Na`Vi and Alliance are essentially two of the biggest rivals in Dota 2. After countless events they seem to always end up against each other in the Grand Finals, and to date have put on some of the greatest shows we have ever seen. Lately Alliance has been slumping, especially coming into this year. Na`Vi on the other hand have been performing quite consistently, although they haven't been seen in anything significant since last year. And it looks like that time off was well spent as they completely outclassed Alliance in the LAN Finals at StarLadder today. They fought their way to the finals from the loser's bracket, and came in with a 1-0 deficit to Alliance before the games even started. But that didn't stop them from winning 3 in a row to take the series.
The entire lineup of Na`Vi is spectacular at the moment, and specifically Funn1k at today's finals. Na`Vi will take home a massive first place prize of $62,179. If they keep up this level of play I have no doubt we will see them be one of the most dominant teams throughout the year.
Congrats to Natus Vincer for winning the SL8 LAN Finals!!!
On January 20 2014 06:17 danl9rm wrote: I didn't realize there was a loser's bracket when I watched them lose to sigma. Honestly, having one is a bit unfair to the other teams.
What? It's the tournament format, how is DE unfair to other teams who are also playing in a DE tournament?
On January 20 2014 06:17 danl9rm wrote: I didn't realize there was a loser's bracket when I watched them lose to sigma. Honestly, having one is a bit unfair to the other teams.
What? It's the tournament format, how is DE unfair to other teams who are also playing in a DE tournament?
On January 20 2014 06:17 danl9rm wrote: I didn't realize there was a loser's bracket when I watched them lose to sigma. Honestly, having one is a bit unfair to the other teams.
Allowing each team to have a minimum of two attempts to get through and giving the team who won all their games up to the grand final a game advantage.
Best game of the lan was Sigma vs Na'Vi game 2. Whoever did not watch it live should at least watch that one. Great tornament overall. I wish Na'Vi had picked silencer in the last game vs Alliance. Seamed like a perfect counter pick when I was watching the draft. Still their lineup did the work so I can't complain there.
I still don't know how Navi does it, but they have a switch, they lose a few games then they decided to start playing for real. Then they show up to play and are unbeatable.
On January 20 2014 06:17 danl9rm wrote: I didn't realize there was a loser's bracket when I watched them lose to sigma. Honestly, having one is a bit unfair to the other teams.
ye, because that way, the absolute best team of this tournament, NaVi, wouldve gone out in round 1 and we wouldve never gotten to see them play as they did.
xboct is in front of his team, sieging rax with luna. loda tosses concoction at him. instead of going for the safe BKB option, he manta splits it. if he fucks up and gets stunned, maybe he gets jumped by alch and navi get pushed out of alliance's base.
On January 20 2014 08:07 Rhyme wrote: xboct is in front of his team, sieging rax with luna. loda tosses concoction at him. instead of going for the safe BKB option, he manta splits it. if he fucks up and gets stunned, maybe he gets jumped by alch and navi get pushed out of alliance's base.
instead he gets to save his bkb and keep pushing.
Nope, Shadow Priest actually makes initiating on Luna very difficult, if they don't keep both Luna/SP locked down then XBOCT just pops Satanic and eats the team alive. Plus you have Puppey's Treant. It was the right decision by XBOCT because he was aware of what his help was.
On January 20 2014 08:07 Rhyme wrote: xboct is in front of his team, sieging rax with luna. loda tosses concoction at him. instead of going for the safe BKB option, he manta splits it. if he fucks up and gets stunned, maybe he gets jumped by alch and navi get pushed out of alliance's base.
instead he gets to save his bkb and keep pushing.
Nope, Shadow Priest actually makes initiating on Luna very difficult, if they don't keep both Luna/SP locked down then XBOCT just pops Satanic and eats the team alive. Plus you have Puppey's Treant. It was the right decision by XBOCT because he was aware of what his help was.
On January 20 2014 08:07 Rhyme wrote: xboct is in front of his team, sieging rax with luna. loda tosses concoction at him. instead of going for the safe BKB option, he manta splits it. if he fucks up and gets stunned, maybe he gets jumped by alch and navi get pushed out of alliance's base.
instead he gets to save his bkb and keep pushing.
