Photo: Kevin Florenzano / ESL
The foreign hope Johan "Naniwa" Lucchesi has made it to the final step. In a few minutes, the Swede goes against StarTale's ace Life for the $10,000 of IEM New York.
Finishing second in his group on day three of IEM New York, Naniwa had to fight through fire and flames to reach the grand final of the tournament. In the quarter final rounds on Saturday, Naniwa was paired against Flash Wolves' San and fought back from a one game disadvantage towards a 3-1 comeback to move on to the semis. He was met there by none other than DreamHack champion and Quantic's star player Hyun, who dealt two quick losses to the Swede to put him one game away from elimination.
Fighting for his tournament life, Naniwa implemented a combination of gateway attacks, mass void rays and double proxy gateways right inside of HyuN's main to make a miracle comeback and explode the Comic Con crowd. With this 3-2 over the Zerg, this will be Naniwa's second grand final this year alone after he finished behind Leenock at DreamHack Stockholm.
Naniwa's opponent in the grand final will be StarTale's prodigy Life. The youngster had a tough run through the group stage but hasn't drop a single playoffs game and is 7-2 against Protoss players this tournament. A best of seven face-off will determine who will bring home the $10,000 and the even more valuable 750 WCS points.
