PREVIEW: Winner Bracket: Na`Vi meet DK again after one year

These eight teams have separated themselves from the pack through sheer determination and talent during the past three days of group stage play. And of these eight teams in the Winner's Bracket - five hail from Asia, two from America and tagging along is Europe's sole representative, Na`Vi.

Take me to the bracket!

LGD vs. Orange
LGD – The only team to emerge undefeated from the group stages, LGD's play revolves around securing Sylar is able to get a good start in the game. If that fails - just turtle until the man gets his farm. While it is not possible to take out all of his carry heroes, teams can still opt to make sure Sylar does not get his hands on Morphling. With that said, the rest of his team have done a great job transforming a '4-protect-1' strategy that was common of the old LGD which dominated the first half of 2010 into a strategy befitting of a metagame which emphasizes split pushing while Sylar is able to free farm a lane by himself.	Orange – Probably a team not held highly in the public's eyes before The International, Orange place in the Winner's Bracket came as a result of some incredible farm by Mushi (at one point hitting 700cs in a 60 minute game). Their 2-0 victory over Na`Vi in the group stages has also shown how Europe is slowly losing its grip over Dota 2, and while Orange's performance through the three days have been rather shaky to say the least, it will come down to how they regroup during these two days to figure out what style of play really suits them as they take on the Chinese.
Verdict: LGD 2-0 Orange While Orange have performed past anyone's expectations before the event, there is no reason for LGD to drop the set against the Malaysian powerhouse, counting as both teams have scrimmed against each other alot prior to the tournament. Both LGD and Orange understand what is at stake here, but with the former's 14-0 dominating performance over Zenith, there's no reason for Orange to end LGD's streak here.
Complexity vs. Zenith
Complexity – Their lack of LAN experience was said to work against them in Seattle, but Complexity have shown that this was not the case. Although they were handily defeated by iG, the American powerhouse have shown that they are able to compete with the Chinese and even Na`Vi - drawing EHOME and Na`Vi and taking out TongFu and Orange. The pressure is now on them to repeat their performance during the group stages under a gauntlet of supporting eyes at the Benaroya Hall, where the experience of playing infront of a live audience may just break the young team who have not experienced something of this scale before in their professional career.	Zenith – Zenith disappointed us on Day One of the group stages, where they lost five of the six games to end up at the bottom of Group A. Nevertheless, the team managed to bounce back subsequently taking out Europe's best to end up shared third with EG. The team which many have prized to take the million dollars are now finding themselves in a struggle to keep up with the Chinese powerhouses - LGD, DK and IG - in matchups which should have went in their favor considering how Zenith had dominated the same few teams online only a few months ago. The Chinese teams, however, understand the unpredictability of Zenith in able to make spectacular plays and perhaps this motivated iG to select EG as their first opponent in the Winner's Bracket. If anyone is able to pull a comeback, Zenith is the team to watch out for.
Verdict: Complexity 1-2 Zenith The match is a tough one to call, but understanding how experienced the players on Zenith are offline and given the relative lack of experience on the Complexity side, the match will probably fall in favor of Zenith with a scoreline of 2 to 1. Fans of Zenith should be familiar with their use of unorthodox heroes (recall Spirit Breaker) and we can expect them to pull these out on Friday - we are just not sure if Complexity are prepared to handle them.
iG vs. EG
iG – SMM 2011 champions dropped only one game throughout the entire group stage, and that was to The International '11 first runner's up EHOME in a game which was arguably won on the back of a surprise strategy by the latter (Wisp and Tiny combination). After iG figured out EHOME's game plan, they never looked back. The rest of their group stage matches were, for the lack of a better word, easy for iG. And that says miles about a team in the same group as Na`Vi, Darer and mTw. Their diverse range of heroes, including Tinker, Templar Assassin and Luna, makes them a nightmare to ban against and teams who face them in The International will have to be on the peak of their game.	EG - American teams at The International have not disappointed us so far, and indeed EG have pulled off amazing wins against Zenith and CLG despite falling to the Chinese powerhouses DK and LGD in their group. In an interview conducted with Maelk during the group stages, the EG captain acknowledged the team's instability with regards to their performance, admitting that sometimes the team can 'play like total noobs'. This instability worked against them in their match against Absolute Legends, where the team lost both games without much of a fight. But the experience that EG's players have playing offline puts them in good stead on Friday when they make their appearance in front of the audience at Benaroya hall.
Verdict: iG 2-0 EG There is a reason why iG are at the top of Group B after fourteen games and it is because the team will always find a way to bounce back in the game. Unless EG has a strategy up their sleeve that will completely catch iG off guard (something very hard to do already), it is unlikely that iG will fall as hard as they did against EHOME's Wisp and Tiny strategy. EG's instability might also factor in when they faces a team who plays as methodically perfectly as iG in the way they apply pressure on their opponents and farm up. The game may fall into a third, but iG will most probably take the set eventually.
DK vs. Na`Vi
DK – DK came into the tournament with a bang, and will perhaps not leave without one. Their 2-0 defeat of Zenith showed that the tournament might just be theirs to take, and while they have not yet found a way to crack the LGD defense, DK is a team that improves with each loss. Like LGD, the team is centered around allowing their carry Burning develop and amassing the right amount of farm. While that is not always possible when the rest of the team is not doing so well, most of the time the team will find a way to bounce back just as they have done so in clutch games against mouz and EG throughout the group stages.	Na`Vi – Fans claim that Na`Vi have lost their grip over Dota 2 - perhaps no one saw it coming, but perhaps some did (in a pre-The International interview with XBOCT where he claimed that the team was in bootcamp disaster). Right now, it seems Na`Vi have managed to somehow fight their way back defeating TongFu and EHOME, but they have much to improve if they want to take down the big boys. Never count them out though, because the defending champions did not earn the title from nothing.
Verdict: DK 2-1 Na`Vi It almost seems apt to question whether Na`Vi still has what it takes to defeat the Chinese. The matchup between DK and Na`Vi is a familiar rematch of World DotA Championship 2011's semifinal clash where Na`Vi famously took a game off DK (when the team was dominating everyone in the Chinese scene) with a Pudge pick in game two. Super admitted in an interview with GosuGamers that the battlefield is completely different when facing the Ukrainian powerhouse in Dota 2 - but how different is it really considering how the odds are now against Na`Vi to outperform DK? From what we have seen, they are probably insurmountably high. But Na`Vi is Na`Vi, and that will never change.

We made our predictions. How about yours?