ESL One Genting 2018: The lost battle
The opponent was stronger this time.
The next series of 
NAVI.GG.BET was against a rather formidable opponent, 
Team Liquid. The Bo3 series ended with the victory of Team Liquid, as we move down into the lower bracket.
Game 1 - Natus Vincere [0:1] Team Liquid
NAVI.GG.BET
RodjER
Dendi
SoNNeikO
GeneRaL
Crystallize
Team Liquid
MATUMBAMAN
GH
KuroKy
MinD_ContRoL
Miracle-
The first game of the series saw a lot of aggressive moves on both sides of the map - neither team was afraid to show up and create some movement. First blood went the way of Team Liquid, while we managed to finish off their mid player thrice. Of course, this was not left unanswered by the opponent - they gathered in the midlane as early as 7 minutes, and pulled off a good fight.
The skirmishes continued through the entire map, but neither team was able to secure a convincing advantage - both the Radiant and the Dire were almost dead equal. Some fights were favoring Team Liquid, while others had NAVI take the better end of the trade. About 20 minutes in, we decided to go for the first Roshan, to secure ourselves the Aegis and have some advantage over the opponent. However, they were ready and intercepted us right after.
From then onwards, both teams went to farm up more items, but this game of farm could not last forever. The turning point за the game became a fight in the Radiant jungle, which cost us bottom lane barracks. The next attempt to contest the high ground was not successful either, as we lost most of our heroes, and the game 1 went to Team Liquid.
Game 2 - Natus Vincere [0:2] Team Liquid
Team Liquid
GH
KuroKy-
MATUMBAMAN
MinD_ContRoL
Miracle-
NAVI.GG.BET
-
RodjER
-
SoNNeikO
-
Dendi
GeneRaL
Crystallize
The second game of the series was off to a rather even start, with some kills traded between the teams. Both tried to make sure the core and mid players have a good start. 10 minutes in, the teams were rather even, with NAVI in slight advantage. As we moved on, though, our advantage grew, but it was still not quite large to secure a convincing lead.
After a good fight in the midlane, we tried to go for Roshan, but found ourselves unable to take him down in a reasonable time, forcing a retreat. A few minutes later Team Liquid went into the Roshpit themselves - we tried to contest it, but lost most of our heroes, not managing to force the opponent back. This fight put the Radiant in an advantage, and they went on to take down some of our towers.
Despite multiple attempts of ours, we could not quite turn the game back around, as the advantage on the side of the opponent continued to increase. Even a couple of good fights did very little, as we were still severely behind, and a T3 down on our side made the situation only worse. A few minutes later, Team Liquid went on to take down the midlane - even though we killed Terrorblade at the very beginning of the fight, the rest 4 heroes did more than enough damage to finish off most our heroes - GG WP, as NAVI.GG.BET go into the lower bracket.
