Autumn Brawl: the first playoff victory
The first playoff triumph!
The first game of the playoffs at Autumn Brawl pitted 
NAVI.GG.BET against 
Team Lithium in a Bo3 series. The intense series ended in a confident 2:1 victory of NAVI!
Game 1 - Natus Vincere [1:0] Team Lithium
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Blizzy
.Ark
Team Lithium
Peksu
Madara
Maybe Next Time
KheZu
MagE-
The first game started off with a First Blood on Crystallize, as Drow Ranger was caught off-guard deep in her jungle. Top 3 heroes in terms of CS were the Dire heroes, as our laning stage wasn't going the best way. Top lane saw a lot of blow traded, while the bottom was rather even - neither team could do much. As Visage got his hands on the Helm of the Dominator. he started roaming around the map, getting kills and creating space. A few more skirmishes happened, but 11 minutes in, a big fight happened in the bottom lane - we killed 4 heroes.
In 2 minutes, Team Lithium smoked up and went for a gank - we responded very well, getting 5 kills for the price of 2. Such a good fight enabled us to take the first Roshan of the game, and rotate on the map, getting the towers. Just a couple of minutes later, we gathered around the top lane, and took down the top T3, further increasing our momentum. Having taken that, NAVI regrouped and took the last T2 on the map, and tried to go for the barracks. That fight wasn't too good for us - we lost the Aegis and a few heroes but forced a couple of buybacks in return.
By 20 minutes, NAVI were sitting at 8k gold advantage. Having killed off Chaos Knight and Ogre Magi, we decided to make another attempt at taking down the barracks. As they fell, we retreated and smoked up right away, reengaging the opponent. Team Lithium didn't expect it at all, and got scattered and killed. We shifted towards the midlane and took down the tower and some heroes.
Game 2 - Natus Vincere [1:1] Team Lithium
NAVI.GG.BET
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
.Ark
Crystallize
Team Lithium
-
Peksu
-
Madara
Maybe Next Time
KheZu
MagE-
The second game saw some lane swaps coming in from both teams. The bottom lane was uneventful yet again, while midlane saw Necrophos and Clinkz trade hits, which resulted in both heroes' net worths being relatively low. Offlane, though, had lots of action and rotations, with kills traded very often. By 10 minutes, Team Lithium were sitting at 6 kills and had a slight net worth lead. The only trouble was the fact Huskar still didn't hit level 6. Even if we didn't quite manage to make as good of a start, it was still not too shabby.
We tried to find a few kills around the map, and ultimately, took the first Roshan of the game, with the Aegis going the way of Crystallize. The game settled down after that, with just a few pickoffs going both ways. As the Aegis was close to expiration, NAVI took the T2 in the midlane, getting some of the disadvantage back.
As the game progressed, we were increasingly struggling to deal with the opponent, as even the Global Silence wasn't as much of a deterrent thanks to the BKBs and Lotus Orbs. With the second Aegis taken, Lithium ran towards the T2 tower on the top lane. However, NAVI were ready to take a fight, and managed to finish off 4 opponents, as well as the Aegis. With such a huge gold swing, NAVI streamed towards the enemy base, taking down the T3 in midlane, but paying quite dearly - 5 heroes dead.
A teamfight at 34 saw Weaver buy back right after Reaper's Scythe, which made the fight a lot worse for us - NAVI lost 4. We wound up pretty much locked in our base and had no way to contest the third Roshan of the game. From there onwards, there wasn't much we could do, especially given Brewmaster's Primal Split cooldown talent. Slowly but surely, Team Lithium took 2 lanes, and we had to use all the buybacks available, but those weren't nearly sufficient. We go to the final map, as the series ties 1:1.
Game 3 - Natus Vincere [2:1] Team Lithium
NAVI.GG.BET
-
Blizzy
Immersion
SoNNeikO
Crystallize-
.Ark
Team Lithium
-
Peksu
-
Madara
Maybe Next Time
KheZu
MagE-
For the final game of the series, NAVI called in a stand-in - 
Immersion from Espada. The game started evenly for both sides - even though Faceless Void died first. Zeus had a fairly good time in the middle lane against Dragon Knight, 11 minutes in, NAVI tried to fight right after Tiny got his Blink Dagger, but the fight went quite badly - 4 heroes dead for the Radiant. Another trouble was the fact Bounty Hunter was still lagging behind in terms of levels, which left Weaver largely unchecked. As the game went on, though, we started getting more fights our way, and with lots of kills being Tracked, over one fight we reclaimed all the disadvantage and even broke ahead.
23 minutes in, after a long period of circling around, Team Lithium claimed the first Roshan of the game, while NAVI tried to take bottom T3. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to take it down, while the Aegis went the way of the Dire. Lithium started to approach our T3 in the bottom lane, due to the lack of any other options. The prolonged fight resulted in almost the entirety of the Dire dead, as well as the Aegis. Still, we lost our bottom T3. We have established a solid dominance around the map. Very soon, we took down the last T2 on the map and disengaged, farming up till the next Roshan.
Lithium smoked up and managed to kill Crystallize, and immediately went for Roshan. We didn't try to contest it, choosing to take top T3 instead. A few kills by the Dire managed to limit our tempo quite a bit, as NAVI didn't want to take a fight without one hero. The game stalled for a while, as teams were choosing to go for high ground fights and occasional ambushes. NAVI held on to the advantage. After a great fight 46 minutes in, where NAVI managed to take down 4 heroes, we went into the Roshpit, and the Aegis went to Faceless Void.
Having done that, NAVI went straight to the high ground. T3 mid went down fast, and Weaver had to buyback to save the battle. However, that was only delaying the inevitable. The decisive fight sealed the deal - Lithium were left without their cores and with no buybacks to try and defend the Ancient. The game, and the series, goes the way of Natus Vincere! But the important battles are still ahead...
