The Kuala Lumpur Major CIS Open Qualifiers: victory over Empire
NAVI takes revenge
The next game of 
NAVI.GG.BET was against 
Team Empire yet again. The Bo3 ended in a hard-earned 2:1 victory for the Born to Win!
Game 1 - Natus Vincere [1:0] Team Empire
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Team Empire
Chappie
Cooman
Miposhka
sayuw
Maden
The first blood was drawn before 3 minutes, and from there onwards, it was a constant bloodshed. NAVI were playing very aggressively, and by 10 minutes, we were sitting at 2k gold advantage a few kills ahead. Chen was all around the map, trying to create as much pressure as possible on all lanes. The laning stage was a successful one - 3/5 heroes in the top part of the net worth chart were ours. A fight unraveled around 18 minutes in - NAVI initially good a good fight, but the Ember Spirit returned into battle.
20 minutes in NAVI took the first Roshan of the game, approaching 10k lead. We continued to amass the advantage, taking the map control. By 25th minute NAVI were already knocking on the door of Empire's base, ultimately taking it down. The T3 mid fell down, and the barracks followed - MagicaL committed a BKB to secure the important buildings. From there onwards, the game settled down quite a bit - NAVI were trying to get more items, and waiting for the next Roshan.
30 minutes in, NAVI secured the second Roshan of the game, Aegis going the way of MagicaL. A couple of minutes later, as we were gathering near bottom T2 tower, Empire decided to fight back, but was unsuccessful - they had to expend the buybacks, but got nothing out of it. Meanwhile, Templar Assassin purchased Scythe of Vyse, improving her kill potential. It seemed, though, as if the game has stalled, with neither NAVI nor Empire taking any decisive steps, afraid to make a mistake.
39 minutes in, NAVI finally felt prepared to give the siege a go. The final teamfight had 4 heroes of Empire dead, as we score the first point in the Bo3 series - 1:0!
Game 2 - Natus Vincere [1:1] Team Empire
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Team Empire
Chappie
Cooman
Miposhka-
sayuw
Maden
The second game saw a slightly unconventional lane arrangement - MagicaL decided to go top as Kunkka, while mid was taken by 
Blizzy on Pugna. The laning stage wasn't going too well for NAVI, as Empire was getting a lot of kills. However, as some key levels started to come in, NAVI started to reclaim the net worth lost during the laning stage. The global presence of Io helped us a lot, with the early push coming in. By 15 minutes Empire lost the top outer towers.
18 minutes in the Dire initiated onto Pugna and managed to turn the fight around, pulling off a team wipe. The game stalled a bit, as Empire had to farm quite a lot, while we were unable to find the key kills just yet. That fight drove us behind again, as we lost some money in terms of net worth. However, 23 minutes in we managed to find a kill on Silencer, and smoked up immediately, finding another kill on Earthshaker.
Empire smoked up but got baited on an illusion, using Reaper's Scythe and Echo Slam to bring it down. NAVI used this moment right away to take the first Roshan of the game. With the Aegis for Gyrocopter, we approached the mid-T2 and took it down fast. From then onwards, though, NAVI resorted to farming. Empire secured a very good lead for themselves. 38 minutes in NAVI tried to snipe Roshan, but Empire were aware of it and initiated, taking down Roshan for themselves - Aegis for Spectre.
The game was becoming increasingly harder, as Empire felt extremely comfortable on the map. However, when they finally decided to engage, NAVI instantly deleted Necrophos from the map, with Silencer following the suit. The Dire started to die one by one, and NAVI forced out a buyback by entering the Roshpit, as the third Roshan would be extremely important. Having done that, we left the pit, but this didn't work out well, as a couple of minutes later, Empire took a very good fight.
We had to buy back, but even that wasn't enough to stop the opponent, as our T3 fell very fast. The final fight near the bottom T3 saw Empire take the tower and a barrack while killing our Gyrocopter with Reaper's Scythe - 170 seconds with no buyback, and we had no choice but to concede the game - the fate will be decided on the final map.
Game 3 - Natus Vincere [2:1] Team Empire
NAVI.GG.BET
-
Crystallize
MagicaL-
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Team Empire
Chappie
Cooman
Miposhka
sayuw
Maden
The third game had first blood spilled right away, as SoNNeikO tried to get the Radiant top bounty and was killed off. After that, neither team was really trying to score kills, as both resorted to farming. Our cores had a good game - MagicaL had a good start against the Brood in midlane, while Spectre didn't really have the best game early on. By 10 minutes, Empire had a slight advantage, and yet again, only occasional kills were happening around the map.
Fortunately, Storm Spirit and Necrophos were farming away and participating in kills, so they were top-2 in terms of net worth, despite a tough early game for the Dire in general. By 19 minutes, a small engagement burst out in the bottom lane - we lost a couple of heroes, but we still had the upper hand. MagicaL was doing very well, being an annoying nuisance. The fights continued; some of them were good for our team, while Empire benefitted from the others.
The Radiant tried to take the Roshan, having seen that Haunt is on cooldown, but didn't manage to take him down quickly enough. In a little bit, though, Ursa took down the first Rosh of the game, yet didn't seem to do anything with it just yet. 35 minutes in Storm had his Black King Bar, while Necrophos got a hold of his Shiva's Guard, so we were looking for a fight. We got it soon enough, and as MagicaL put his BKB to good use, 2 cores of Empire were left without buybacks.
The fight near the Roshpit had NAVI lose 3 heroes, and Empire took Roshan quite fast. The fight initiated by Storm and Spectre resulted in 4 heroes dead without buybacks - NAVI.GG.BET take the victory over Team Empire, making it to the Kuala Lumpur Major CIS Closed qualifiers!