Nope, Shadow Priest actually makes initiating on Luna very difficult, if they don't keep both Luna/SP locked down then XBOCT just pops Satanic and eats the team alive. Plus you have Puppey's Treant. It was the right decision by XBOCT because he was aware of what his help was.
On January 20 2014 09:59 MoriyaGXP wrote: poor fnatic... only won 2k with 10k minus for trip + hotel expense
no, 10k was taken from the over all prize fund so the teams could attend, have hotel and flights covered by starladder.
Na'Vi are just on another level compared to the western teams outside of 6.78... will be interesting to see if they can contain the form or whether their will be another rat doto patch where alliance can come back.
On January 20 2014 09:59 MoriyaGXP wrote: poor fnatic... only won 2k with 10k minus for trip + hotel expense
no, 10k was taken from the over all prize fund so the teams could attend, have hotel and flights covered by starladder.
Na'Vi are just on another level compared to the western teams outside of 6.78... will be interesting to see if they can contain the form or whether their will be another rat doto patch where alliance can come back.
now thats freaking awesome
Within the extra price money from tickets and stuff, good times are coming to Dota 2, and us, fans, could not ask for more
Valve is just doing a great work all over the place (besides the patch while theres a match lol), Dota 2 is going to get bigger by the second, same thing with CSGO.
So how did this DE work in the finals? The bracket says 1-0 to alliance first round, and 0-3 to navi second round (finals). Did navi win 5 games in total or what am I missing? my understanding in DE is that winnerbracket winner only has to win 1 of 2 BO3s, while loserbracket winner has to win both? In this case the result numbers seem off? Help? /Kim
On January 20 2014 15:39 lookfirewood wrote: So how did this DE work in the finals? The bracket says 1-0 to alliance first round, and 0-3 to navi second round (finals). Did navi win 5 games in total or what am I missing? my understanding in DE is that winnerbracket winner only has to win 1 of 2 BO3s, while loserbracket winner has to win both? In this case the result numbers seem off? Help? /Kim
Alliance had a 1 game advantage in a bo5. I agree the bracket makes it look a little odd though. Essentially Alliance needed 2 wins and Na'Vi needed 3 to win.
This is why I love Navi. Always go thru loser's brackets, still wins finals or get into finals :D you can't deny that they perform well under tournament conditions
On January 20 2014 21:44 tadL wrote: Gratz Navi. Ofc there is more to it but ban vs Alliance Prophet = win stays true
It stays about as true as it always has, which is not at all.
Both Sigma and Fnatic banned Prophet. And I think the teams in the forms they were yesterday, Na'Vi could have given Alliance Prophet and I think they would have still won.
Na'Vi really outdrafted Alliance in many games, and it had much more to do with what they picked rather than what they banned. But more than that they executed a level beyond Alliance as well. Although when all is said and done I think Alliance performed above expectations more than Na'Vi considering recent performances, both teams should be happy with the result even if the way that final series went was certainly not pretty for Alliance.
On January 20 2014 07:42 AwfuL_ wrote: I'm not exactly a fan but it's hard to argue against Na'Vi being the best team in the West when they decide to be.
I mean, 3 TI finals appearances, a TI championship, spectacular performances against top teams like Alliance...
It's hard to argue with "oftentimes the best team in the world."
Finally Alliance played really well again, but holy shit, how good are Na'Vi!? Seriously they are amazing!
Well played from all the teams this weekend in Kiev. I've noticed I might be in a clear minority but I hope and look forward to a spring dominated by Alliance and Na'Vi again Two giants instead of one and the results that all other team can be measured against :D
On January 20 2014 15:39 lookfirewood wrote: So how did this DE work in the finals? The bracket says 1-0 to alliance first round, and 0-3 to navi second round (finals). Did navi win 5 games in total or what am I missing? my understanding in DE is that winnerbracket winner only has to win 1 of 2 BO3s, while loserbracket winner has to win both? In this case the result numbers seem off? Help? /Kim
Alliance had a 1 game advantage in a bo5. I agree the bracket makes it look a little odd though. Essentially Alliance needed 2 wins and Na'Vi needed 3 to win.
