Match Analysis : Na'Vi vs Liquid (Dota2 CL) - Game One

We are reaching the end of February and 2014 has proven to be a really entertaining year already, with many interesting matches being played for the ongoing online tournaments. From the big list of these clashes, this feature will focus on the first game of the series between Na'Vi and Liquid that took place on February 19, for the groupstage of the second rendition of Dota2 Champions League.

This was the first match between the two teams in 2014, with Na'Vi having won the last three encounters, which were played during DreamLeague and MLG Columbus. This victory for the Ukrainians helped them reduce the gap between them and Liquid, the team that currently occupies the first place of Group B.

The Teams

Natus Vincere

Origin : Ukraine

Current GGnet rank : 3

Most prestigious achievement : 1st place -The International (2011) - $1,000,000







Clement 'PuppeY' Ivanov [C]

Kuro 'KurokY' Salehi Takhasomi

Daniil 'Dendi' Ishutin

Alexander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich

Glev 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov Clement 'PuppeY' IvanovKuro 'KurokY' Salehi TakhasomiDaniil 'Dendi' IshutinAlexander 'XBOCT' DashkevichGlev 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov

Team Liquid

Origin : United States

Current GGnet rank : 11

Most prestigious achievement : 7th/8th place - The International 3 (2013) - $43,108

Brian 'FLUFFNSTUFF' Lee [C]

Sam 'BuLba' Sosale

Tyler 'TC' Cook

Peter 'waytoosexy' Nguyen

Max 'qojqva' Broecker

Game Recap

The first game was played shortly after the introduction of Ember Spirit in Dota2's Captain's Mode, and as it was expected he was picked in the match. Judging from the few previous games of the hero, it was going to be another stomp for the strong warrior of fire. However, this was not the case this time.

Team Liquid chose to give a solo lane to TC's Lifestealer, facing Funn1k's Nature's Prophet. Using an unusual tactic, they sent a trilane of Tinker, Rubick and Visage against Na'Vi's dual lane Ember Spirit and Ancient Apparition. For the middle lane, it was time for Na'Vi to be unusual, sending Dendi's Sand King against BuLba's Beastmaster. Puppey occupied the Dire jungle with his familiar Chen.

The game could not have began with a better way for the Ukrainians. Puppey and Dendi anticipated FLUFF's rotation, catching him off-guard for a 1st minute first blood. It was time for Puppey to visit the bottom lane, taking down qojqva's Tinker thanks to XBOCT's tricky bodyblock. With the experience advantage going the way of Natus Vincere, Liquid immediately swapped Tinker with Lifestealer for qojqva to get back his lost experience. However, Dendi was able to take him down once more using a haste rune. Liquid's answer was a 2-1 trade against Na'Vi's dual lane, forming a score of 2-4 in favor of the Dire for the first ten minutes of the game.

Taking advantage of the early game strength, Na'Vi proceeded to take down four towers and a free Roshan by minute 15. Their ventures inside the Radiant jungle were not as successful, as they were unable to keep the pressure onto Liquid's carries. The lack of deaths started to have an impact on the gold graph as TC and qojqva started catching up with XBOCT and Dendi, with TC's farm even surpassing Dendi's despite the massive gold lead of the Ukrainians. The picture on the right shows the 25min networths.

With both teams finding high amounts of farm during the transition from early to middle game, the outcome of the first clash of the series was going to be decided by the teamfight potential of each team's hero picks. It was there that Liquid had the upper hand, as the physical damage output of Ember Spirit and Nature's Prophet was not enough to counter Lifestealer's offense during Rage. The lack of physical DPS, combined with XBOCT's clumsy plays giving away Aegis and dying with no real answer from the Ukrainians turned the tides of the game, with TC and qojqva getting bigger and bigger as time passed.

The heavy and continuous pushing by Natus Vincere prolonged the game quite a lot, but the Tinker selection by Liquid did not allow the Dire to take down tier-three towers and barracks to seal the deal - with the uncontested Roshan kills making close to zero differnce. Reaching the 50th minute mark, qojqva's Tinker was picked off, going down for 90 seconds but killing Funn1k in return. Na'Vi immediately raided Roshan yet again, and rushed to take down the middle barracks of Team Liquid. The buyback from qojqva and BuLba's long range initiation helped Liquid completely wipe out Na'Vi, removing XBOCT's Aegis as well. Nonetheless, the Americans were unable to capitalize on their arithmetic advantage get a lane of supercreeps.

