DreamLeague Season 10: falling to Tigers
A tough series slips out of our grasp
The grand finals of DreamLeague had 
NAVI.GG.BET fight against 
Tigers in a Bo5 series. The games were incredibly tough, and at the end of the day, NAVI falls onto the second place.
Game 1 - Natus Vincere [0:1] Tigers
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Tigers
Ahjit
inYourdreaM
Moonmeander
Xepher
1437
The first game started really rough for NAVI. Even the lanes weren't working out well for us, as all heroes of NAVI were shut down. On the contrary, Tigers enjoyed a solid laning phase, scoring a lot of kills. NAVI, in turn, could only rely on occasional pickoffs and overextensions, so by 10 minutes, the scoreboard hit 11:2, with NAVI sitting at a massive 10k gold disadvantage. Our cores had to retreat way back and try to find the farm in the jungles.
16 minutes in we were sitting quite heavily behind. Tigers went for the Roshan 17 minutes in, and successfully secured the Aegis for Meepo. NAVI had a hard time finding any farm for the cores, especially Drow Ranger. By 20 minutes we were 20k gold behind. As the Aegis got reclaimed, NAVI tried to engage Meepo, barely killing him, but the return kills rained in. Even the BKB on Enigma didn't do us much good, as the cores lacked the necessary damage. A couple of fights sealed the deal for NAVI - as Tigers were taking down all the buildings in the base, we lacked the damage to force them back. Game 1 goes to the opponent.
Game 2 - Natus Vincere [1:1] Tigers
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize-
MagicaL
Blizzy-
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Tigers
Ahjit-
inYourdreaM
Moonmeander
Xepher
1437
The second game saw more solid laning setup coming from NAVI; Gyrocopter didn't have the support of Io, as we went for Tiny support. The First Blood was spilled rather early into the game, and a follow-up kill happened a little later. Overall, NAVI had good lanes, but the problems was that Tigers weren't doing too bad either. Pickoffs were happening for both sides, and eventually, Tigers caught up to us in terms of kills. By 10 minutes, Tigers had a slight advantage in terms of net worth.
NAVI tired to slow the game down to allow our cores to get more crucial items like BKBs and such. Some casual kills were happening around the map, and finally, Tigers eventually went for the first Roshan of the game, but we managed to get rid of that Aegis quite fast. 18 minutes in a big fight broke out in the top lane - NAVI managed to completely wipe Tigers, as Crystallize already had his BKB. A few minutes later, the opponent tried to go for the high ground siege, slightly damaging the bottom T3, but NAVI turned around and fought, finishing off 3 heroes and finally claiming the gold advantage.
A fight in mid resulted in a rather big trade - Huskar had to buy back to make this an even trade. That fight, though, allowed Tigers to take the second Roshan of the game. Meanwhile Weaver completed his Aghanim's Scepter, making the game that much harder for us. Still, we were able to find the enemy heroes as they were splitting, stalling out the game. 32 minutes in, Tigers went on the offensive, pushing in T3 mid, while Storm Spirit was pushing in the top lane. Witha good initiation from Axe and a silence onto Weaver, the teamfight was in the bag - 4 heroes down, while we only lost 1.
While that was happening, the creeps in the top lane finished what MagicaL started. We didn't plan to stop applying pressure, though - Weaver was caught out near his Shrine and killed, removing a huge save from the Tigers' team; another team wipe. By this time, Huskar was shut down massively, sitting at 3/6/3. The final fight broke out near Roshan - another big 3-man Berserker's Call spelled the demise for the Dire - 1:1.
Game 3 - Natus Vincere [2:1] Tigers
NAVI.GG.BET
-
Crystallize
MagicaL-
Blizzy
-
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Tigers
-
Ahjit
inYourdreaM-
Moonmeander
Xepher-
1437
The third game saw Gyrocopter without Io coming in for NAVI yet again. Both couriers were killed around 1:20, making the lanes hard for both mid heroes. 
Blizzy was doing incredibly well, though, cutting creep waves and scoring the First Blood, taking an incredibly fast Hood of Defiance at 3 minutes, which transitioned into a very fast level 6 and a tower before 6 minutes. NAVI were finding more kills, and even though Crystallize wasn't doing very well, rotations from the supports and offlaner helped him quite a bit.
By 10 minutes we were sitting at 5k advantage, Blizzy leading the charge. Templar Assassin was following close by, having a good midlane against Ember. More skirmishes broke out, and the map control was fully on the side of NAVI. We continued to dominate the map, as they were scared to go too far out, with Axe being a constant threat. Soon, only 2 towers were standing on the Radiant half of the map, while we kept all our towers. 17 minutes in NAVI went for the first Roshan of the game, Aegis for MagicaL.
