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WePlay! Dota 2 Valentine Madness: victory vs Alliance
NAVI advance to the upper bracket finals!
NAVI.GG.BET fought with 
Alliance at WePlay! Dota 2 Valentine Madness event in a Bo3 series. The series turned out to be very interesting, with NAVI taking it 2:1 in the end.
Game 1 — Natus Vincere [0:1] Alliance
Alliance
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iNSaNiA
-
miCKe
Taiga
qojqva
Boxi
NAVI.GG.BET
Chuvash
MagicaL
Blizzy
Crystallize
SoNNeikO
The first game started off quite actively. Both teams were looking to score as many kills as possible, and NAVI were usually getting better ends of the trades at the beginning. However, Keeper of the Light was becoming a real nuisance with his Will-O-Wisp, as Alliance were consistently getting 2 kills or more, taking the advantage. Around 15 minutes, the game stabilized, with the Radiant holding on to 2k gold lead. At 20 minutes, Alliance engaged NAVI after our failed attempt to kill Queen of Pain (denied), and scored 2 kills, opening the Roshan.
Alliance were going for the split-push strategy, as by 25 minutes, we had no outer towers left. The purchase of Halberd, though, gave us an opportunity to deal with the Troll Warlord, with BKB coming online for Crystallize. The Blink Daggers also helped with the initiation. That was a turning point of the game — we went for the midlane in an attempt to force out buybacks, but instead managed to destroy tier-3 tower in mid, with the barracks following the suit.
From there onwards, the game went back to a series of fights. As Alliance got their hands on their core items, the fights became tougher for NAVI and the Dire advantage disappeared. 38 minutes in, a big fight happened in the midlane — the double Keeper of the Light ultimate disrupted our fight quite a bit, and NAVI ultimately lost 4. We had to use 2 buybacks to defend the base — it was costly but successful. In 4 minutes, after a kill on Dark Seer, NAVI went for another Roshan — this time a refresher on Doom. Unfortunately, the Aegis was taken out of the equation very soon — we lost 3 heroes. Another fight near our high ground had NAVI lose 4 heroes again, with no buybacks — game 1 goes to Alliance.
Game 2 — Natus Vincere [1:1] Alliance
NAVI.GG.BET
- SoNNeikO
Blizzy
Crystallize
Chuvash
MagicaL
Alliance
iNSaNiA
Taiga
Boxi
miCKe
qojqva
The second game had First Blood spilled by Alliance early on, but NAVI responded with a kill of our own. Enemy Earth Spirit was very active around the map. NAVI weren't doing well in mid and top lane, while the safelane was going rather okay. The initial skirmishes subsided — Alliance secured a slight lead, and the teams went to farm up the first round of big items. 18 minutes in the Dire went for the first Roshan of the game— 
Chu tried to intercept, but got spotted.
The teams kept fighting sporadically, with occasional skirmishes. A particularly good fight at 26 minutes secured us 4 kills, and the advantage finally shifted our way. Unfortunately, we took a bad fight near our high ground, and Alliance chose to go for the Roshan to strengthen their map presence; they didn't take the beast down fast enough, and retried a minute later. Phantom Lancer and Lotus orb on Bristleback were becoming a real trouble for NAVI. 36 minutes in Alliance went for the high ground siege and got the T3 tower in mid, but NAVI managed to keep the opponent away from the barracks, using a buyback on MagicaL.
NAVI maintained the advantage for the next few minutes, getting farm and looking for pickoff opportunities. We finally found it, first getting Pugna and Bristleback, and finally killing Phantom Lancer, who immediately bought back. We overstayed the welcome a little, losing a few heroes and opening Alliance the road to Roshan. The Roshan didn't help them much, though — when Alliance went for another high ground push, NAVI killed Bristleback after his buyback, and finished off Phantom Lancer twice as well — we secure game 2!
Game 3 — Natus Vincere [2:1] Alliance
Alliance
-
-
iNSaNiA
-
Boxi-
qojqva
Taiga
miCKe
NAVI.GG.BET
-
SoNNeikO
MagicaL
Chuvash
Blizzy
Crystallize
The last game saw a somewhat unusual pick from NAVI — Crystallize Bounty Hunter. The First Blood was spilled in the bottom lane was spilled by NAVI. The teams traded some more kills, and as the night struck, first Night talker ganks followed. Bounty Hunter seemed to be working well, as he was on top of the net worth chart. An unfortunate fight saw NAVI lose 3, but we still managed to take a return kill.
The game slowed down significantly. A few fights tipped the net worth balance our way, as we were able to combine Will-O-Wisp and Stone Gaze to effectively stop the opponents from running away, so even a few BKBs weren't enough to salvage the situation. Our lead reached 7k by 25 minutes, and another fight pushed it to 14k. Two kills on Alliance heroes allowed NAVI to get the first Roshan of the game, with the Aegis for MagicaL. With that in hand, we went for the high ground siege, destroying top T3 and retreating.
Another siege came at 30 minutes. A big team fight broke out in the Radiant base — we forced out Morphling buyback, and killed him again. With the kills flowing in for NAVI, our advantage kept increasing, ultimately hitting 40k advantage. As Alliance used everything they had to try and score any important kills, they failed to do so and GGed out. NAVI take the series 2:1.
