The International 2019 Group Stage: victory over Virtus.pro
The game starts at 8:00 CEST
CIS Derby! On the second game day 
NAVI.GG.BET is going to fight a dangerous foe — 
Virtus.pro. The format of the match — best of 2.
They are one of the strongest team not only in the CIS region, but in the entire pro scene as of late. This season Virtus.pro took the second line of Dota Pro Circuit and made it to the top-3 of Majors 4 times.
The roster is well-known: RAMZES666, No[o]ne-, 9pasha, RodjER and Solo — the players of the highest level. In other words, “yellow-black” will have a difficult match, but we must remember that the teams have already clashed on the battlefield and Natus Vincere has repeatedly managed to win.
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
W_zayac
SoNNeikO
Virtus.pro
RAMZES666
No[o]ne-
9pasha
RodjER
Solo
Game 1 — Natus Vincere [1:0] Virtus.pro
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
-
W_Zayac
-
SoNNeikO
Virtus.pro
RAMZES666
No[o]ne-
9pasha
RodjER
Solo
The first game started with a First Blood for Virtus.pro. The game was very active from both sides, but the "bears" were doing quite a bit on the map, ganking every lane, though the success wasn't constant. 8 minutes in NAVI went for a mid gank, but Virtus.pro responded to it, killing our mid in return. The game stabilized for some time soon after, as teams chose to play slowly, letting the cores get some farm. Still, the supports and the offlane Axe were trying to get some kills, creating pressure.
Meanwhile, both our cores were top of the net worth chart. We have seized a rather comfortable lead, thanks to the global presenсe of AA and follow-up from the cores. Virtus.pro were getting choked on the entire map, Slowly but surely, NAVI started getting better fights. Eventually, we forced the Radiant to use their buybacks to defend. After one particularly good fight, NAVI went down the midlane and destroyed the lane completely. Another fight sealed the map — Virtus.pro chose to not keep going, as we claim game 1!
Game 2 — Natus Vincere [2:0] Virtus.pro
NAVI.GG.BET
-
SoNNeikO
-
MagicaL
-
W_Zayac
-
Blizzy
Crystallize
Virtus.pro
9Pasha-
Solo
RodjER
RAMZES666
No[o]ne
The First Blood was spilt by NAVI as Vengeful Spirit tried to contest our Axe. Virtus.pro went for aggressive plays in the bottom lane, killing quite a few of our heroes. This did not go unanswered, though — we were using the space provided by Blizzy to score some of our own, on the key heroes. NAVI kept finding kills on cores, making sure Weaver doesn't get that good of the game.
For a little while, the game became rather quiet, yet the pickoffs were still happening. Our cores were having a rather good game, and 24 minutes in, NAVI went for an uncontested Roshan. With that, we started moving around the map actively, maintaining the advantage. After scoring 2 kills on enemy supports, we went for the highground push, forcing 1 buyback out. 34 minutes in, VP started a fight, picking off our Razor.
The teams retreated, and decided it was best to farm for now. As the teams ran into each other in the Dire jungle, a big fight broke out — both teams lost heroes, but we also forced a buyback from enemy Outworld Devourer. The fights continued, and OD died back, with 1 more buyback expended. Ultimately, after another Aegis, NAVI went for the highground again — mid T3 down. VP decided it was best to splitpush, and our bot T3 came dangerously close to falling. The repeated sieges didn't yield much, but the kills were still going our way. As the clock hit 54 minutes, the decisive fight saw VP with 0 buybacks, and the first series victory for Natus Vincere!
