Johan "Naniwa" Lucchesi sent reigning champion HuK down to the losers bracket after a spectacular protoss mirror. Naniwa is one more step closer to the big money but will first have to defeat DRG in the winners bracket final.
Things started really bad for Naniwa as he scored a very quick loss on Altar but was not at all ready to give it all up. Entering Antiga Shipyard, Naniwa opened with a very strong blink stalker rush that put HuK against the ropes but the Canadian was a tough nut to crack, perfectly zoning Nani's stalkers out with forcefields and making him fall back. But once in the mid-game, Naniwa was living to his forte and making all the important build order transitions. When the two met again out in the map, Naniwa had brought immortals and archons to the party, overpowering HuK to tie the score.
Similarly, Naniwa snatched another victory on Temple, once again going for a quick blink. HuK, who went for a robo/expansion build, could not find a way to efficiently battle Naniwa's army (despite having immortals!) and when Nani's own immortal hit the field the EG protoss reluctantly surrendered the series and strolled down to the losers bracket.
This brings us to a PvZ winners bracket final between DongRaeGu and Naniwa and by the end of the night one of them will be within a hand-reach of the $50,000 first place prize.
