DreamLeague S8: top 4 finish

A very good result for our team

Another elimination Bo3 came up for Natus Vincere G2A at DreamLeague S8, and this time it was none other than the North American team Evil Geniuses. The intense Bo3, unfortunately, had NaVi lose 0-2, and thus, we end our participation in DreamLeague S8.

Game 1 - Natus Vincere [0:1] Evil geniuses

Picks and bans

Team

Pick

Ban

Natus Vincere

• 
  RodjER
• 
  SoNNeikO
• 
  GeneRaL
• 
  Dendi
• 
  Crystallize

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Evil Geniuses

• 
  Fear
• 
  UNiVeRsE
• 
  Cr1t
• 
  Arteezy
• 
  Suma1L

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

The first game of the series started off with a courier snipe, which made EG's laning much more difficult. Some early kills came through for the Dire, though, but the advantage did not shift in anybody's way significantly. A couple of skirmishes popped up here and there, but the end of the laning stage saw EG get 6 more kills than NaVi, but 2 T1 towers down gave us a slight edge.

A key Blink Dagger on Brewmaster allowed us to get a couple of surprise kills in the bottom lane, one of them being the core hero. 17 minutes into the game, EG still had the kill advantage, but the net worth was tipped towards them ever so slightly. 19 minutes in, though, the opponent went for the first Roshan of the game, and the Aegis went to Luna. It was used up in a fight 3 minutes later, but the fight went the way of EG.

This gave Evil Geniuses a good opportunity to breach the high ground, but they retreated. A series of fights, though, put them at a good enough advantage to claim 2 lanes - bottom and mid, and they went for the Roshan again to try and solidify their advantage. The last fight happened 30 minutes in next to our top T2. The counter-initiation by Fear ensured GeneRaL did not get his Primal Split off. With Brewmaster and Sand King dead with no buyback, NaVi had no way to fight into EG, giving them the game 1.

Game 1 - Natus Vincere [0:2] Evil geniuses

Picks and bans

Team

Pick

Ban

Natus Vincere

• 
  SoNNeikO
• 
  RodjER
• 
  GeneRaL
• 
  Crystallize
• 
  Dendi

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Team 1

• 
  Fear
• 
  Universe
• 
  Cr1t
• 
  Arteezy
• 
  Suma1L

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

The second game saw the First Blood spilled by EG, as GeneRaL overextended a bit. Despite, the rest of the map was not affected too much by it, as Undying stayed in the midlane next to Zeus and made the lane very favorable for him, as Timbersaw could not come anywhere close. As the laning stage was coming to a close, we were sitting at a slight advantage, but the game was still far from secured.

A couple of pickoffs boosted our advantage even more, all the way to 5k, and as EG shifted towards the bottom lane, NaVi took the first Aegis of the game for Terrorblade. An unfortunate fight happened around 18 minutes, which allowed enemy Gyrocopter to get ahead in terms of net worth. A similar fight near T2 made our advantage plummet, and soon the game went the way of EG.

26 minutes in Evil Geniuses went for their own Roshan, and got it uncontested. They attempted to breach the high ground, but Crystallize bought back into the game, and this siege was repelled. Even though the Aegis expired shortly after, the Dire still went for another siege and managed to demolish our T3 bot.  The game was becoming increasingly tough, and another unsuccessful fight in our middle lane made it all the worse. The final fight saw everything on the side of NaVi expended, as every single buyback was thrown out, but it was not enough. NaVi finish their participation in DreamLeague S8.