats ever run) and for trying to play equally on KR-EU/NA servers (something which later online tournaments would not bother with as Koreans kept winning on bad latency anyway). In a strange twist of fate, it wasn’t the story that people were expecting (which was a Korean dominated finals) or the one they were hoping for (a Korean against a foreigner.) What they instead got were two Swedes. NaNiwa had come off his MLG Dallas win and was looking to become the best EU player. ThorZaIN was a complete unknown who had used his skills and incredible preparation to create one of the great underdog miracle runs of any tournament anywhere. It culminated in a finals where NaNiwa went up 3-1 on ThorZaIN in a Bo7. ThorZaIN then reversed the score and won the first chapter in an ongoing rivalry that has lasted years.



In that TSL 3 Finals, there was a lot of truth that could be found about their approach and their personalities. ThorZaIN was a meticulous player, one who excelled at preparation and excelled when the pressure was on despite often being the weaker player. NaNiwa was an extremely skilled player, someone who could play against anyone and have a chance at winning without preparation. But when it came down to the finals, he’d freeze up, choke, lose focus and start crumbling under the pressure. But both were undeniably skilled SC2 players, which contributed to the fact that both of them couldn’t stand each other. ThorZaIN was forced to respect NaNiwa’s skill despite NaNiwa’s attitude towards him. In NaNiwa’s strive to be the best, he tried to deny ThorZaIN’s skill with all of his might, but no matter what he did he could never decisively defeat ThorZaIN and was more often than not behind in their head to head series.



This only added fuel to the fire as NaNiwa hated being compared to ThorZaIN and he was convinced of his superiority over the other Swede. In terms of results, he was right.

Here are NaNiwa’s achievements from 2011-2013 (the length of the rivalry):

• 2nd TSL 3
  
• 1st MLG Dallas
  
• Top 6 MLG Columbus
  
• Top 8 DH Summer
  
• Top 8 MLG Anaheim
  
• Top 4 Blizzcon
  
• Top 2 MLG Providence
  
• Top 8 IEM Kiev
  
• Top 8 MLG Winter
  
• Top 8 MLG Winter Arena
  
• Top 8 GSL S2 2012
  
• Top 8 GSL S3 2012
  
• Top 8 DH Summer 2012
  
• 2nd DH Stockholm 2013
  
• 1st MLG Invitational

Now here are ThorZaIN’s:

• 1st TSL 3
  
• Top 4 NASL
  
• 2nd DH Valencia 2011
  
• 1st DH Stockholm 2012
  
• Top 8 DH Winter 2012

It cannot be denied that NaNiwa outperformed with many more top placings at more tournaments. The problem however is ThorZaIN’s two victories. For everything that NaNiwa achieved, he could never win. He could never step across that final threshold and take up the trophy himself, except twice. Once at MLG Dallas which was a very weak field (even relative to its time) and the MLG Invitational which was a 4 man tournament (granted he beat both Mvp and Nestea), but was essentially an under-card to the MLG Providence tournament. ThorzaIN won the two most meaningful tournaments of his career. He won the TSL in a miracle run over NaNiwa and he won DH Stockholm cementing a Swedish victory in Sweden. Perhaps that was what irked NaNiwa the most. No matter how many times he tried to deny ThorZaIN’s skill, reality forced him to recognize the fact that ThorZaIN had that missing element that allowed him to win big tournaments, something NaNiwa has never had.



Their story ended during the final decline of ThorZaIN. NaNiwa was in one of his peak levels of skill in 2013 and was still a very strong player. ThorZaIN had only collected mediocre results for all of 2013 and the latter half of 2012. It was with this in mind that NaNiwa planned to kill his rival one last time entering the eSports-SM tournament.

The tournament was for Swedish players only and when NaNiwa entered he told the interviewer:
- “I don't want to be compared to 'ThorZaIN', I think I'm much better than him. The only reason I'm playing the Swedish Championships is to beat him.”

ThorZaIN’s response was this:
- "The last time we met I won. His best results have exceeded mine. But we're both very up and down when it comes to results. I don't know what he has against me because I haven't done anything to him except like... playing 'Starcraft'. I've never said anything bad about him."

But don't you become upset by hearing that kind of statement?
- "...I'm used to it. He's been doing this for a while. I almost think it's just laughable."

Who is Sweden's best player right now?
- "It's probably 'NaNiwa'. But if we'd both be in top shape then I'm not sure."

Despite having only 1 good result in the last year, ThorZaIN was still unwilling to admit defeat to NaNiwa. And in that tournament they played two series, one in the group stages and in the finals. ThorZaIN won the group stages 2-1, NaNiwa returned the favor and won the finals 3-1. Yet this is a NaNiwa that would go on to get Top 4 at MLG, top 8 WCS EU, Top 8 WCS S2 Finals. This was a NaNiwa who was in one of his peak performance levels. Whereas this was a ThorZaIN who hadn’t been at that level for nearly an entire calendar year. Yet when it came down to the head to head, ThorZaIN once more elevated his level and gave NaNiwa a real challenge for the entire tournament. It was befitting such a memorable rivalry that they ended things they way they began, with the two fighting each other one last time in a finals to prove who was the real King of the North.



Photo Credits: www.aftonbladet.se , Team Acer, http://www.gosugamers.net/ , DreamHack
Art: Jean-LéonGérôme's "The Duel After the Masquerade"
Writer: stuchiu
Gfx: lichter
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Editor: lichter