Hmm. Ok, thought it was like losing in winners, a 1 game lead is not like getting a second try really. But thanks for explaining!.
On January 20 2014 15:39 lookfirewood wrote: So how did this DE work in the finals? The bracket says 1-0 to alliance first round, and 0-3 to navi second round (finals). Did navi win 5 games in total or what am I missing? my understanding in DE is that winnerbracket winner only has to win 1 of 2 BO3s, while loserbracket winner has to win both? In this case the result numbers seem off? Help? /Kim
Alliance had a 1 game advantage in a bo5. I agree the bracket makes it look a little odd though. Essentially Alliance needed 2 wins and Na'Vi needed 3 to win.
Hmm. Ok, thought it was like losing in winners, a 1 game lead is not like getting a second try really. But thanks for explaining!.
On January 20 2014 15:39 lookfirewood wrote: So how did this DE work in the finals? The bracket says 1-0 to alliance first round, and 0-3 to navi second round (finals). Did navi win 5 games in total or what am I missing? my understanding in DE is that winnerbracket winner only has to win 1 of 2 BO3s, while loserbracket winner has to win both? In this case the result numbers seem off? Help? /Kim
Alliance had a 1 game advantage in a bo5. I agree the bracket makes it look a little odd though. Essentially Alliance needed 2 wins and Na'Vi needed 3 to win.
Hmm. Ok, thought it was like losing in winners, a 1 game lead is not like getting a second try really. But thanks for explaining!.
On the bright side Alliance was crashed just 3 times in the final instead of 4 so there's that.
On January 21 2014 05:08 SKYFISH__ wrote: well, in alliance's deference they played really awful.
instead of big plays they lost their lanes and played disorganized for most of the games. also, i've never seen s4 do so poorly mid.
loda doing the drafting is not working out for them, especially against puppey
The drafts in the Na'Vi v. Alliance matchup always have me laughing. How can you not respect ban wisp against Alliance? Similarly, how can you not respect ban Invoker against NaVi?
Not that both teams haven't experienced success without doing this, but whenever I don't see one of these bans go out in the first round I always think to myself ""oh shit."
On January 21 2014 05:08 SKYFISH__ wrote: well, in alliance's deference they played really awful.
instead of big plays they lost their lanes and played disorganized for most of the games. also, i've never seen s4 do so poorly mid.
loda doing the drafting is not working out for them, especially against puppey
So the sample data of Loda's drafting is winning the D2CL final and getting second at SL, and it's not working out?
If you said 'at least against' Puppey then maybe you'd have a point, because Puppey really punished it. But Puppey has done that to Alliance (and every other team) before.
I don't think it's been long enough to say it's going to make them better in the long term, but that's a different story. Some Dota fans just have this ridiculous method of drawing conclusions of only looking at losses. Like some guy earlier say you just ban NP like Na'Vi did and you beat Alliance, even though almost all of the teams ban NP against them. And of course people did this long before by saying that you just ban Bulldog's heroes in the games where they did and Alliance lost, but obviously there were many more games where they were banned and they didn't lose.
We talk in a thread about Alliance vs Navi and I wrote if they ban Prophet they win. Ofc i meant just NaVi and ofc I did not want to talk about other teams. Its a thread about Alliance & NaVi, nothing else and I edited it because its the internet...
Loda draft was... weird, it could work against other non-top tier teams, but come on, against NaVi ?
1st draft = 1 Stun against Bane, Timber and Storm, pretty much free full time grip for Bane (and it was a last pick Bane) 2nd draft = Puppey countered their tactic with the Treant pick 3rd draft = after BKB... they had no plan
meh, they didnt play THAT bad (Besides s4 stupidly walking and trying to skrewed Xboct... and he gets eclipsed to death) but everything was pretty much decided in the draft, Puppey just destroyed Loda in that regard
On January 21 2014 09:40 Faruko wrote: Loda draft was... weird, it could work against other non-top tier teams, but come on, against NaVi ?
