posted by Sun_Tzu,

The final challenge of the Alienware Cup has gone down as Na`Vi finished off their Chinese bootcamp by facing off against LGD.Cn in the best-of-five Grand Final for the $25,000 first prize.

After a rough start to their China trip, Na`Vi eventually come out on top.
Photo courtesy of Na`Vi.

LGD.Cn vs. Na`Vi

Drafts of all games for this series can be found here.

Game 1

LGD opened up the series with a safelane Gyrocopter by

Lio 'Sylar' Jiajun along with Visage and Nyx Assassin as pulling lane supports ensuring uncontested farm, with

Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov on Dark Seer going into the jungle from level one, while on the bottom lane Na`Vi ran

Alexander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich on Luna along with Rubick pulling agains the Clockwerk of

Yao 'Yao' Zhengzheng. This left a melee vs. melee match-up in mid, as

Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin was put on the Dragon Knight against the exemplary Kunkka of

Zhang 'xiao8' Ning, one of his recent additions to his signature pool.

Before the lanes settled in, Na`Vi spent some time camping the mid lane, looking for a possible gank on xiao8 which did not materialize. As they eventually gave it up LGD had already pushed the creeps to the top lane Tier 1, spurring

Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov on the Jakiro to go leach some experience, before heading back to his own jungle to look for chances to stack camps for Funn1k. This meant that when Dendi got a chance to strike on xiao8's slight overextension, Puppey was there to back in him, securing the first blood as well as a secondary kill on

Xie 'DD' Bin's Nyx Assassin, who had tried to rotate in to help out.

The first big clash of the game came at 10 minutes in at the bottom lane, as Na`Vi were trying to push the Tier 1 Tower before they got their Mekansm up on Funn1k. As Yao jumped in with his Cogs, he ended up dying in an instant but buying enough time for the rest of his team to rotate in, with the Ghost Ship and Call Down falling hard on the heads of XBOCT and Dendi who both went down, with Sylar picking up a double kill. The one saving grace for Na`Vi was that they did get the last hit on the Tower, but they still payed a high price for slightly rushing their push.

The next big clash at mid a few minutes later was a lot more anti-climactic, as xiao8 sent his Ghost Ship in only to have

Kuro 'KuroKy' Takhasomi on the Rubick drop a boat of his own, as both team's received the damage reduction buff meaning that while both teams threw all they had at hand into the fray, nobody went down, with Funn1k's Mekansm helping a lot in keeping Na`Vi up through the heavy early game nukes brought by the LGD team.

While neither team had what was needed to dominate an early teamfight without their opponent making some mistakes, Na`Vi were still playing more aggressive, dictating the flow of the game and pressuring LGD into a defensive posture, only able to farm when Na`Vi was willing to allow it. As a result Na`Vi slowly inched ahead on net worth as well as towers, punishing small positional mistakes whenever they saw them in the defenses of LGD, utilizing early Black King Bar's on XBOCT and Dendi to allow them to play a bit further out as long as they dictated when a fight was to begin.

By 24 minutes in LGD tried to smoke gank, but Na`Vi were prepared, turning the engagement on them and claiming a 5-2 victory, which unfortunately didn't result in much for the Ukrainians as the respawn times were still so short for LGD that the slightly drawn out fight meant most of them were about to come back alive by the time the last one went down.

Realizing they were quite far behind, LGD suddenly woke up to the need to be more active, as both teams went blow for blow over the next five minutes, with Na`Vi coming out ahead after each engagement, with great plays by Funn1k who managed to use Vacuum in order to track players up on the Dire jungle warp spot while his team killed them off, with a momentary respit from the fighting coming at 31 minutes in, with four of LGD dead and Na`Vi claiming their second Tier 2 Tower of the game while still having one of their Tier 1's up past the half hour mark.

After Na`Vi kept on taking fight after fight, finally by 37 minutes they found their opening to break the base and end the game as all of LGD lay dead on the ground, with xiao8 calling the 'GG'.

Game 1 End Screen

Game 2

With LGD going for the Sylar Spectre on the safelane together with Nyx Assassin and Jakiro, Na`Vi chose to challenge with Gyrocopter for XBOCT and Bane as well as Lina backing him up for good purst and lockdown. This put Dendi on Batrider up against xiao8 on Alchemist at mid as well as Funn1k on to his trademark Clinkz at the top lane against a creep-skipping Dark Seer by Yao.

