Photo by: Helena Kristiansson
A year and a half after the 2011 MLG Providence grand final, Naniwa faced Leenock again craving revenge. Unfortunately for the Swede, Leenock proved stronger and emerged champion after a full, five-set series.
Having dropped just one map (and thus undefeated in the tournament), Leenock came in with a high-velocity momentum into the grand final series but his performance so far was not enough to win him the crowd. After his narrow defeat of the "Tyrant" Jaedong, it was Naniwa who was in the limelight, one final step away from his first ever DreamHack championship.
The game started with both players going for styles the audience was already very familiar with: Naniwa using a gateway expand combined with defensive play leading into a third base and Leenock doing his double evo speedling play that was the death of so many protosses this weekend.
Finding a crack in Naniwa's defenses gave Leenock the opportunity to pressure the Protoss at both his natural and his third, eventually forcing him to cancel the latter. This put Naniwa in an economically unfavorable position and he couldn't properly respond as the ultralisk transition came knocking.
Naniwa more or less stuck to his build in game two but added in a single void ray, a decision that helped him immensely against Leenock's early baneling play. From there, Leenock tried to add in a spire tech and make Naniwa stay in his base but a lethal colossus timing came knocking to eradicate the swarm.
As game three began, Leenock once again tried to make something happen with some early speedlings but hit intent was promptly discarded and so a hydra/viper transition was under way. But Leenock had way more in store than simple hydra tech and was able to bank a grand stockpile of money while doing ground-based pressure, which triggered a massive tech switch into mutas, something Naniwa did not expect and had no ways of fighting off.
One game away from elimination, Naniwa picked himself up and again tied the score on Planet S by catching Leenock in the middle of a spire transition, bringing the series to the last and final game, much for audience's satisfaction. There, on the fields of Whirlwind, did he attempt his final 2-base timing.
Designed to specifically battle Leenock's speedling strat, Naniwa's push was heavy on Zealots, supported by two colossi and warp prism. Unfortunately for him, though, Leenock was on top of things and had corruptors by the time the attack came. Despite using fancy warp prism control to keep his colossi alive, Naniwa was eventually overrun. With 3-2, Leenock became Stockholm's champion.
DreamHack Stockholm standings
1.
Leenock - $9,2402.
Naniwa - $5,3903-4.
HerO - $3,0803-4.
Jaedong - $3,0805-8.
SortOf - $1,5405-8.
Coca - $1,5405-8.
Gumiho - $1,5405-8.
HyuN - $1,540