Natus Vincere vs mousesports

Nothing extraordinary going on here: Invoker, Lycanthrope, Brewmaster and Nature's Prophet getting banned, Na'Vi banning Enchantress to limit the jungling options. What stands out is mousesports banning Tidehunter instead of Chen. Leaving the latter to Na'Vi is a dangerous gamble; nevertheless mouz is up to it. Let's wait for the picks and see if we can understand mouz's last ban.

Na'Vi gets Dark Seer, while mouz picks Leshrac and Chen. Na'Vi continues with Death Prophet and Venomancer, and mouz finishes the first pick phase with Shadow Demon. Both teams got versatile heroes that can run multiple builds and melt towers easily. With Shadow Demon, mouz have a small edge over Na'Vi: Disruption and Demonic Purge can potentially restrict Dark Seer's movement while on Surge, and Soul Catcher can make the tanky Death Prophet die really fast. On the other side, if mouz allows Na'Vi to sit next to its towers, the Poison Wards and Krobelus' beautiful sisters will destroy them uncontestedly. Now observe that the Tidehunter ban makes sense, and it deserves its particular section.

Na'Vi are banning Sand King and Earthshaker, two heroes with immense reach, that can instantly blink, disable heroes and set up fights. Navi is doing this because there is a lot of carriers in the pool and it can't simply ban them all. It would be wasting precious bans by taking them out. So, instead of banning them, Na'Vi bans the heroes that can setup the fights and allow the carriers to unleash their damage, thus reducing their killing potential. On mouz side, the latter is denying aggressiveness and lane control, not wanting to face a tower-diving Night Stalker or having to deal with Broodmother constantly weaving her webs in the lanes.

Na'Vi safeguards itself with Enigma. Not only can he be played in almost every lane, his Black Hole is one of the most feared spells in the game. mouz's answer is Antimage, not only because of it's blink and Spell Shield, but also because Na'Vi only have Intelligence heroes on the field. Finally, Na'Vi gets Mirana, who does well in every stages of the game, while mouz gets some decent vision and disable with Beastmaster.

So, why mouz banned Tidehunter instead of Chen? Ask youself: would you ban Tidehunter, or would you ban Chen? Na'Vi's winrate with Chen is ridiculously high, nearing 95%. As far as I know, they only lost one game with Chen. I would totally ban Chen. The point is: this is a mind game being played by Na'Vi. They're toying with the metagame and puppeting the opponent into wasting their bans. Chen is one of the best heroes on the game, but there are other heroes who can fill his position. It's totally okay for them to have the enemy ban Chen: they will be wasting a ban, while they'll have so many other heroes to choose. mouz wasn't worried with Chen, but worried with the fact that Na'Vi has arguably the deepest knowledge on how to perform in team-fights. Just imagine what would happen if Na'Vi manages to have Tidehunter, Dark Seer and Death Prophet on the team? Suddenly mouz wouldn't be able to teamfight anymore, and Exorcism would just demolish everyone. What mouz did is simple: they just banned a hero they didn't want to fight against, versus the amazing statistics behind Na'Vi's Chen.

Shadow Demon is what I call a critical hero: With Disruption, he can set up ganks and save his teammates. Also, Soul Catcher will allow mouz to kill the opponents' heroes really fast. If Na'Vi manages to snipe Shadow Demon or even force him to waste Disruption without using too much of hero spells, Na'Vi will end with an advantage.

Na'Vi is going to be Na'Vi, which means pushstrat; trying to destroy towers as quickly as possible while dominating the laning and the early/mid game. mouz has some of that too: Leshrac can also destroy towers quickly, but ultimately what mouz wants most is a good start for Antimage. The team need to resist Na'Vi's laning phase and prevent them from finding openings and hence taking a big advantage.

Mouz wins the top lane thanks to Shadow Demon. Because of Disruption, Dark Seer can't run away with Surge. After eight minutes of laning, Dark Seer died three times while Antimage got a nice farm and even managed to land the last hit on the tower. It's the best start mouz could wish for Antimage.

