Dong-Nyung 'Leenock' Lee has won MLG Providence and $50,000 following a lower bracket win which culminated in a 4:1 win over Johan 'NaNiwa' Lucchesi. After losing to DongRaeGu in the upper bracket Leenock faced the daunting task of needing to win seven straight series simply to reach the Grand Final. The 16 year old first time MLG participant did just that as he beat an utterly ridiculous row of opponents. BoxeR, SLush, MMA, IdrA, HuK, Mvp and DongRaeGu to reach the final.

Reaching the final was only half the battle though, as coming from the lower bracket Leenock needed to win two straight Bo3s to take the title while upper bracket champion only needed to win one. NaNiwa took map one of the final and will no doubt be haunted by knowing he was one map from $50,000. Instead it was the South Korean who came through in the clutch as he won four straight maps to take the biggest MLG title of the year and a huge cheque. The champion was interviewed following his victory.



With MLG's seeding system based on previous events and the number of big names gunning for the $50,000 one would have expected the winner to be a familiar name. Instead it was a first-timer who emerged from the open bracket to win a marathon of matches and the biggest MLG event of 2011. Leenock has also won himself a spot in GOMtv's Blizzard Cup thanks to this win.

With his second place NaNiwa is now the 11th highest earning SC2 player of all time, while the champion Leenock is now the 10th.

This proved to be an event with a ton of upsets, even beyond the eventual champion, as favourites fell left and right. NaNiwa came up huge in his upper bracket win, taking down NesTea, HuK and DongRaeGu in a row. GSL champions Mvp, NesTea and MC all had their troubles in Providence. Mvp lost to MC and then in the lower bracket beat MarineKing, HerO and HayprO to earn another rematch with MC, which he won this time.

NesTea's loss to NaNiwa in the upper bracket echoed his similar loss in the Global Invitational final but his lower bracket run proved non-existent as he was taken down in a surprise upset by fellow Zerg HayprO.

Amazingly only one Terran made the top eight, and that player, Mvp, is likely the best SC2 player in the world.



Even as recently as July and August Leenock was still battling in GSL's Code A, making the semi-finals twice. In October he made it to Code S and for November's tournament he is currently still alive in the Ro8. Interestingly NaNiwa had name-checked Leenock as one of the Zergs the Swede felt were better ZvPers than NesTea in an interview following his Global Invitational win.

(Photograph copyright of fragster)