posted by Blue_Knight,
3 days of play. 2 teams left. 1 million dollars on the line. And now it's time. Get ready for the best-of-five Grand Final for The International championship match!


[B]ua Natus Vincere vs. cn Invictus Gaming
Commentators: us LD & us Luminous
[/B]

[B]Path to the Grand Final
[/B]


ua Na'Vi


WIN - 2:1 cn DK (WB Round 2)
WIN - 2:1 cn Invictus Gaming (WB Round 3)
WIN - 2:1 cn LGD (WB Final)


cn iG


WIN - 2:1 us Evil Geniuses(WB Round 2)
LOSS - 1:2 ua Natus Vincere (WB Round 3)
WIN - 1:0 cn EHOME (LB Round 2.5)
WIN - 2:1 cn DK (LB Final)
WIN - 2:1 cn LGD (Cons. Final)



Preview

Against all odds, Natus Vincere - the defending champions - have made it to the Grand Final once again. The hardships they faced on their path were overcome with style, flair, and inspiration, and now they find themselves against a familiar opponent.

Like Na'Vi, Invictus Gaming also defeated the tournament favourites (LGD) to make their way back up to the Grand Final from the Loser Bracket. With the double incentive of claiming the crown whilst exacting their revenge against Na'Vi, iG will be more pumped than ever to fight. All ten players will go into this match with their hearts on fire and their eyes on the prize, but which team will emerge victorious is anyone's guess.

Bonus video!

As luck would have it, joinDOTA was on the players' bus this morning on the way to the Benaroya Hall, and we managed to get a peek at the eventual finalists...



Summary

ua Natus Vincere 1 cn Invictus Gaming 3



Game 1

With neither side banning Naga Siren and iG seemingly hesitant to take the powerful hero in the knowledge that Na'Vi were not scared to play against her, the defending champions surprised everyone by last-picking the Siren for themselves.

The contest got underway with both teams moving in full to the Dire jungle for a clash right off the bat, and it was iG who secured first blood with a kill on ARS-ART's Shadow Shaman. That clash set the tone for an extremely aggressive early game, with both teams on the hunt for kills. However, it was iG who pulled ahead, with the superior power of their gankers in Night Stalker and Templar Assassin proving to be too powerful for Na'Vi to control. With 18 kills to their name compared to Na'Vi's paltry 8, iG stormed even further ahead and destroyed their opponents middle barracks in only the 23rd minute. Na'Vi could only endure another five minutes of the battering, and after their bottom lane was also breached, Puppey brought game 1 to a close by calling “GG”.

Game 2

After the events of last game, Na'Vi surprisingly allow iG to get away with Rubick, Night Stalker, and Templar Assassin yet again. They themselves go for Naga Siren again, only to take DK alongside this time. Unlike the first game, Na'Vi had the right answers to iG's early aggression, having the right stuns and AOE to destroy iG with Naga Siren's ultimate setup.

With a huge gold and experience advantage, Na`Vi knew they had complete control of the game and gave iG no chance by suffocating their map vision. When Na`Vi enters their base, iG had absolutely no chance and their game plan completely backfired on them.

Game 3

Both teams continued to display what they had learned from each other with further assimilation of each other's strategies; iG going for the full wombo-combo with Dark Seer, Enigma and Disruptor, whereas Na'Vi went for the Naga Siren and Dragon Knight combination once again – a combination that iG had originally employed themselves against LGD.

Kills were sparse in the early game, but it was iG who were arguably in the lead; Faith's expert use of his Disruptor's Glimpse spell was repeatedly a thorn in his opponent's side as it set up almost all of the kills the Chinese made. As things transitioned into the middle phase, Na'Vi found it difficult to gain any foothold at all, and Zhou's Lone Druid was beginning to get seriously powerful. Fatal action became even more rare as iG backed off after attaining their advantage, and farmed safely instead to increase their power further. Finally, in the 38th minute, iG made the breakthrough and took the third game with a kill score of 20 to 2.

Game 4

Disruptor worked extremely well last game, and Na'Vi decided to ban it. iG however still manages to take Naga Siren, Dark Seer, and Tidehunter. A refreshing pick was iG's Keeper of the Light, but Na'Vi decides to @#$! with our minds and take Nyx Assassin. The crowd goes wild.

Lots of action happening at the bottom lane, with both trilanes going up against each other. It is hard to say who came on top in the trilane, but Naga Siren definitely had her farm slowed down significantly. As Tidehunter was slow at getting level six, Na'Vi took advantage of iG's lack of AOE and initiated several ganks that were able to get a few important kills to slow down Ferrari's farm.

But the moment Tidehunter reached level six, Na'Vi was in for a world of hurt. With Vacumn, Psionic Traps, Ravage, Na'Vi found themselves unable to escape from the wombo-combo. iG looked set to end the hopes of the defending champion. However, a fight near middle went horribly wrong for iG, and further buybacks from Naga Siren and Templar Assassin to prevent Roshan were unsuccessful and even dying once again. It seemed as though Na'Vi found a small opening and has got right back into the game.

After playing safe for some time, iG makes a decision to try and take Aegis. It was certainly an intense moment as Na'Vi made their way swiftly, but Naga Siren simply used her ultimate and finished Roshan off with ease. As time passed by, iG's heroes grew stronger whilst Na'Vi struggled to keep up, especially Nyx Assassin having little to no impact throughout the game. Sensing time running out, Na'Vi goes for a desperate gank at bottom but was all caught by ChuaN's Ravage and loses both Leshrac and Juggernaut.

Na'Vi makes another last ditch effort to push, but iG's positioning was far superior and despite Rubick stealing and successfully placing a great Wall of Replica himself, iG simply did not care and absolutely destroyed the defending champions.

A big fight took place over Roshan, but once again Naga Siren sleeps all of Na'Vi to finish and take Aegis. One great Vacumn from Dark Seer sets up great positions for iG to fight and Na'Vi had nothing to retaliate. Sensing victory, iG decides to push just as ChuaN finishes a Refresher's Orb on Tidehunter. It seems that it would be a textbook teamwipe, but Dendi manages to steal Ravage and interrupts Tidehunter before he lands his next ulti.

But that proved to be just a small interruption as iG proceeds to land the craziest wombo-combo and end the game. iG are the champions of The International!

iG walks away with one million US Dollars, and Na'Vi will be walking away with $250,000.

Watch all the games live at dota2.com



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