First blood went to Kuroky on the Lina, as Nyx Assassin was slightly out of position. However not long after as Na`Vi started rotating their supports, XBOCT was left exposed on the offlane, allowing LGD to get a return kill that they crucially needed, only to have it all nullified with a rotation by Dendi, giving XBOCT a double kill at eight minutes as Na`Vi were getting the better of each of the lanes in the early game.

Early aggression went back and forth, benefitting Sylar who got 2/0/3 by 12 minutes as well as Funn1k who had absolute freefarm while his team was fighting 4v5, finishing up his Orchid Malevolence before 14 minutes in, as he was set to begin his customary snowball, while XBOCT was clearing up the Ancients which had been stacked for him, claiming second place in terms of net worth, ahead of LGD's Yao in third.

While xiao8 got caught out by Dendi on the Dire side of the river, Yao came in with a big Vacuum and Wall of Replica, obliterating Dendi and Kuroky, only to have Funn1k come into the fight, claiming three heroes of LGD on the chase. This signaled the start of the back and forth fighting, with Funn1k proving once again that he is as much of a dominant player as ever on Clinkz, as even though Sylar was not quite dying, he was being driven back time and again, not having a chance to sit back and farm for the Radiance that Sylar prefers.

As Na`Vi went for the Roshan kill at 23 minutes, xiao8 got caught out by Dendi as he tried to use his Shadow Blade in order to initiate a fight at the pit, dying and having it all turned around on his team, as Na`Vi claimed four kills giving up nothing with only Sylar making it out once more, before going back and giving the Aegis to XBOCT.

However after finding a five man gank on a split-pushing Funn1k, LGD were able to take a 3-0 fight at mid lane before backing off as the Clinkzmaister respawned. Unfortunately on the retreat Sylar got stuck in the Dire woods without a Teleport or mana for Spectral Dagger, getting found out by Dendi who went to farm the jungle creeps and dying for the first time in the game just after the Courier delivered him his Relic, only to have it killed on the way back home by Funn1k who was all over the place.

While Sylar finally completed his Radiance at just past the half hour mark, both XBOCT and Funn1k were sitting at 15,000 net worth to Sylar's measely 10,000, in no small part as Na`Vi had a dominant hold on the map being ahead by three towers and with a Clinkz roaming his jungle and forcing him to play safe. By 33 minutes even coming out of the base was not safe, as Funn1k popped his Black King Bar and initiated a fight at the bottom lane with his team coming in at his back, claiming three kills including the life of Sylar, allowing them to take out the bottom lane Barracks before rotating to take out the Tier 3 at mid, losing XBOCT on the retreat but not a further 3,000 ahead each over the stalled Spectre.

At 36 minutes Na`Vi went for the Roshan once again, priming for their final push. As LGD were forced to try and contest it, they made a desperate attempt at taking the fight only to hear the omnious sound of multiple Black King Bars being popped, Fiend's Grips thrown out under cover of magic immunity and XBOCT snatching the Aegis, as Sylar died once more and bought back, Haunted in only to pop XBOCT once before dying on the retreat again, forcing LGD to call the 'GG' for the second time in a row.

Game 2 End Screen

Game 3

For the third game it was time for a near identical draft to the third game of the previous series between the two teams, as Na`Vi gave XBOCT the safelane Dragon Knight backed up by Leshrac, with Puppey on the jungle Chen and xiao8 on the offlane Nature's Prophet against them, while Dendi took up the mid as Shadow Fiend against the Yao Magnus. This left Sylar's Alchemist on the top lane free farming, as Funn1k was once again stacking and farming Ancients with his Windrunner, freeing up the LGD Jakiro and Sand King supports to roam around, putting pressure on the mid lane, getting the first blood as well as secondary death at five minutes, with Puppey at least claiming the rebuttal kill on Yao as he tried to escape after diving past the tower.

After a rought start at mid and losing his life three times on the lanes, the early skirmishes favoured Dendi who made a major comeback, along with XBOCT racking up kills without losing his life, keeping pace with Sylar's freefarming Hand of Midas Alchemist at the 15 minute mark. As the gold and experience graphs began arching upwards, the game was quickly on a path towards the same situation in which Na`Vi had chosen to play so overly safe just a few days past, ultimately costing them the game.

