Na'Vi took their third series in a row vs Fnatic in the SL i-League season 2 finals, running over them with an easy 2-0 win in the Lower Bracket Finals.
Game One:
Na’Vi went for comfort picks in the drafting stage, taking the classic Akbar 'Sonneiko' Butaev Bounty Hunter and their now famous Sand King first and second, while Fnatic elected to go for the valued Riki and Faceless Void. The second phase of the draft saw Navi grab a Mirana for Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin to take mid and a Dimitrii 'Ditya Ra' Minenkov signature hero, the Clinkz, for the safe lane. Fnatic attempted to counter with late game firepower picking a signature Nai 'MidOne' Zheng Yeik hero in the Ember Spirit and a Luna for Yee 'Mushi' Fung Chai to take to the safe lane.
Early game, the Riki from Fnatic attempted to disrupt the farm of the Clinkz, and comboed well with the off lane Faceless Void two minutes in to draw first blood on the Bounty Hunter. Na’Vi answered less than a minute later however, with Victor 'GeneRal' Nigrini and Ivan 'Artstyle' Antonov working together to grab a double kill on Fnatic’s safe lane Luna and Ancient Apparition. Fnatic desperately attempted to regain control of the laning stage with rotations from MidOne, but the safe lane kept feeding kills to Na’Vi’s Sand King. On top of that, Sonneiko came into his own and began to control the game, killing off Fnatic’s courier twice in the first eight minutes, and generally just making a nuisance of himself. Fnatic’s rotations finally began to pay off however, as GeneRal was caught out by a rotation from the Faceless Void, and an Ancient Apparition Ice Blast would have secured a double kill for Fnatic at 10 minutes if not for the well timed Shallow Grave of the Dazzle.
Unfortunately for Fnatic as the mid game neared, their core heroes continued to fall farther and farther behind in net worth, as Na’Vi continued to execute perfectly and took team fight after team fight utilizing superior positioning and keeping their cores mostly alive. Na’Vi took Roshan 27 minutes in, and off the back of that play, a godlike Dendi Mirana spearheaded the charge into Fnatics base, forcing the GG call a few minutes later.
Game Two:
Game two’s draft started out similar to game one, with both teams grabbing the exact same heroes for their first two picks. Fnatic elected to put their tournament hopes on the signature Mushi Medusa, and interestingly enough a Magnus for the mid lane, despite lacking a strong right click melee core other than the Void to benefit from Empower. In response, Na’Vi countered with an Alchemist, a popular mid pick for this tournament.
The game began relatively slowly by Na’Vi standards, with first blood not coming until an Artstyle Chen rotation three minutes in helped Dendi’s safe lane Sand King grab first blood on the Chong 'Ohaiyo' Xin Khoo Faceless Void. Fnatic quickly answered back, securing a rune kill on the Alchemist around the five minute mark. Na'Vi began to pull ahead however, as more Chen rotations helped open up the map for them to keep farming Ditya Ra. The Alchemist had over 6.5K net worth at the 10 minute mark, as he was able to farm unabated with a max Greevils Greed build.
Heading into the mid game, Fnatic was unable to find kills with their rotations, and even when they did were heavily punished by Na’Vi’s counter ganks, often trading two or three lives of their own for one of Na’Vi’s. Na’Vi was firmly in control of the game at the 15 minute mark, with both the kill and gold lead. As the game wore on, Fnatic continued to get caught out and take bad team fights, and the Alchemist only continued to pull ahead. An easy Roshan kill for Na’Vi after another disastrous teamfight for Fnatic allowed Na’Vi to continue to pressure the map and cut off the Medusa’s farm as the tier two towers on the dire side began to fall.
As the game wore on to its inevitable conclusion, the Alchemist siege began to ramp up and Fnatic had no means to answer the push with an under farmed Medusa and a very poor Magnus and Void. GeneRal and Dendi continued to combo the Mirana and Sand King abilities to keep Fnatic pushed back inside thier own base, and GG was called 33 minutes in, as Na’Vi advanced to the Grand Finals of SL i-League StarSeries Season 2.
title and banner images source: ESL One