The game kept going for more than twenty minutes, and the gold started overflowing for both teams' heroes. Neither team could take down enough heroes to feel confident and go high ground. The moment of truth came during the 71st minute, when Liquid spotted Na'Vi inside the Rosh pit, killing XBOCT, KuroKy and grabbing the Aegis and Cheese. This fight was the opening the Americans were waiting for, and moved to the middle lane to end the game. However, qojqva teleported bottom to split-push and got caught by Funn1k. The entertaining duel was fairly close with both heroes interrupting incoming teleports of assistance. It was FLUFF who managed to reach the two fighters just in time to help qojqva take down the Nature's Prophet, sending him away for 130 seconds - forcing a buyback just before the game-ending fight.

The result of the game was decided outside the Dire base. With Funn1k and XBOCT having no buyback and TC holding an Aegis, Liquid had an overwhelming advantage. Natus Vincere fought quite fiercely, taking down qojqva and TC twice, but the immediate buybacks were too much to handle. Funn1k became a victim of qojqva's burst once again, and Liquid won the crucial fight - forcing a "GG" call by Puppey.

The full game gold graph

Position 1-2-3 statistics comparison

Stats Funn1k qojqva Hero Nature's Prophet Tinker Kills/Deaths/Assists 12/9/15 17/9/18 Final NetWorth 25364 34259 Creep Kills/Denies 559/5 650/3 Hero/Tower Damage 17.1k/1.4k 31.5k/227 GPM 559 668

Stats Dendi BuLba Hero Sand King Beastmaster Kills/Deaths/Assists 3/6/22 1/7/29 Final NetWorth 17393 23481 Creep Kills/Denies 314/8 249/4 Hero/Tower Damage 11.3k/296 8.5k/1k GPM 356 386

Stats XBOCT TC Hero Ember Spirit Lifestealer Kills/Deaths/Assists 10/12/10 16/7/16 Final NetWorth 19744 28472 Creep Kills/Denies 428/11 451/42 Hero/Tower Damage 13.4k/869 20.6k/7.8k GPM 568 429

The mistakes of the defeated

Natus Vincere Picks Sometimes teams decide to run experiments during online tourneys and test new strategies in competitive environment. Ember Spirit was one of Natus Vincere's experiments, but it did not work out so well. Picking Ember Spirit as a second pick allowed Team Liquid to create a line-up that makes it really hard for XBOCT to deal enough damage in a teamfight, resulting in the low 13.4k damage - unexpected for the Ember Spirit. Another bizarre choice was the selection of Sand King for Dendi. Sand King is a great initiator and has the potential to deal tons of damage in a teamfight. However, a BKB or a magic-immunity spell like Rage completely mess with Sand King's combo and drastically reduce his effectiveness. Last but not least, Natus Vincere chose to deploy many powerful spells like Epicenter and Ice Blast against FLUFF's Rubick, making it possible for him to steal one of them and reduce their impact using his Aura. Lanes The laning stage went pretty well for the Ukrainians, getting several kills on the supports and qojqva's Tinker. Nonetheless, they were unable to shut down TC and BuLba, who got their core items impressively fast, creating space for qojqva to get back into the game and reach XBOCT, Dendi and Funn1k. Plays From a spectator's point of view, XBOCT seemed a bit unfamiliar with Ember Spirit, as his sloppy plays and positioning gave many unnecessary kills to Team Liquid. This is to be slightly expected since the hero was just introduced in Captain's Mode. While the team was quite aggressive during the earlier phases of the game, Liquid had some pretty long periods of free-farm, with Na'Vi only getting pick-offs on the supports. This may have been avoided by forcing more early fights by constant pushing.

The VOD



Na'Vi vs Team Liquid Game 1 - DOTA 2 Champions... by D2CL

DISCLAIMER : This is an opinionated article based on the thoughts and experience of the writer.