The International 2019 group stage: draw versus Evil Geniuses
The second game is against an American team, Evil Geniuses. It ended in a 1:1 draw.
The second rival of 
NAVI.GG.BET at the group stage of The International 2019 will be the team 
Evil Geniuses. The game will be the best of 2 series.
The “evil geniuses” have performed quite well this season, having managed to take third place in the Dota Pro Circuit and thus guaranteed to receive an invitation for The International 2019. At the same time, the team has a rather fun achievement: it has claimed the third place at the Majors three times! It is difficult to say whether this is a psychological problem or banal bad luck, but the fact remains.
The composition of Evil Geniuses needs no introduction. 
Arteezy, 
SumaiL, 
s4, 
Cr1t- and 
Fly — all these players are well known to every fan and have long established themselves as one of the best in their positions.
In other words, the second match will be difficult for NAVI. Just recall the game at DreamLeague Season 11, which ended with the victory of the "evil geniuses" with a score of 2:1. We believe that the “yellow-black” will properly prepare for the game and will be able to take revenge!
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
W_zayac
SoNNeikO
Evil Geniuses
Arteezy
SumaiL
s4
Cr1t-
Fly
Game 1 — Natus Vincere [1:0] EG
NAVI.GG.BET
Blizzy
MagicaL
SoNNeikO
Crystallize
W_Zayac
Evil Geniuses
Suma1L
s4
Fly
Arteezy
Hero 5
The first game saw NAVI draft mid Alchemist for MagicaL. We have heavily focused on guarding him and ensuring he gets a good start. NAVI succeeded in making the Alchemist work at the early stage of the game. Soon MagicaL was on top of the net worth, with 7-9k gold advantage over the nearest pursuer. Despite that, EG were getting kills on our heroes, and this contributed heavily to the net worth gap being not as wide as it could have been.
30 minutes in, a prolonged fight happened next to the Roshpit: first, NAVI tried to take down Roshan, but had to fight EG off, using their BKBs, which prompted the Dire to counter-attack. This extended into a long fight, with NAVI ultimately winning it. We have held off a little bit, but went for Roshan again after taking down T1 mid and killing a couple of heroes. Soon after that, we went for a smoke play, finishing off enemy Gyrocopter, who used his buyback before. This allowed us to take top lane uncontested.
Unfortunately, soon after this we lost a fight near Radiant bottom Bounty rune, yet we did not lose the base for it. The game stabilized somewhat, with no kills for a while. By this point we were 13k gold up, and EG decided to take Roshan. The Aegis was claimed successfully, but the fights were still not going the Dire way: they had to use some crucial buybacks; in turn, we had the buybacks on our 2 cores ready. 2 more kills our way — NAVI sieged the midlane and razed it to the ground — Mega Creeps were on their way very soon. The last fight was a futile attempt by EG — all heroes dead, and NAVI claim game 1!
Game 2 — Natus Vincere [1:1] EG
NAVI.GG.BET
SoNNeikO
Blizzy
W_Zayac
MagicaL
Crystallize
Evil Geniuses
-
Fly
s4
Cr1t--
Arteezy
Suma1L
The second game started with 2 kills going the way of EG very early on. The gankers from both sides were aiming to make mid best for their team, and NAVI didn't have as much success as the opponent. Overall, the early game was very tough for our guys, as we were 7 kills and 3k gold behind. NAVI were getting few kills, but they were rather important ones, with EG cores falling.
As the game went on, EG found themselves unable to do much with the earlier advantage. A big teamfight unraveled 23 minutes in — NAVI only lost 2 support, with a good Berserker's Call securing NAVI 4 kills. Soon, we went for the first Roshan of the game, with the Aegis for Templar Assassin. Even more fights happened, and NAVI had upper hand consistently, gaining more net worth advantage and map control. Unfortunately, we got set back a little after a fight 30 minutes in.
Still, we were rather strong even after that. Soon, NAVI went for a Roshan play, and successfully killed the beast despite EG's attempts; after that, though, there was not much action on the map. Some kills were traded and buybacks used, but the game became even. 47 minutes in EG decided to go for Roshan, and NAVI attempted to intercept, with the chaotic fight breaking out. NAVI used the BKBs on cores, so we didn't have anything to fight on; several buybacks were used, but to no avail — we lost 4. EG went straight for the push, and destroyed Dire mid and bot.
Neither team was willing to go in for a decisive fight for quite a while. EG's advantage reached 20k gold by 50 minutes. MagicaL went all-in with a Divine Rapier purchase. Finally, a fight started 61 minutes in with a double Ravage — Crystallize had to buy back, but in return, we killed 4 heroes, 1 of which had to use buyback. We went down the midlane, but a rather bad fight, which saw TA lose the Divine Rapier, and Weaver dead with no buyback, allowed EG to go right back in, only for a little while.
With no buybacks on almost anyone but Gyrocopter, NAVI felt free to go aggressive. Another run down the midlane finally yielded the fruits — T3 down. With that secured, we fell back and took down Rosh, with the Refresher Shard for TA, Cheese for Axe. The fights were really cautios for both teams — 1 misstep could be a difference between a win and a loss. For a while, both teams were circling around Roshan, until a fight sent NAVI back to base to defend. EG seized the chance to take another Aegis, and went for the final face-off. All the buybacks were used on all who had them, but in a nail-biting fight, EG draw the series, 1:1.
