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TI3 finalists meet again tonight - Alliance vs Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere punched their tickets to yet another StarLadder grand final; it will be an exact rematch of last season's final as TI3 champion Alliance will take on TI3 runner-up Na`Vi. 

The Lower Bracket final had a lot of tension with Natus Vincere returning to their homefield tournament StarLadder, looking to repeat their success of the last season while Sigma International was aiming for their first major tournament title. As always, it is much harder defeating Na`Vi a second time than it is doing it the first time, something Sigma would have to experience. Na`Vi adapted their playstyle after the two teams' first encounter this time around in Kiev, where Sigma got to more or less set the tempo and control what happened and when it happened.

Natus Vincere showed why they are a world class team today, both by straight-out impressive play and tempo control as well as great comebacks utilizing the full potential of their heroes. So far, Natus Vincere have never lost a StarLadder final. The question however is if they will be able to keep that up today as they will face up against Alliance at 18 CET. Coming from the upper bracket, Alliance will go into the match with a 1-0 advantage.


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Lower Bracket - Na`Vi vs Sigma

It wasy fairly easy to see what was at stake judging by the pace of the first game; both teams played rather defensive at first. Sigma were definitely crippled by having their first blood denied and again when Na`Vi themselves got first blood as well as another kill. From there on it was a rather even ride, both teams taking trades but it felt like Na`Vi were slightly ahead throughout the early and mid game. It was them getting their game plan out while Sigma were the ones reacting to it. By not having their game pressured, Na`Vi could find farm while keeping up the pressure until a clash would eventually fall apart for Sigma. Na`Vi had great control of the game and Sigma could not push as much as they probably would have wanted to, instead ending up in a lost farm war between Luna and Lifestealer.

The second game featured a similar start for Na`Vi where Dendi avoided getting first-blooded by some supreme jukes in the trees, and with the supports coming in, Na`Vi once again took the two first kills. Just like the former game, Na`Vi did not allow Sigma to dictate the tempo of the game which proved to be hard dealing with two days ago. Everything went Na`Vi's way early on but Sigma regained some space at a clash by Roshan. Both teams took turns getting good fights but Sigma's Black King Bars proved to be key in the team fights. Alchemist even went a Diffusal Blade to purge the hex effect if and when Gyrocopter got hexed up, realizing the importance of Gyrocopter's presence in the team fights, and it certainly had the impact they hoped for. A great initation by Mad's Nyx resulted in a 5-0 clash, one set of barracks and two buy backs. However, Na`Vi managed to deal insane amounts of damage using the ultimates of Pugna, Crystal Maiden and Outworld Devourer. In the end, the game was a real nail biter but a sloppy initiate by Sigma where Gyro had both BKB and Satanic on cooldown was the beginning of the end. After that they lost two straight clashes due to great individual play by Natus Vincere and the game was over.

>> Na`Vi vs Sigma - drafts

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Linus "Tjernobylbarnet" Staaf<p>Linus Staaf - former operations manager at GosuGamers.&nbsp;Started following eSports in 2009, responsible for the GGnet database 2009-2015. Film and music enthusiast and a firm believer that longer songs are better. Always finish&nbsp;what I sta - follow @Tjernobylbarnet</p>

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