Yesterday saw the culmination of the Dota Summit 7 European Qualifiers and it was Natus Vincere who took all the spoils.
After a rather long string of sub-par results Natus Vincere seemed to be on the up once again. With Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev returning to the team in late April, the team looked to center themselves and get through a grueling few months of qualifiers. The 7th iteration of Dota's Summit saw them excel in the European qualifier – even though they were given what was essentially a free pass as Cloud 9 withdrew from the tournament. But when it came down to the playoff stage, Na’Vi performed beyond what anyone expected.
Without losing a single game, Na’Vi swept through Team Empire, Alliance and Empire once more in the grand final to claim their spot in the Summit 7 main event. Dota Summit 7 will take place from June 14th-18th and will see 8 teams from around the world, some direct invites and some regional qualifier winners, battle it out for their share of the $100,000 prize pool.
At the same time, Na’Vi were also involved in the European-CIS region qualifiers for EPICENTER 2017 and found themselves in the grand finals against Team Secret. However, EPICENTER announced late last night that the grand finals would be postponed until May 19th and although no reason was stated, it seems to be just to give the CIS team some time to rest after their victory at the Dota Summit 7 qualifier.
With all that in mind, does this mean that Natus Vincere are, once again, back? Only time will tell as the next few months of Dota 2 action unfold – the Team Secret versus Na’Vi grand final for EPICENTER 2017 qualification should tell us a lot.