Templar Assassin got her Black King Bar before 20 minutes, as Tigers were stripped of all their outer towers. Soon, NAVI went for the high ground push - despite losing Axe after a good initiation, we were still able to clean up the entire midlane. NAVI stuck around the enemy base, and 4 heroes had to use their buybacks to try and defend, but to no avail. We take the bottom lane, and Tigers GG-ed out of the game, as we secure the lead.
Game 4 - Natus Vincere [2:2] Tigers
NAVI.GG.BET
-
Crystallize
-
MagicaL
-
Blizzy
Chuvash
SoNNeikO
Tigers
Ahjit
inYourdreaM-
Moonmeander
-
Xepher
-
1437
The fourth game saw a few lane swaps coming from both teams. Nothing was happening around the maps - 
SoNNeikO was the only casualty for a while. The bottom lane was the main center of action, as Tigers were able to find a few kills both there and around the midlane. Tigers seemed t be able to find way more kills than we did - we found a kill on Tiny in the bottom lane as a first, and then a few more. However, those kills were not enough to get us back into the game.
Tigers were mostly going for ganks, trying to shut down Huskar. Enigma wasn't doing particularly well either. By 15 minutes, Tigers were sitting at 9k gold advantage, as NAVI were slow to come back online into the game. Blink Dagger for Pangolier was also a rather big factor, as he could have disrupted our teamfight badly. NAVI were still 10k gold and 10 kills behind, and no T1 towers were down on the side of Tigers. By 20 minutes, NAVI were 16k gold behind, with very little chance of coming back on very little vision.
NAVI were pretty much locked in the base. We managed to find a good Black Hole near our mid T2, killing 2 heroes, but lost 2 in return. In a little bit, Tigers went in, getting a couple of kills and the T3 in mid, further decreasing our map control. However, Tigers overstayed their welcome a little bit, and NAVI finally broke double-digit kills. Still, Blizzy was the one furthest ahead on our team in terms of net worth, but he was 3k gold behind the closes opponent. Around 30 minutes in, both teams got a few BKBs, and NAVI smoked up to find kills.
Smoke didn't yield anything but a few runes. Two more fights followed as Enigma struggled to cast the Black Hole. We lost our middle and top lanes, and turned their attention towards the bottom lane. That proved to be a mistake, as NAVI committed to defending the last lane, and Crystallize scored an ultra kill for himself. That allowed NAVI to rush for the Roshan, and Huskar claimed the Aegis. This was a sure improvement, but NAVI were still very much behind. Unfortunately, very soon, Tigers went for the decisive fight - they got rid of Storm Spirit very fast, and despite a good fight from NAVI, we didn't manage to derail the opponent, as we move to the decider map.
Game 5 -Natus Vincere [2:3] Tigers
NAVI.GG.BET
Crystallize
MagicaL-
Blizzy
-
Chuvash
-
SoNNeikO
Tigers
-
Ahjit
-
inYourdreaM
Moonmeander-
Xepher
-
1437
The fifth game of the series saw NAVI pull off the same draft as they did against Infamous in game 1. Alchemist wasn't doing too bad in the midlane even against Lina; the top was fairly even as well, while the bottom lane got slowed down a little bit, though Faceless Void had enough regen to stay in the lane. Tigers got some early kills, as NAVI tried to get as many bounties as possible. Our early game was rather weak before level 6. As Faceless Void and Enigma got their hands on their ultimates, we went for a fight - as Tigers tried to go for the Alchemist, we struck back, with a Black Hole and Chronosphere - 4 dead.
The next Chrono wasn't as good. though, as we didn't have enough damage. As the game approached 15 minutes, NAVI grouped up to get the bounties, but it didn't work at all - we only took 1 and lost 3 heroes. We were falling behind the opponent - Alchemist was barely ahead of the opponents, as he got his Radiance around 17 minutes. Only a minute after that, NAVI took an extremely bad fight near the top Shrine 5 heroes dead. We were almost out of space.
Tigers were looking to get more kills, and they overextended in our jungle - we killed 3 heroes only using Chrono. Tigers responded with a couple of kills of their own later on. Nonetheless, we had some downtime to farm up a bit. 25 minutes in NAVI went for another fight, and we used every single ultimate we had, which did not really improve our position. Tigers maintained a firm lead, as the fights were still tough. The fights were becoming a bit more even, as NAVI started to find some damage, but still not enough.
28 minutes in NAVI engaged the opponents in the top lane, but the Dark Rift saved 3 out of 5 heroes, while the remaining 2 were able to walk away. With all the ultimates used, we couldn't contest the Roshan, so Tigers claimed the Aegis for themselves. They were 20k gold ahead, and the game wasn't looking to get easier. MagicaL had a top 1 net worth, but the problem was that the next NAVI hero was at the 6th position. Tigers went for the decisive push, and NAVI tried very hard to repel. Still, despite a few kills for us, we lost Alchemist post-buyback, and we lost the top barracks. The advantage was too overwhelming, as we kept losing heroes despite the best attempts. Ultimately, as nobody had buyback on the side of NAVI, the last game goes to Tigers.
