A path to remember: NAVI.G2A.Dota2 in 2017

2017 has brought a lot to the team and fans alike.

2017 has been a rather eventful year for Natus Vincere G2A, with a lot of events happening. We have had a fair share of our ups and downs, but overall, 2017 felt like a good year for our Dota 2 roster. Let's take a look at how this year went for our guys.

The start of the year was marked by several qualifiers: StarLadder i-League StarSeries S3, Dota 2 Asia championship and The Kiev Major qualifiers. It was hardly our finest hour, as unfortunately, NAVI did not manage to qualify for any of those, falling short of qualifying to The Kiev Major after losing the last series to Virtus.pro. That was quite disheartening, especially with the major being on our home turf, but we found it in ourselves to continue playing.

April 2017 saw the first reshuffle of the year for NAVI, as a former long-time player joined our ranks once more - we welcomed Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev, who replaced Roman "rmN-" Paley as a support. Akbar is currently playing with us, as strong as ever; Roman, in his turn, moved on with his pro player career and was last playing for Elements Pro Gaming.

The streak of qualifiers continued all the way to the end of May, when the first Major of  2017 for NAVI took place - DreamLeague S7 EU. Our squad took the 6th place there, with the $6000 prize, but no chance to go to the DreamLeague S7 in Atlanta. Note that this major happened before the announcement of the Major Circuit, so no Qualifying Points were granted to any team.

In June, NAVI played in 3 tournaments, one being a qualifier for TI; this was the last spike before the long hiatus that would only be broken after The International 2017, with the beginning of the qualifiers. Neither tournament yielded the results we were hoping to achieve - 9-10th place at the EPICENTER 2017 and 5-6th at the Summit 7. TI qualifiers, unfortunately, followed the suit, as we fell short of qualifying, not getting to the playoffs - this was the first TI that we did not attend, as a team.

Na'Vi have been eliminated from the race for TI7 -- This is the first time Na`Vi & Dendi will not be at The International.

— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm)

July was marked by yet another change of the roster - Per Anders Olsson "Pajkatt" Lille and Malthe "Biver" Winther left NAVI, and the day before, on July 30, Alexandr "XBOCT" Dashkevich came back to the organization, but this time in a coaching position; Per is currently playing for OpTiс Gaming, while Malthe joined Team Spirit. From then on, a long period of tryouts started, to be finished only in September, shortly before the first qualifiers would start.

Post-TI period kicked off with a big announcement from NAVI - Vladislav "Crystallize" Krystanek and Vladimir "RodjER" Nikogosyan were joining us for the upcoming season. Of all the players that were tried, they fit in the team the best and were chosen for core and support roles, respectively. Both players had some experience beforehand - Crystallize was a member of Double Dimension, while RodjER was playing for Team Empire. After several months of games, we can say for sure we did not regret the choice one bit!

Back to the tournaments - 6 qualifiers, pretty much back to back. 3 of them had NAVI claim the first place and the spot in the LAN finals - StarLadder i-League Invitational #3, PGL Open Bucharest 2017 CIS Qualifier and  DreamLeague Season 8: CIS Open Qualifier. The rest of them saw us come close, but not enough to get to the LAN. Regarding the successful qualifications, NAVI took 5-6th place at StarLadder, claiming $15000 and 7-8th at PGL Open Bucharest for $7500, yet unfortunately, those placements did not secure us any Qualifying Points.

November was just as eventful as the past months - qualifiers and tournaments were plenty, something we needed a lot to practice against other pro teams. MDL Macau CIS qualifier saw us take the first place after beating Team Empire 2:1; as to the main event, which happened in December, NAVI took the 3-4th place, which secured us the prize of $30000 and 30 points per player - this was already a good start. At the Summit 8 qualifiers, we claimed the second spot, but unfortunately, that did not secure us a ticket to the LAN final. DreamLeague S8 Qualifier had us qualify from the second place, after being defeated by Team Secret in the finals. 

The tournament of the month for NAVI was Adrenaline Cyber League; 4 teams gathered in Moscow to battle it out for a share of the prize pool. NAVI was invited to the event directly, and we proved that it was well-deserved, dominating the tournament and ultimately claiming the grand prize of $65000. Regarding the remaining 2 competitions, Galaxy Battles II qualifier had us take the 3rd-4th place, not qualifying for the main event; Midas Mode EU, a tournament organized by Moonduck, definitely brought in some much-needed fun, while also contributing to a charitable cause - our share of the prize pool (the 2nd place earned $7500) went .

Finally, we've come to the concluding month - December. Aside from the previously mentioned MDL Macau, we had DreamLeague S8 and the qualifiers for ESL One Genting 2018. As a reminder, we have qualified for the DreamLeague in November, and put up a good performance at the event, claiming the 4th place, $75000 and 75 points per player, which put us at 105 points for each. ESL One Genting 2018 qualifiers finished just recently, and they were quite successful, as we overcame 3 opponents successfully, securing us the ticket for the next Minor - a good way to finish off the year!

To conclude, as of right now, Natus Vincere G2A is on the 9th place in the Dota Pro Circuit ranking with 315 points; for anyone unfamiliar, top 3 earners contribute to the team's total points, but as each member of NAVI has 105, we have just 3 players contributing to the total. As more points will be distributed next year, we will try to catch up with the 7-8th place - currently taken by OG and Vici Gaming with 540 points each - to try and secure the invite to The International.

We are thankful for all the support we have been getting this year, even as the times were dire. It truly means a lot and gives us the strength to move forward. Next year promises to be just as intense, and as the holiday season will come to an end, we will be ready to jump straight back into action, kicking 2018 off with a blast! #gonavi