In an almost carbon copy recreation of the previous game, at 18 minutes in Na`Vi sieged the middle Tower, this time with XBOCT at the front of the pack, forcing Yao to Skewer and Reverse Polarity a far tankier target this time around than the Dendi Shadow Fiend, along with the Hand of God from Puppey kept him alive far longer. Although he eventually played a bit far out and lost his life, in the end it was a one for one trade and a buyback from xiao8, giving Na`Vi the confidence to come clean up the Tier 2 Tower a moment later, with only one Tier 2 left standing for LGD.

At the top Tier 2 after 24 minutes of play, Na`Vi got a bit greedy giving Yao the opening to hit a two man Reverse Polarity, Skewering XBOCT and Funn1k back into an Ice Path and allowing LGD to blow the two of them up, eliminating all the follow-up damage Dendi was looking for as he unleashed a giant Requiem of Souls, only to have to retreat, leaving Puppey to take the sacrificial death in order to cover his escape, bringing the kills to an equal 9-9.

LGD sent xiao8 to split push up top in order to cover their Roshan kill at 33 minutes, with Na`Vi showing no willingness to react to it. Instead they took a poor fight at mid lane after Sylar had already put the Aegis onto his by now insanely farmed Alchemist, losing both Dendi and XBOCT while accomplishing almost nothing, finding a kill on Sand King who bought back into the game. As LGD ran down mid, they claimed the first Barracks of the game at 36 minutes, in absolute control of the game by this point.

Another big fight just before 37 minutes at top lane and LGD killed off the cores of Na`Vi once more, forcing out the 'GG', as the third game in a row ended at the 37th minute of play.

Game 3 End Screen

Game 4

For the fourth game each team went for something a bit different, with Na`Vi getting the XBOCT Phantom lancer and giving Kuroky a jungling Doom as well as putting Shadow Demon on pulling duties up against the offlane Beastmaster of xiao8. Meanwhile Dendi took the Batrider to mid lane against Yao's Dragon Knight, leaving Funn1k on the Nature's Prophet on the offlane to try and disrupt the farm of Sylar's Gyrocopter slightly, while DD played the safelane jungle Chen and with a pulling Nyx Assassin as lane support to round it out.

After doing far better on lanes than they should have, LGD started out their early aggression, getting slightly better trades from early fights while also leading the way in pushing, as they began their work trying to remove all space on the map before XBOCT could get the farm he would need in order to start taking fights.

While XBOCT was getting good early farm both Sylar and Yao were breathing down his neck, and as they claimed a free Roshan at 16 minutes along with a free kill on Puppey, finding XBOCT farming the Radiant Ancients and killing him off as well as taking the life of Funn1k as he was split pushing at bottom lane and taking a kill on Kuroky in the jungle before claiming the final Tier 2 Tower as well as the life of XBOCT pushing the bottom lane, all within four minutes, LGD were quickly setting up to siege the base by the 25 minute mark.

Beating the timing, LGD took to the high ground at 21 minutes, claiming the Tier 3 before losing the Aegis on the Gyrocopter which was about to expire anyway, taking the first Barracks of the game and backing off with Na`Vi chasing only to turn it around and making it a 3-1 fight in favour of LGD, with the healing coming out of DD with Hand of God and Mekansm being too much for Na`Vi's non-existant damage to handle, as neither Kuroky nor Funn1k had built any real damage items and XBOCT was still lacking the farm he needed.

Na`Vi kept on taking poor engagements and being picked off by the long range Primal Roar initation from xiao8 who had built his customary Aghanim's Scepter, within even their attempts at split pushing coming up short. The one thing going in favour of Na`Vi was that after a failed attempt at claiming the Barracks at top lane, they managed to sneak a Roshan kill at 32 minutes, giving XBOCT an Aegis as he kept on looking for the Manta Style and Heart of Tarrasque he would need in order to try and win teamfights for his team.

While Na`Vi were still at the bottom lane after their Roshan kill, LGD pushed in as top and claimed one half of the Barracks set before Na`Vi were able to react and push them out, trading about even in kills at the expense of the Aegis, buying XBOCT the time to complete his Heart at 35 minutes; a glimmer of hope for his team.

