MDL Disneyland® Paris Major: victory over Gambit Esports
A victory after an intense series
NAVI.GG.BET played against 
Gambit in closed qualifiers. The series was full of unbelievable moments, but in the end, NAVI take it 2:1.
Game 1 — Natus Vincere [1:0] Gambit
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Gambit Esports
Daxak
Afoninje
AfterLife
Immersion
fng
The first game was off to a rather active start, as teams traded kills before 2 minutes. The aggression continued around the map — teams tried to create space for their cores. Our Phantom Lancer was going toe-to-toe with enemy Terrorblade, while Razor significantly outfarmed enemy mid. The game settled down around 10 minutes — teams were poking and prodding, but no kills happened. A teamfight broke out in the bottom lane - Razor claimed a triple kill, boosting him even more. By 15 minutes, we had a sizeable kill advantage, but net worth wise, teams stayed even. The situation didn't change much at 20 minutes.
The pushing continued — both teams focused heavily on objectives for a while. However, soon teams started chasing one another — our Phantom Lancer was already a force to be reckoned with, and continued getting stronger. At 26 minutes NAVI went for the first Roshan of the game, giving the Aegis to Phantom Lancer. Using the momentum, we went for the high ground push. T3 mid and barracks fell soon, and then Gambit engaged in a long fight — we lost 4 and the Aegis, but the push was still successful.
For some time, NAVI weren't looking to siege the high ground again, waiting for some items and another Aegis. Gambit weren't able to contest us around the map still, as the map control was ours. At 36 minutes, a big fight broke out near Roshpit — Gambit got wiped out. NAVI damaged the base a little, and retreated to get the second Aegis. Gambit made a final attempt to stop us, but with kills on a couple crucial heroes, the Dire had nothing to fight with. Game 1 goes to NAVI.
Game 2 — Natus Vincere [1:1] Gambit
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL-
Blizzy
-
Chuvash
-
SoNNeikO
Gambit Esports
Daxak
Afoninje
AfterLife-
Immersion
fng
The second game started quite well for NAVI. Templar Assassin had a good lane, outfarming DK and climbing ahead of him. However, enemy Troll was ahead of everyone, which wasn't quite good for us. By 10 minutes, NAVI were just 1k gold ahead, but that was due to Troll having a good game — our cores were top 2 and 3 of the net worth. Soon, NAVI went for the first Roshan of the game, giving the Aegis to the Templar Assassin. The Aegis was used soon, as NAVI went for a T2 push in the midlane. With the T2 dead, NAVI retreated.
Gambit kept trying to find a pickoff on our cores, but we played carefully, not overextending. At 24 minutes, NAVI went for the second Roshan, but Gambit were able to snatch the Aegis away, taking the tempo away. Very soon, teams traded T3 — NAVI claimed top T3 and a barrack, while Gambit only destroyed bot T3. A fight broke out in our base, and Gambit overpowered us. We go to game 3.
Game 3 — Natus Vincere [2:1] Gambit
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize-
MagicaL
Blizzy
Chuvash-
SoNNeikO
Gambit Esports
-
Daxak
Afoninje-
AfterLife
Immersion
fng
The final game didn't see any kills for a while, until Dark Willow and Earth Spirit rotated into the midlane — Chu saw the gank coming an turned it around. Crystallize got a very early Hand of Midas, as Pangolier wasn't exactly able to get him out of the lane. Teams started to become more active on the map, trading kills and towers, though neither team had good pushing capabilities. All 10-minute runes were taken by Gambit , which gave them a slight edge, which soon disappeared.
Skirmishes broke out all over the map. Meanwhile N'aix had a great time, farming to his heart's content. As Slardar got his Blink Dagger, NAVI went for the offensive — we lost Razor, but killed 3 before that. 18 minutes in NAVI went for the first Roshan after a kill on Pangolier, and the Aegis went to Lifestealer. NAVI went for the bottom T1; Lifestealer was ahead of Phantom Lancer by 4k gold. We tried to go for T3, but the Aegis got reclaimed, so we fell back.
We tried to fight Gambit before Razor had BKB, so it didn't quite work out. NAVI didn't make the same mistake again, though. We kept finding the kills, and as we got critical kills on Earth Spirit and QoP, we moved right in. At 32 minutes NAVI tried to fight again, and forced out an Earth Spirit buyback. Knowing the Queen of Pain had no buyback, we caught her and killed, allowing us a high ground siege. Mid lane fell, and bottom T3 followed; we tried to fight again, but ran out of steam, losing 3.
A fight at 39 had NAVI use 2 buybacks, but we won the fight in the end. We retreated, and the game settled again. Eventually, Gambit lost their bottom lane, and the game went on. At 48 minutes a big fight broke out in the mid lane; a total of 5 buybacks were used across both teams, but there was no team that benefitted a lot more. Only 2 minutes later, though, an initiation by Blizzy with a follow-up from Chu destroyed Gambit . We rushed towards the enemy high ground, taking no prisoners. Mega Creeps, athe final desperate defense — it was game over, as NAVI move ahead with a 2:1 score!
