Marcus "ThorZaIN" Eklöf won $15,000 USD and the title as TeamLiquid StarLeague champion after performing an incredible comeback against Johan "NaNiwa" Lucchesi in the best-of-seven match seen by over 60,000 people.

TSL3 Grand Final: Thorzain 4-3 NaNiwa

ThorZaIN

1-0

NaNiwa

@ Metalopolis

ThorZaIN

1-1

NaNiwa

@ Crevasse

ThorZaIN

1-2

NaNiwa

@ Shakuras Plateau

ThorZaIN

1-3

NaNiwa

@ Terminus RE

ThorZaIN

2-3

NaNiwa

@ Xel'Naga Caverns

ThorZaIN

3-3

NaNiwa

@ Crossfire SE

ThorZaIN

4-3

NaNiwa

@ Tal'Darim Altar

Both players were flown in to New York to avoid any sort of ping difference. The first game saw ThorZaiN take game one after a well-timed marine, tank, banshee push. NaNiwa was able to defend it, but in the acoming all-in counter-attack, ThorZaIN held it off to see the Protoss type out.

NaNiwa then took game two, three and four to reach a 3-1 lead.

Gateway units and Colossi army transitioning into Immortals and High Templar in game three overwhelmed ThorZaIN. With some excellent force fields and psi storms, NaNiwa could eliminate the Terran's mid-game army. He then macroed up and added more and more high templar to his army to deal the killing blow.

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Warped in blink stalkers overthrew ThorZaIN in game four and did enough damage before the tanks were able to siege up. With three match points opportunities to clinch the $15,000, NaNiwa faltered and saw himself get defeated by ThorZaIN in the following three games.

A breathtaking defensive in game six saw ThorZaIN blast ahead when he held off NaNiwa's high amount of warped in units. The 35 food lead for the Terran gave him the time to power up and then do the marine, marauder and medivac attack in the timing window to tie the game to 3-3.

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The last game, the "best of one game for $15,000" on Tal'Darim Altar, had people witness awesome early Colossi pressure from NaNiwa, well-placed EMPs and stellar viking micro from ThorZaIN.

Being able to sweep the somewhat misplaced sentries' forcefield energy with the EMP and taking out the Colossus with the many vikings, ThorZaIN's marine, marauder army could bite off the "35-0" Protoss NaNiwa to win the event.

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Eliminating three champions in the road to the grand final, the Swedish Terran of Mousesports could take yet another champion scalp in the popular tournament series. The TSL champion Tyler, the two-time GSL champion MC, GSL champion FruitDealer had all suffered Thor's hammer; and yesterday it was wielded once more and swung with a heavy blow to the MLG Dallas champion NaNiwa.

All VODs are available on YouTube in case you missed the games or just want to relive the matches.

Closing words of the broadcast had the casters "Day[9]" and "Chill" mention a fourth season of the TeamLiquid StarLeague. Eyes will be kept open.

Final standings, TeamLiqud StarLeague 3
1. ThorZaIN ($15,000)
2. NaNiwa ($7,000)
3. Kas ($3,000)
4. HasuObs ($1,500)
5-8. MC, Adelscott, BoxeR, CrunCher ($700)
9-16. Tyler, White-Ra, qxc, NaDa, Sen, MorroW, GoOdy, Mondragon ($350)
17-32: Strelok, FruitDealer, Ciara, Loner, Mvp, Genius, TLO, HayprO, Fenix, NightEnD, Jinro, HuK, NesTea, Ret, IdrA ($150)

TeamLiquid StarLeague 3 Grand Final - Report