1st draft = 1 Stun against Bane, Timber and Storm, pretty much free full time grip for Bane (and it was a last pick Bane) 2nd draft = Puppey countered their tactic with the Treant pick 3rd draft = after BKB... they had no plan
meh, they didnt play THAT bad (Besides s4 stupidly walking and trying to skrewed Xboct... and he gets eclipsed to death) but everything was pretty much decided in the draft, Puppey just destroyed Loda in that regard
Its easier to critisize after the battle is over, isn't it? If Alliance would've won, everyone would go omg puppey got outpicked.
On January 21 2014 09:40 Faruko wrote: Loda draft was... weird, it could work against other non-top tier teams, but come on, against NaVi ?
1st draft = 1 Stun against Bane, Timber and Storm, pretty much free full time grip for Bane (and it was a last pick Bane) 2nd draft = Puppey countered their tactic with the Treant pick 3rd draft = after BKB... they had no plan
meh, they didnt play THAT bad (Besides s4 stupidly walking and trying to skrewed Xboct... and he gets eclipsed to death) but everything was pretty much decided in the draft, Puppey just destroyed Loda in that regard
Its easier to critisize after the battle is over, isn't it? If Alliance would've won, everyone would go omg puppey got outpicked.
On January 20 2014 15:39 lookfirewood wrote: So how did this DE work in the finals? The bracket says 1-0 to alliance first round, and 0-3 to navi second round (finals). Did navi win 5 games in total or what am I missing? my understanding in DE is that winnerbracket winner only has to win 1 of 2 BO3s, while loserbracket winner has to win both? In this case the result numbers seem off? Help? /Kim
Alliance had a 1 game advantage in a bo5. I agree the bracket makes it look a little odd though. Essentially Alliance needed 2 wins and Na'Vi needed 3 to win.
Hmm. Ok, thought it was like losing in winners, a 1 game lead is not like getting a second try really. But thanks for explaining!.
On January 21 2014 09:40 Faruko wrote: Loda draft was... weird, it could work against other non-top tier teams, but come on, against NaVi ?
1st draft = 1 Stun against Bane, Timber and Storm, pretty much free full time grip for Bane (and it was a last pick Bane) 2nd draft = Puppey countered their tactic with the Treant pick 3rd draft = after BKB... they had no plan
meh, they didnt play THAT bad (Besides s4 stupidly walking and trying to skrewed Xboct... and he gets eclipsed to death) but everything was pretty much decided in the draft, Puppey just destroyed Loda in that regard
Its easier to critisize after the battle is over, isn't it? If Alliance would've won, everyone would go omg puppey got outpicked.
I see you are new to dota because you should know if NaVi would have lost the community would blame xboct in first place. Than start blaming Kuroky too if the pure power of "xboct's fault" does not work or (ofc they are) "xboct fanboys" counter it.
ps: but we should keep in mind that tournaments outside of TI are the best way to practise new things. Ofc teams have tournaments they really want to win and others that do not really matter. Its kind of natural that for NaVi the star series is a big deal because of the location. Ofc teams are taking it serious. I saw Alliance trying something out, did not work and tried to pick as save as possible and still got destroyed.
In the end the 3 uncontested roshan give aways could be an interesting topic do discuss. It could be a big demonstration of dominance by NaVi for example.
He is. I still remember one of the games. PGG got a dd rune on prophet super early (maybe minute 0, not sure), teleported to a lane and got a triple kill with it, or something.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZYLXhSP.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/TheEmulator/2014/January/StarLadder/SL8FinalsPrize.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/TheEmulator/2014/January/StarLadder/SL8FinalsBracket.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WdLE8.png)
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/8/84/Alliancelogo_std.png)
Alliance vs Na`Vi![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/b/bb/Navilogo_std.png)
![[image loading]](http://gyazo.com/e085ef15bdf3405465c49f489bf2daaf.png)
