Jonah "NaNiWa" Luccheshi Profile

Throughout his career Jonah "NaNiWa" Luccheshi, the Swedish pro gamer, has been known  for his BM and team switching. Since becoming a pro during Warcraft 3 NaNiWa has played on seven teams; most recently going from Dignitas to Complexitiy. When NaNiWa was a Warcraft 3 pro some of his BM came from issues in his personal life such as being kicked out of his house by his parents and thrown out of school for 'inactivity'. More recently I think what seems like BM from NaNiWa is just because he is such a driven individual who strives to be the best and doesn't think that second place is good enough. Also being Swedish English is not NaNiWa's first language so he is probably thinking more about translating than phrasing so he can often seem cold and abrupt.

NaNiWa is always focused and won't stop until he attains his very high goals.

NaNiWa started to distinguish himself  as a capable player as early as the beta where he was the first person to win three consecutive ZOTAC cups as well as two Go4SC2 Wednesday Cups. After the release of Wings of Liberty NaNiWa Qualified to play in the ESL Pro Series for which he had to move to Germany for. However, before the end of his first season in the ESL NaNiWa was disqualified for acquiring too many penalty points from showing up late and not uploading replays; he was also banned from playing in any future seasons. After losing his place on the ESL NaNiWa was dropped from his team of the time (Meet Your Maker).

Complexity helped start to unleash NaNiWa's inner greatness..

After being teamless for about a month NaNiWa was picked up by Power Gaming, however just four days later it was announced that he was signed to the Russian team Team Empire. The circumstances around his acquisition are a bit murky but it seems like Power Gaming where a bit premature in announcing NaNiWa as a team member as it was not yet officially signed and only a verbal agreement. Playing in Team Empire was very good for NaNiWa through the last couple of months of 2010 however in January of 2011 NaNiWa signed onto Team Dignitas. NaNiWa's departure from Team Empire was on good terms and he thanked them for helping him in his dark time but said that Dignitas would give him more stability and access to better access partners. I think that the other members of Dignitas helped NaNiWa with appearing more human. Eventually Dignitas would send NaNiWa to Korea to compete in Code A though his dream has always been to be on top of Code S.

NaNiWa after winning MLG Dallas.

In April of 2011 NaNiWa competed in MLG Dallas working his way through first the open bracket and then pool play without dropping a single game. On his way to the championship final he 2:0'd KiwiKaki and Select; both very accomplished players. In the grand final he played in an extended series against KiwiKaki winning 4:2. This result came before the MLG-GSL exchange program so before the Koreans started to dominate MLG. After the competition NaNiWa famously said "Well, it's ok. My goal is to win the big final of MLG. Not this one but I'll win this one too". Since Dallas NaNiWa has not been able to show the same performance getting 6th, 8th then 12th in the MLG events Columbus, Anaheim and Raleigh. Also in Code A NaNiWa's performance has been somewhat lacking, always being knocked out in the first round, and not yet reaching his full potential. It wasn't until Blizzcon 2011 that NaNiWa would again show his high skill by placing 4th losing out to Sen, Mvp and NesTea; three very worthy opponents. 

NaNiWa at MLG Providence.

In Novemeber of 2011 NaNiWa was one of four players invited to the MLG Global Invitational finals hosted the same weekend as MLG Providence. NaNiWa 2:1'd Mvp in the semifinal and NesTea in the grand final taking his revenge and landing him first place and $3,000. NesTea and Mvp are probably the worlds top two players, having three GSL titles each, which goes to show how impressive NaNiWa's win was. At the main event of Providence it's self NaNiWa yet again performed well beating NesTea as well as the other notable players Huk and DongRaeGu. Unfortunately Leenock knocked out Mvp before NaNiWa and him could have a rematch so he played Leenock in the finals instead. Leenock won the first best of three in the finals so it became a best of seven, as Leenock was from the losers brackets. NaNiWa never won the 'big final' like he said he would as he lost 4:1 to Leenock though he consistently gave an impressive showing and has a bright future in front of him. Often, when players move to Korea, they don't perform as well before starting to improve as they relearn all their mechanics. After being quiet for a few months it seems like NaNiWa is back in a big way; let's hope this NaNiWa is here to stay.