DAC 2018: the lost fight
A tough battle.
The upper bracket DAC 2018 EU qualifiers winners finals pitted 
NAVI.GG.BET against 
Team Spirit in a Bo3 series. At the end of the series, NAVI lost the series 1-2 and go down into the losers bracket.
Game 1 - Natus Vincere [0:1] Team Spirit
Team Spirit
fng
Biver
MYSmoon
Pikachu
Illidan
NAVI.GG.BET
LeBron
Dendi
Lil
GeneRaL
Crystallize
The first game was off to a decent start, as Dendi spilled the First Blood on enemy Faceless Void twice in quick succession, securing himself a good position. There was a lot of aggression coming in from both sides, kills traded left, right and center. The laning stage concluded quite evenly, with a slim advantage our way, but nothing too major to snowball off of.
Map has calmed down for a little bit, as both teams decided to farm up a bit before engaging. Meanwhile Team Spirit took down the first Roshan of the game, which gave them some initial momentum to take the T1 mid. Some chaotic fights and trades happened after that - the Aegis was lost very soon, and the fights did not have a precise winner to pinpoint.
Despite that, the advantage was on the side of 
Team Spirit, as they were able to secure more map control. 28 minutes in another Aegis was secured by the opponent, which gave them even more momentum. However, 35-36 minutes saw a rather big and good fight happening for NAVI, which bit off a fair chunk of net worth advantage away from the opponent; only 5 minutes later, though, the opponent reclaimed the advantage and increased it even further.
It all came to the decisive moment, when GeneRaL decided to purchase a Divine Rapier. It seemed to work really well initially, as we were able to repel the high ground siege and won a subsequent fight, yet our own aggression failed, as the opponents took down Roshan again, and with Aegis in the bag, they took the Rapier and won the game 1.
Game 2 - Natus Vincere [1:1] Team Spirit
NAVI.GG.BET
Dendi
GeneRaL
LeBron-
Crystallize
Lil
Team Spirit
Illidan-
fng
Biver
Pikachu
MYSmoon
Early First Blood was drawn by our Razor in the top lane, which helped him get a slight laning advantage, but it did not go unavenged, as Team Spirit got a return frag on him fairly soon. That was the only kill they have gotten for a while, though, as Lil was doing a ton of work around the map, taking part in practically every kill and saving the allies. As the game approached 10 minutes, we were 5 kills and 2k net worth ahead.
The main challenge for us was the mobility of the opponent and the dependency on Chronosphere, which made it harder for us to create non-stop action. This made us prioritize the towers in the downtime to establish the map control, which seemed to work out very well for us. Unfortunately, a series of fights have diminished our advantage quite a bit and allowed Team Spirit to reclaim some space back.
23 minutes in the opponents took the first Roshan of the game, but the chaotic fight that followed quickly stripped that advantage, as not only we have taken down Lifestealer the first time, but subsequently finished off all other heroes. Nature's Prophet had to buy back to join his team, but that was not enough to win it, as Team Spirit crumbled under the damage of NAVI. From there on, the game went into a real swing, as the fights would go to one or another team.
Minute 34 saw Natus Vincere go for the second Roshan of the game, and after that, we went for a fight in the Dire jungle. Despite the Aegis and the Cheese, the fight did not quite go the way we wanted, as we lost the majority of our team, while Crystallize did not manage to push the top lane hard enough to destroy the T3. Yet only 5 minutes later NAVI punished the Dire for engaging too deep, finishing off every single hero and forcing multiple buybacks.
The game was coming closer to the third Roshan, which would give both teams a very solid advantage. We attempted to go for the mid barracks, but had to retreat to wait for the pickoff, which happened soon enough. Mid barracks taken, NAVI went for the top and almost destroyed it completely too, but had to retreat. Soon Team Spirit went for the said Roshan, but Crystallize was ready to contest, and locked in the entirety of the pit - even though the Aegis was snatched by Lifestealer, it did little to help, as all 5 heroes were taken down by us swiftly, and we marched straight down the midlane. 3 buybacks didn't salvage the situation, and the game 2 goes to us!
Game 3 - Natus Vincere [1:2] Team Spirit
Team Spirit
-
Illidan
-
fng
-
Biver
MYSmoon
Pikachu
NAVI.GG.BET
-
GeneRaL
LeBron
Crystallize
Lil
Dendi
The decider game saw a laning reshuffle, as GeneRaL went mid as Tiny, while Dendi went top as Puck. First Blood was taken by Puck mere moments before our own hero went down; unfortunately, we lost an ally and a courier soon enough. The lanes were unstable, with constant shifts and ganks from both teams. Ultimately, the teams drew even in the long run, with the cores on both sides able to get a decent lane.
The midgame saw many fights in an attempt to create as much space as possible around the map, to help Phantom Lancer get his Diffusal Blade as soon as possible. We made some mistakes, and Team Spirit got ahead ever so slightly, with trades happening all around the map. 23 minutes in the Radiant took down the first Roshan, and we had to play a bit more passively.
Team Spirit established a solid map presense by 30 minutes, as the mid T3 of NAVI was taken down around that time. The game was becoming increasingly hard, as Phantom Lancer had to go for the split push, almost taking the top T3. The game stabilized a little, but we were still at a heavy disadvantage, as Crystallize had to go for almost exclusive pushing, and he was quite successful in doing that - the Radiant lost 2 lanes, but unfortunately, we lost all 3. It did not take long for Team Spirit to go for the final push, and we lost all 5 with no buyback - GG!