The mid lane, however, turns out to be a total disaster: At this stage, Singsing appears not to like this game anymore, it's becoming too hard for him. Jokes apart, Dendi shows how to control a lane and pressure the opponent: by outlasthitting Singsing, Dendi forced him into unfavorable and vulnerable positions, managing to get two kills (one of them is the first blood). The mid lane is a total loss for mouz, and eventually this advantage gained by Dendi will allow his team to quickly get the first and second tier towers.

And the bottom lane is the same. Not only Na'Vi players are denying a lot of experience from SexyBamboe, they're also preventing him from stacking the Ancient Neutrals. With the same token, they quickly destroy two bottom towers. It's just eight minutes and Na'Vi already has almost 4000 gold advantage, with four towers destroyed. That's Na'Vi laning phase for you.

9:00: The position right now is unfavorable to mouz. They just lost four towers, and can't afford to trade towers anymore. Na'Vi acknowledges it immediatly and takes full control of both Radiant's and Dire's jungles. A gank initiated by Shadow Demon on Mirana gives mouz the opportunity of getting a kill and push the mid lane. Note that Puppey saves Dendi with Black Hole, but ends dying. Hence mouz gets the tower on the verge of destruction, but is then repelled by Na'Vi. While this is happening, Antimage is in the top lane, farming; not allowing Dark Seer getting any close to the tower. Meanwhile, XBOCT is free farming bottom.

Puppey will sacrifice himself to save Dendi

Look next to mouz base: Massive wardwall by Na'Vi

Minimap from Na'Vi POV: no control at all of Roshan

Na'Vi at the siege: Ghosts, ghost everywhere

23:00: mouz's counterattack is fierce and quickly, the team destroys both mid and bot second tier towers, while killing Venomancer and Dark Seer, who can't Surge away from danger because of Demonic Purge.

30:00: After a small farming window, more items start to kick in on mouz side. Antimage already had his Manta Style, and now he finishes a Heart of Tarrasque. Leshrac adds a Black King Bar to his inventory, Beastmaster has a Necronomicon level 3, and Shadow Demon the Drums of Endurance. On Na'Vi's side, Enigma has a Blink Dagger and Venomancer a Veil of Discord. Right now, both teams are camping Roshan. Fearing smoke gangs, Na'Vi places sentry wards on the nearby paths, and manages to catch Singsing offguard, killing him in the process. Thanks to the Bloodstone charges, he comes back alive very quickly, not giving Na'Vi a chance to push. A massive team-fight explodes, and Death Prophet dies very quickly because of Soul Catcher. Venomancer, Dark Seer and Enigma also die in the fight for Na'Vi and only Chen for mouz, but quick buybacks and Black Hole manages to keep Na'Vi in the game, killing Beast and Shadow Demon. Antimage was alive all the time and got a lot of experience.

32:30: Dendi hits an Arrow on Leshrac, and tries to quickly snipe him. However, Singsing is saved by Disruption, and another massive team-fight explodes. Puppey missblinks to the middle of trees, having problems to land his stun. Antimage gives Mirana a quick death, and Mana Void explodes Death Prophet and Dark Seer. At the end of the team-fight, only Enigma is alive, Antimage got an ultra kill, mouz kills Roshan pushing their lead further.

36:00: mouz finally got to Na'Vi's base, winning another massive team-fight. Na'Vi calls GG.

Endgame scoreboard. Click to expand

- Na'Vi players got a very early lead by destroying four towers in eight minutes, but the deaths on Dark Seer and Enigma delayed their plan a lot. At the same time, mouz's call to snipe Roshan was brilliant, immediately putting Na'Vi players in a very difficult spot.

- This game is a good demonstration of Dendi's theory on taking towers and late game. When you have tower advantage, any big loss on team-fights will cost you the towers, not your barracks. It took mouz at least four massive team-fights to finally reach Na'Vi's base. And winning four massive team-fights in row is very hard and uncommon.

- After having a very rough time, mousesports is performing really well in the last weeks, managing to get convincing wins against a lot of teams. Come With Me merged really well in the team.

- Diablo III was taking the best out of Na'Vi players for a while, but it's just a matter of time for them to start focusing again and recover their top shape, because Na'Vi is a team with much elegance and class.

- Many thanks to Black!