This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　As the year of 2013 was reaching its conclusion and it was made painfully clear that no non-Korean would claim a major tournament against the franchise's masters, fans in the SC2 scene found only two names in the non-Korean realm that had held their own consistently against Koreans. They were Johan 'Naniwa' Lucchesi and Sasha 'Scarlett' Hostyn and whilst everyone agreed that their results this year were the most impressive amongst their non-Korean peers, they were still not certain of which of the two that was the best.

　　Today, they both embarked on a BitCoin sponsored showmatch to settle the score and crown the non-Korean player of the year. The player who exited the arena victoriously was the polarizing protoss Naniwa, who claimed the match after a 4-2 victory. Naniwa's 2013 story is one that constantly bordered on absolute brilliance as he started the year off with placing 2nd at Dreamhack Open Stockholm.

　　Following his success in the home country, three more amazing tournaments and storylines followed him: Placing top 4 at MLG Anaheim, placing 2nd in IEM New York and finally qualifying for the BlizzCon WCS Grand Finals after sweeping his WCS tiebreaker match against Kim 'RevivaL' Dong Hyun, becoming the only non-Korean in attendance at the event.

　　He ends this year with official bragging rights as the best non-Korean of the year, as well as WCS Europes Player of the in the Blizzard Community's Choice awards.

　　Image Source: Aftonbladet.se, Helena Kristiansson, Kevin Florenzano , ESL