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Starladder: 4-Protect-Mushi works wonders as Fnatic impress against Navi

posted by Malystryx.GDS,
Int Fnatic looked sharp against Navi in their second groupstage match. ph Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti's Chen was on form while my Chai 'Mushi' Yee Fung's Anti-Mage walked the fine line between genius and stupidity. Big win for the boys over @natusvincere! We're currently 1-1 in Group A at #SLTV13.

🆚 @theAllianceGG next. pic.twitter.com/ptM1peb4gU— FNATIC (@FNATIC) January 13, 2016


Both Fnatic and Navi came into the second groupstage off the back of a defeat, with Fnatic losing to cn PSG.LGD and Navi to us Evil Geniuses. The first round of the groupstage is bo1, and with only five matches to play reaching the top 3 becomes exceptionally difficult with 2 defeats to your name. Fnatic continue to compete with my Yeik Nai 'MidOne' Zheng, their mid player who was part of their SEA Shanghai Regional winning campaign.


Navi were winning the draft up until the Antimage pick
The draft looked good for Navi after they managed to get two strong game supports Tusk and Oracle to back-up ua Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin's Death Prophet in the early game. Fnatic responsed with a change of pace, opting for an Anti-Mage last pick to factor in some kind of solution to if the game went late, and it did.

Navi's last pick was Omniknight, a hero Evil Geniuses had used effectively against them in their previous game, but in retrospect another stun or disable might have gone a long way. Navi's line-up including only one stun, Tusk's Snowball and with only Death Prophet's silence left as a response to the AntiMage last pick, they were forced to invest in items such as Scythe of Vyse and Orchid to counter him escaping.

Navi's support duo for their match against Fnatic


Ditya-Ra and DJ excel in the early game for their teams
Two players who had particularly good early games were ph Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti and ru Dmitriy 'Ditya-Ra' Minenkov. Ditya completely dominated his lane on Nature's Prophet against my Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo's Dark Seer with the help f ru Akbar 'SoNNeikO' Butaev's Oracle, with 17/15 CS at just 3 minutes in.

Meanwhile, DJ had the ideal start to the game with Chen, earning himself a triple kill at 6 minutes which rewarded him with over 900 gold and put him close to level 6. As a result he also was able to complete Arcane Boots and start to build an early Mekansm. DJ ws "filthy rich" in the words of commentator Godz.

From 8-10 mins Fnatic went for aggression mid lane, but with Oracle's Purge on Ember Spirit, Fnatic's mid hero found himselves naked in front of Navi's line-up who were more than ready to respond. As a result Fnatic gave up what lead they had made in the early game.

4-Protect-Mushi: A risky business
The remainer of the game was focused around whether or not my Chai 'Mushi' Yee Fung was going to sink or swim on Anti-Mage. Despite comments from LD that Mushi's decision making on the hero in the past were at times questionable, the Malaysian has a positive score on the hero and holds a 68% win average from 19 games.

A couple of careless deaths in the mid-game, in particular one which saw him stay longer than necessary during a solo gank top lane in the hopes of being able to use Mana Void to kill Dendi. Blink was available but Mushi outstayed his welcome and died. While Mushi's Anti-Mage was in transition, the rest of Fnatic did an excellent job of creating space, with their players spaced out to avoid Ditya-Ra being able to split push effectively on Nature's Prophet.

Navi after defeat to Fnatic


Mushi builds what Godz called the "I'm invincible build" on Anti-Mage
Dendi was playing very safe, and considering the team only had one stun Orchid needed to be completed on Nature's Prophet to effectively shutdown the Antimage. Mushi's Anti-Mage farmed the second half of the mid game well, and as the game went late he went for what Godz called the "I'm invincible build" by building Heart of Tarrasque. Once completed, it was evident it was a game changing item choice.

However, it was not the only one. my Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo also went for an extremely uncommon Diffusal Blade on his Dark Seer to counter the constant Silence on Mushi's Anti-Mage, while the Linken's pick-up by two of Fnatic's heroes really left Navi in a difficult situation to decide who to go for.

Navi continue their trend of failing to close games
At 33 minutes Dendi's efforts to take rax and eliminate Mushi failed thanks to the combined efforts of Fnatic to keep their star player alive. With only one stun, the Swap, forcestaff and Surges from Mushi's team-mates kept him alive. Fnatic responded by pushing top lane and taking the tower and the rax, as well as some of midlane. This way the beginning of Navi's downfall, and the inability to close games that go late is becoming a recurring theme for Navi, which was also evident in the EU Regionals for the Shanghai Major.

Fnatic stand the heat and then kick Navi out of the kitchen

The remaining 20 minutes of the match was a beautiful display by Fnatic, whether it was my Wai Pern 'Net' Lim's beautifully timed swaps, my Yeik Nai 'MidOne' Zheng incredibly fast reactions on Ember Spirit or ph Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti's creep micro to net Dendi to stop Eul's Sceptre and allow him to tp out.

The 4-protect-Mushi strat worked, and in the late game Mushi's decisions of when to split push and when to dive were on point. Fnatic were just working so well together and Navi were scrambling to defend their base. At 50 mins, Fnatic went with four bot lane leaving MidOne to go top lane, and as a result got mega creeps as once again Mushi survives. The game ended soon after.

This leaves Navi in a difficult position as they already have two losses to their name and still have yet to face LGD Gaming, Alliance or Spirit. A third defeat would almost certainly mean they are out of the competition.

Post-match comparison between Sonneiko and DJ




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