Mana places 2nd at WCS

It was the perfect storm. Going into WCS Season 3, Mana appeared to be a known quantity. He was a well-respected Polish Protoss who enjoyed his career high back at the end of Wings of Liberty, and settled into respectable stasis afterwards. MaNa was solid and could be relied on to bolster any roster, yet few people believe he would ever match his earlier achievements.

And that is what makes Mana's run here remarkable. Among the hundreds of professional SC2 players who have passed through the scene, only a small contingent remains that have played this game since the beginning. Among those, fewer have followed up their initial success with a second resurgence. Today MaNa can claim both as he completed a miracle run through Violet, TLO, Marinelord, elfi, Petreaus and ForGG to the finals.



His journey is not incredible merely due to the result or the path he took. Time after time, Mana found himself down in a game or down in a series. Repeatedly he shook off despair and self-doubt and got back up to fight. It was an incredible display of grit from Mana that electrified the home crowd. It's been a long time since a SC2 crowd truly channeled the energy and suspense of a moment, but MaNa's countrymen stamped and roared for their hometown hero at every turn.

Though he eventually fell in the finals to Lilbow, MaNa can stand proud. In the last WCS tournament of the HotS era, in the one tournament that mattered most, in the one tournament in front of his country, MaNa stood up and gave a fight any fan could be proud of