Main event starts tomorrow!
Admittedly, I'm a Na'Vi fanboy. Have been since TI3. Before that, I haven't really followed much of professional DotA. Na'Vi making it into the lower brackets doesn't matter at all. Knowing Puppey's leadership style, he sometimes likes going into the lower brackets, keeping his cards hidden until he really needs his wins. Sometimes, losing a game is better if you know you'll fight them again later on. Strats are withheld, while you get to see their playstyles for you to prepare. I've done the same thing for Magic: The Gathering for FNM's and other tournaments. Lose a fight, but win the war. I'm sure we could find a Sun Tzu quote similar to that.
Many Na'Vi fans may be losing heart. But stand firm! If you've been watching (or following) their games for phase 2 of The International, here are some things to keep in mind as I lead you back into Na'Vi fandom:
Na'Vi has been using a lot of old strats maybe even stretching back to ESL One, or further back to The Summit. Examples are Tiny-Wisp and Bat. Tiny-Wisp is still being run every now and then, but no other team runs Bat as often as they do. (Bruno? Corrections?)
If you look at their line-ups, there aren't a lot of hard carries. Dendi is mostly doing all the carrying. Speaking of which,
Xboct hasn't been running his standard heroes lately. He's been playing offlane heroes. I counted: of the 15 games they played, he played a hard carry in only 5 of those games (Sniper, Void and Jugg). Razor and Viper, despite good midgames carries, don't really suit Xboct gaming.
All of Na'Vi's losses in the 2nd phase are against the expected top-tier teams. Which makes sense: if you expect to fight them on the next phase of the tournament, it's better to lose the game so that they don't have much to work with strat-wise. Now, they won against Vici and Newbee, which no one saw coming to be the top places. C9 and Empire might've been calculated as necessary wins.
After seeing Newbee's performance, they lost 2 quick games on the 3rd phase. Doesn't really matter if you think about it, since they'll still be in the main event.
Na'Vi took TI1, and has had one of the more stable rosters in the DotA2 competitive scene. Games are on tomorrow morning (US Pacific time). The bets are on, and with best of three's- there's no more screwing around. Only the best team will make it through, to receive the bigger chunk of that sweet, sweet $10 M prize pool.
Let Na'Vi take this again!