At 37 minutes xiao8 failed his initiation, Primal Roaring an illusion instead of the real XBOCT, allowing Na`Vi to take one of the few fight they had all game, losing Kuroky but getting two heroes in exchange, buying XBOCT some time, only to give some of it back again a few minutes later at the Dire secret shop, as XBOCT almost got caught out, escaping only to have both Kuroky and Puppey give up their lives instead to the massive teamfight damage of LGD, making it another 2-1 trade in LGD's favour.

At 43 minutes a big fight broke out at the Roshan pit, as Na`Vi started the kill attempt only to back off and see LGD continue it, with Dendi jumping in to Flaming Lasso Sylar right before Roshan died, but losing his own life after a great reactionary Dragon Tail from Yao, yet still having no choice but standing and watching as XBOCT ran in and claim the Aegis before going on a rampage on the LGD lineup, eventually losing the Aegis as well as all of his team, but still coming out on top of the fight by the slightest margin.

With Na`Vi having used multiple buybacks in order to win the Roshan fight, LGD decided to just push in at 46 minutes, and withot his team having extra lives up their leaves XBOCT was unable to stop LGD alone, losing his life and buying back in order to try and chase them out, but not before the third Melee Barracks of the game had been dropped, in addition to the Range Barracks that was missing at mid lane.

Na`Vi tried for a desperate push down mid lane at 49 minutes, failing to get even the Tier 3 Tower and as XBOCT lingered slightly too long he lost his life with his buyback still on cooldown for another 3 minutes, causing Na`Vi to call the 'GG' and sending it to a fifth game.

Game 4 End Screen

Game 5

For the deciding game of the series Na`Vi went for the offensive trilane, with XBOCT on Gyrocopter along with Visage and Sand King up against the Luna of Sylar backed by Rubick and Nyx Assassin. This left Dendi to play the dominant match-up of Queen of Pain against the Dragon Knight of Yao, while Funn1k was put on Bounty Hunter against xiao8's Nature's Prophet on the bottom lane, eyeing the top lane for any signs of aggression.

Funn1k rotated to mid in order to claim the first blood on the struggling Yao, but with Dendi blinkin in under the Tower and eating a Dragon Tail to the face, it was Yao who got first blood before dying as Puppey on the Sand King was slightly late to the party. After respawning Dendi went down to bottom lane, getting a kill on xiao8 with his Sonic Wave, as he had been pushing the bottom Tower, with a hero Catapult getting the last hit in front of Funn1k's attempts to deny it. With Na`Vi distracted LGD went for a kill on Kuroky up top, and although Na`Vi came out slightly on top of this skirmish, the fact that both Na`Vi supports died again shortly after turned around what was supposed to be a won lane, as suddenly Sylar was neck and neck with XBOCT and Funn1k.

It fell to Funn1k to make things happen, and after a rough start on his lane, going far lower on health than he should have against a Nature's Prophet, as he began his roaming and was able to find a few crucial Track kills together with his teammates, giving Na`Vi a bit of momentum, which they capitalized on as they won a big teamfight at mid lane 13 minutes in, helping XBOCT and Dendi leadfrog Sylar in farm, while Yao and xiao8 had stalled in fifth-sixth place in terms of net worth.

Play slowed down as the teams entered the mid portion of the game, with Na`Vi slowly farming up and trying to split push while LGD formed 3 hero ganking parties in order to try and find anyone out of position, getting the occasional kill but losing out as they were farming the map far less efficiently than Na`Vi, as XBOCT and Dendi opened up a decent lead of xiao8 and Sylar.

After an earlier lame duck attempt at taking the Roshan, Na`Vi finally got the damage to kill him off in a timely fashion at 35 minutes, giving XBOCT an Aegis on top of his Blacking King Bar, Butterfly and Helm of the Dominator, for a very defensive and durable Gyrocopter, being very aware of the burst damage that LGD was able to put out as they kept on finding free kills to stem the tide of the Na`Vi onslaught with their 3-4 hero ganking parties.

Finally at 39 minutes Na`Vi were able to catch out LGD, as Yao was too far out and popped his Black King Bar, turning around and being chased up the high ground, followed by a big Epicenter by Puppey, as Na`Vi team wiped LGD and claimed the top Barracks before rotating to the middle lane, where they found the respawned LGD team. While DD had stolen the Epicenter, it was not enough as they engaged in only to get stunned by Kuroky's Familiars, allowing Na`Vi to keep going and claim the game as LGD called the 'GG' at 41 minutes.