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MegaFon Winter Clash qualifier: NAVI.GG.BET to the LAN finals!
NAVI.GG.BET take the well-deserved LAN slot!
NAVI.GG.BET fought with 
NoPango in a Bo5 at MegaFon Winter Clash qualifier finals. The Bo5 was an intense series, but ultimately, NAVI secure the slot at the LAN event!
Game 1 — Natus Vincere [0:1] NoPangolier
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
NoPangolier
Naive-
Ceyler
Ghostik
Zayac
CemaTheSlayer
The first game started off quite well for NAVI — our lanes were doing reasonably well despite some early aggression from NoPango, we still had some kill potential. Lina made a rotation top 7 minutes in, and got a couple of kills, allowing for a nice boost. By 10 minutes, NoPango had a slight advantage, but NAVI were still getting the crucial items. The game settled down for a while until NoPango smoked up and ambushed NAVI — we lost a few heroes, but overall, the game was till under control.
20 minutes in, NoPango went for the first Roshan of the game, and Gyrocopter became a real problem with BKB and Aegis. The opponent tried to go for the offensive with Relocate, but paid for it with a few heroes, having to use a buyback on Io. Slowly but surely, NAVI started to bounce back — as we relied on teamfights, higher levels allowed us to fight better and more often. However, around 30 minutes, NAVI lost Faceless Void, and NoPango went for the Roshan straight away.
The game started to spiral out of control. A couple of deaths on NAVI allowed NoPango to take the entire midlane. We retaliated, killing 4, and NoPango immediately bought back — all 4 buybacks used. It was a rather move, but in the end, the Dire destroyed the last barrack, as NAVI had to face Megas. As the game hit 40 minutes, NoPango were sitting at 10k gold advantage. NAVI tried to take the Roshan, but NoPango engaged us, and we fell on the first map.
Game 2 — Natus Vincere [0:2] NoPangolier
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize-
MagicaL
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
NoPangolier
Naive-
Ceyler
Ghostik
Zayac
CemaTheSlayer
NoPango claimed the First Blood at 3 minutes, as 
SoNNeikO fell in the top lane. The teams kept trading kills, and no team could get decisively ahead. By 10 minutes, the teams were only 1k gold apart, and both took each others' T1 safelane towers. The teams maintained their pressure, taking more towers, with occasional pickoffs, yet no big fights. 17 minutes in, NoPango managed to successfully siege our high ground with the Aegis they claimed earlier, so NAVI lost the first lane — both T3 and barracks in mid were taken.
After that siege, both teams settled back down, as both tried to recuperate and get more farm, as any fight could be decisive. NoPango re-engaged att 22 minutes, and T3 in bot fell; meanwhile Crystallize went to split—push enemy top lane, destroying T3. NAVI managed to repel the push without too many losses, and we were rather happy with the outcome. NoPango went for the next Roshan, taking it down in mere seconds — Aegis for PA.
The game took a turn for the worse as time went by. NAVI cores were overextending without buybacks, and a kill on Lina allowed NoPango to got for the last remaining lane — NAVI had to use all they had, but that wasn't enough, as we faced Megas yet again. As the game reached 30 minutes, NAVI were 14k gold behind. There was almost no way for us to come back into it, and the decisive fight sealed the second game, with NAVI 1 away from elimination.
Game 3 — Natus Vincere [1:2] NoPangolier
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL-
Blizzy
-
Chuvash
-
SoNNeikO
NoPangolier
-
Naive-
-
Ceyler
-
Ghostik
-
Zayac
CemaTheSlayer
The third game was off to a much slower start — the First Blood was spilled quite late. Both our cores were doing extremely well — MagicaL had a very comfortable lane against Sand King, and Morphling was allowed to farm to his heart's content. NAVI managed to get some kills, losing Kunkka once, as he chased Io quite deep. NoPango were trying to get some good smoke ganks, but the one at 12 minutes failed, as they lost 2. NAVI solidified their map presence, continuing to get targets.
NAVI cores were in the top of the net worth chart still, as by 15 minutes we were 5k gold ahead. A couple minutes later NAVI engaged NoPango — initially, the fight seemed to be pretty disastrous, but a buyback on Kunkka turned it around, as the opponent lost their core hero and a support to go with it. By 20 minutes, we were almost 10k ahead. NAVI went for the first Roshan of the game, claiming the Aegis at 22 minutes with no contest from NoPango. We followed it up with a good teamfight near the bottom Bounty rune with a Blink reveal from Magnus.
