

Natus Vincere photoshoot by Helena Kristiansson.



After a four-game series in the grand final of The Defense 4, Natus Vincere came from one game down to take three straight wins in the grand final to claim the title of The Defense 4.

Na`Vi has been dominant all throughout The Defense 4, dropping only one game in the groupstage and dropping two, both against Kaipi, in the playoffs of the tournament. Determined to finish the tournament with a series of unorthodox heroes, Na`Vi opted for the Zeus and Ursa in the third game of the series and played game four with Pudge.

With the win, Na`Vi will be heading to Seattle next week $12,000 richer while Kaipi will settle for $7,000. Third placer EG will claim $4,000 in cash and their American counterpart Team Liquid finish at fourth with $2,000.

The Defense 4 Placing Teams Prizes 1st place Na`Vi Na`Vi $12,000 2nd place Kaipi Kaipi $7,000 3rd place Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses $4,000 4th place Team Liquid Team Liquid $2,000

Match report

Game 1

Both teams were pretty passive approaching game one but it was Na`Vi who made the first move on their trilane versus trilane match-up. Sand King was able to get into range to land a Burrowstrike on Naga Siren but a nicely placed arrow and Leap from Mirana caused Alchemist to blow himself up. While that wasn't enough to get the Alchemist low, Alchemist pre-maturely charged up his stun 30 seconds later and with no one to stun, he ended up suiciding and lost a small amount of gold and time teleporting back to the bottom lane.

The real First Blood happened on the top lane when Dark Seer got overconfident with his skip creep and challenged Weaver to an blow by blow exchange. Both of them ended up low but Dark Seer was able to escape with Surge. Weaver gave chase but he did not realize Weaver had been chasing him all along. He turned around to hit a creep and eventually died to Weaver's auto-attack.

13 minutes into the game, Dark Seer has died thrice against the Weaver and that warranted for a Kaipi push on the top lane. They were able to take the tier-one tower without much of a contest from the Dark Seer. At the same time, Shadow Fiend took down the tier-one tower on the middle lane while the rest of Kaipi's supports smoked towards bottom to disengaged Na`Vi's gank on the Mirana.

Dark Seer was finally able to take down the Weaver with the help of the Sand King although Kaipi was able to get the Roshan kill off the bait. With the Aegis in hand, Kaipi took down the tier-one tower on the bottom lane. Kaipi immediately scrambled to the mid lane and coming from behind, Naga caught four heroes in Song of the Siren but Kaipi failed to capitalize on it due to miscommunication. However, Kaipi still pulled together and took the teamfight.

In the deciding battle on the bottom lane, Naga pulled off another four man Song of the Siren and this time, Kaipi was successful in utilizing the sleep to its full potential. Naga turned off the sleep just as the arrow was about to hit the Queen of Pain and the arrow dealt the killing blow. Kaipi then moved on to Na`Vi's high ground and one clash later, Na`Vi called the gg and gave Kaipi game one.

Game 2

One game up, Kaipi went for the bold Spiritbreaker pick but it was the mid lane where the action started. At level one, Puck nearly killed Dragon Knight who was just standing near the creep wave soaking up all the right click damage. As a result, Na`Vi had to rotate Alchemist and Dark Seer in to help Dendi out but despite that, they still failed to pull off a gank on Puck. Dragon Knight dropped the First Blood when Alchemist left the lane to Puck. By 6 minutes game time, Lifestealer and Nature's Prophet have picked up Midas and is looking to bring this late game.

With both teams looking to re-engage on the middle lane, Dragon Knight stunned the Puck while Alchemist landed the level two stun from the fog of war. Kaipi's support came in immediately and Arteezy was able to pull off a miraculous maneuver to get himself out of the Acid Spray at 2 hp. Na`Vi got the revenge kill two minutes later when Puck and Spirit Breaker were caught out of position.

As the game developed, both Kaipi and Na`Vi were trading kills with Kaipi coming slightly on top in each because they were also taking down towers while they were doing so. However, Kaipi made a huge mistake pushing the middle lane and lost Puck as Na`Vi defended their tier-one. Na`Vi also denied the tower in the process and with that over, the Ukrainians were suddenly in the lead to take the game. Later on, Na`Vi made a good read on Kaipi's movement and took a free Roshan.

Together with the Aegis, Na`Vi was on the offense, farming bigger portion of the map and slowly building up their gold advantage. 24 minutes in, Na`Vi decided to go for a smoke gank and although the gank did not work, Na`Vi got a free barracks due to Kaipi's slow response to defending their tier-three tower. Na`Vi secured the second Aegis after the push and went for the final push. The engagement broke out outside the base and it was Na`Vi who came up on top.

Game 3

More unorthodox picks in game three as Na`Vi opted for the Zeus and the Ursa Warrior. As one would have expected, the Zeus went mid while Ursa jungled, leaving the Veno and the Alchemist on the bottom lane. Kaipi was quick in seizing the opportunity to pick up the First Blood on Alchemist with its trilane as Venomancer stood watch. On the mid lane, Zeus had a great time going against the Queen of Pain, nuking her down with Lightning Bolt.

Many kills were traded by both parties but Na`Vi ended up with the slight lead at 9 minutes, mostly attributed to Zeus' nuking power and global presence. With more and more small trades happening, Na`Vi suddenly found themselves in a huge lead, killing 15 of Kaipi's in oppose to 8 deaths from their own side.

The roller-coaster game headed into mid game with KuroKy constantly calling out Roshan. He ended up going into Roshan alone and got picked off but he bought back and finished it off after his team cleaned up behind his prior death. Subsequently, all hell broke loose and Na`Vi started running into towers and hitting fantastic arrows to pick Kaipi off. With all the outer towers down, Na`Vi pushed top and took down the uncontested barracks. Kaipi called gg as Na`Vi retreated.

Game 4

Na`Vi, staying true to their words in RaidCall D2L finals, picked up the Pudge in the fourth game of the grand final and the Ukrainians immediately went to work picking up four kills in under four minutes. In fact, the lane pressure was so high for the Templar Assassin, Kaipi abandoned the off-lane and placed Clockwerk mid while Templar Assassin moved into the jungle.

Na`Vi continued to pile on the pressure on Kaipi with the Lifestealer infested in Nature's Prophet to which he could teleport anywhere on the map to pick off a hero. Keeper of the Light was the first victim to the Prophet bomb. Due to the immense pressure, Kaipi started grouping up in order to stop getting picked off and they were successful in picking off the Pudge although they eventually traded the Clockwerk for it. The score was 10-2 in favour of Na`Vi at 16 minutes and they have built up an 8,500 gold advantage.

While there was a slight downtime in the stream, Na`Vi allegedly took a huge team fight and walked away with a 4-0 trade, allowing Lina to pick up an Aghanim's Scepter at 19 minutes game time. Na`Vi took another 4-0 team fight at 22 minutes and took down Kaipi's two outer towers. The Ukrainians spared no time and moved their push up Kaipi's high ground. Kaipi had a good start to the fight but they were unable to take down the Lifestealer. The fight got turned around and Kaipi called the gg as Na`Vi started banging on the base tower.