photo credits: Helena Kristiansson ESL One
The last group matches from The International 6 are live and the tension is hitting maximum levels as nothing is fully decided yet. All teams have two series left to be played today and crucial last game victories are what can save them from the best-of-one lower bracket start in the main event of TI6.
Game One
Na’Vi were allowed to secure one of their scariest drafts, Sand King-Io-Chen and they executed the super aggressive fast paced game perfectly. Only five minutes into the game Victor 'GeneRaL' Nigrini was sitting on five kills, all secured bottom lane where Na’Vi focused on shutting down Wing’s Lifestealer. Mid lane was also easily won by Dmitry 'Ditya Ra' Minenkov on Huskar and, by doing so, he opened the way for his team to successfully contest Wings Gaming’s high ground at the 13 minute mark. Two minutes later Na’Vi had already taken two lanes of barracks and Wings called out the GG.
Game Two
Wings banned Io in the second game but let go Sand King again and Na’Vi didn’t hesitate a second to pick it. Playing on the Dire side they also went with Ursa to take advantage of Roshan, however the Chinese youngsters managed to pull out a minus armor draft that worked quite well for them in the early stage. With Chen sitting in the enemy jungle to help GeneRaL on Sand King dominate the offlane, Ursa was left with no good support and had a rough laning stage, getting easily killed by wings dual Slardar and Night Stalker. Ditya Ra fell behind in farm which prompted Na’Vi to take the bold decision of sending him to an early seven minutes Roshan and fool Wings with a smoke gank in their own jungle, keeping the Chinese players busy until the Aegis was claimed.
That was the turnaround moment for Na’Vi, who from there on kept pressuring the Radiant buildings forcing Wings into a defensive stance. Despite having an early blink Dagger on Slardar, Wings’ Templar Assassin was lacking hers and was also far from completing the Desolator which meant no good damage output and no real chance at team fighting. Na’Vi on the other hand, had the support Bounty Hunter that brought them multiple track kills and boosted their cores net worth fast to be able to close the series before Wings Gaming lineup was able to create any problems.
With the 2-0 victory over Wings, Na’Vi is now looking at a very possible upper bracket start in the main event. They have only one series to play and that will be held against OG. A draw score with the two times Major Champions can be enough for Na’Vi to avoid the lower bracket of doom.