NAVI kept trying to siege the high ground, but it was a bit more challenging than it seemed. We repeated our assaults for a while, but we managed to win the game even before taking the first T3 tower. NoPango realized they have nothing to put forth, so they GG-ed out — our first victory in the series!
Game 4 — Natus Vincere [2:2] NoPangolier
NAVI.GG.BET
-
Crystallize
MagicaL-
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
NoPangolier
Naive--
Ceyler
Ghostik-
Zayac
-
CemaTheSlayer
The fourth game started relatively calm, with very little action anywhere. The first fights sparked once the heroes got some levels. Both NAVI and NoPango traded some kills. Around 9 minutes, though, NoPango had a small, 3—deaths worth hiccup in the top lane, which put us in an even more favorable position. NAVI had 3k gold advantage by 10 minutes, which was quite good for us.
As the game moved on, NAVI kept getting more kills, especially when we hit some crucial item timings. The first Roshan fell just before 20 minutes, as Templar Assassin claimed the first Aegis of the game. That fueled our aggression quite a bit, but since we didn't quite get the pickoffs we wanted, so we chose to take T2 top and retreat to get more items meanwhile. Unfortunately, a smoke by NAVI really didn't work in our favor, as we lost 3 heroes and the Aegis; it also allowed the opponents to finish some important items.
NoPango felt a bit too confident and engaged NAVI in the Dire jungle. A BKB on TA, though, was a rather unpleasant surprise for the opponent, as NAVI killed 4 opposing heroes, bumping up our advantage to 11k gold. This made NoPango rather reluctant to go for any fights. We decided to not wait for the opponent to come, and get another Aegis — unfortunately, this didn't quite give us a lot, as TA got killed very fast. NAVI retreated, losing a couple of heroes, but regrouped and went for the last fight — it seemed to unravel rather chaotically, but a teamwipe secured NAVI all the barracks. NoPango realized they can't fights into Megas, so they GG-ed out, as the series comes down to game 5!
Game 5 — Natus Vincere [3:2] NoPangolier
NAVI.GG.BET
-
Crystallize
MagicaL-
Blizzy
-
Chuvash
-
SoNNeikO
NoPangolier
Naive-
Ceyler-
Ghostik
-
Zayac
-
CemaTheSlayer
The final game was off to a fairly decent start for NAVI — MagicaL had a very good time in mid against Lycan, and so did Sand King in the bottom lane. On the other side, Crystallize wasn't really given a whole lot of safe space to farm, but managed to staty afloat. The teams were poking and prodding quite often, but the first big fight unraveled in the midlane — even though we lost Monkey King by the end of the fight, we still got a good end of the trade. Juggernaut, meanwhile, was doing too well, and that was quite a setback for us.
By 20 minutes, the teams were still dead even. NoPango tried to kill Roshan twice, but NAVI intercepted both attempts; after a particularly bad fight for NoPango, NAVI took the Roshan themselves — Monkey King got the Aegis. Having done that, NAVI tried very hard to push the advantage, but NoPango were very reluctant to fight into the Aegis, so they decided to stall it out until Aegis expires. It worked out, and a fight broke out in the mid lane — NAVI lost a lot of heroes, and NoPango followed it up juickly with a T3 taken mid. That diminished our advantage to a measly 1k gold.
Still, it wasn't enough to set us that much behind, as a fight in the midlane had Dazzle buy back and Lycan got caught as well, which gave us an uncontested Roshan. With the Aegis and Cheese, NAVI went for the high ground siege down mid; we did get the T3, but nothing more before retreating. With 2 important ultimates down for NoPango, NAVI were very eager to continue the siege, but ultimately got just 1 barrack. We didn't go too far back, though, and forced Juggernaut to buyback.
By 40 minutes NAVI had 14k gold advantage. At 44 minutes, NAVI went for the third Roshan — enemy Juggernaut managed to snatch the Refresher Orb, but paid for it with his life — he had no buyback. That gave NAVI all the advantage they wanted — Mega Creeps were hitting the enemy base. We disengaged with some losses, but it was still okay. NoPango were still in the game, though, and fought till the very last HP bar of their Ancient disappeared — an intense series paves the way into MegaFon Winter Clash for NAVI!
