Team Spirit has come from behind in two straight games to claim victory over regional rivals Natus Vincere. The squad were able to flip the script on Na’Vi twice, rendering strong early game leads pointless as they came back from incredible odds.
Spirit’s win marks the first loss in Tour 3 for Natus Vincere as they fall to 2-1 in the split, but retain their top spot in the division. Team Spirit on the other hand have moved up to an impressive 2-0 with seemingly easy games against Rune Eaters and One Move in the future for them.
One comeback…
Game one started poorly for Team Spirit and got even worse. With a plethora of annoying heroes that dictate the pace of the game, Na’Vi had a million ways to hurt their opponent. Venonmancer, Clockwerk, and Tiny to be super annoying, and KotL and Nature’s Prophet to shove lanes.
Everything that Na’Vi wanted to do involved pushing lanes, and leaving them pushed, while Spirit’s heroes didn’t have the kind of creep clear they needed to contest this. With Na’Vi’s dominant early game this was not the situation you want if you’re Team Spirit.
At the 18-minute mark, Team Spirit leveraged a small fight into taking Roshan while 9k behind. Team Spirit getting the Aegis on Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchukwas’s Faceless Void finally slowed down Na’Vi’s assault, who instead went into a more safer farming mode. This game is the chance for Spirit to take control and even take the second Rosh. In two decisive moves, Spirit had changed the course of the game. Meanwhile, Alik “V-Tune” Vorobey on Nature’s Prophet continued doing Nature’s Prophet things, like shoving lanes.
But ultimately, because the tables had turned, this led to some catches. And after taking the initiative, Team Spirit finished off the first game witha victory.
Make that two!
In game two’s draft, it was Na’Vi reacting to the results of game one. Na’Vi kept the KotL but picked up Dawnbreaker and Winter Wyvern, banning out the Zeus and Venomancer that had been so annoying. Team Spirit, on the other hand, were so confident they didn’t ban anything that Na’Vi used.
But the changeups in the lineup for Na’Vi definitely had an effect, meaning that Na’Vi was able to grab a lot of early kills on Team Spirit. However, the skills of Spirit’s cores meant that they could keep up with their opponents, keeping things even for the first 15 minutes of the match.
The slow pace meant that Na’Vi eventually took the lead and the advantage. They built up an impressive 5k lead, and had Team Spirit on the back foot, pushed into their base. It looked like we were headed for a game three.
But slowly, Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchukwas manifesting something dangerous. The Monkey King proxied waves, proved unkillable, and generally wrecked the entire game for Na’Vi. Rarely do single players carry teams, but with double the networth of the nearest other Hero, Yatoro’s Monkey King was just too powerful.
Team Spirit Yatoro interview
In the post game interview Yatoro spoke about his incredible play. Talking about the first game Yataro was confident “I just predicted the enemy moves in the first game. Exactly where Clockwerk would go.” He continued, explaining. On the second game Yatoro was even more positive: “It was a free game, but we made mistakes, so it took longer.”
Admir “lizZard” Salkanovich asked if the team ever got recognized in their bootcamp in Belgrade, Serbia. “I’m always going into the cafe, and one guy is recognizing me, and so he makes the best coffee” Yatoro answered, clearly enjoying some of the perks of being a TI-winner.
Finally Yatoro was asked about his opinion on Pudge carry. He had a one word answer: “Imba, imba, imba.” Then why aren’t Team Spirit using it? Another simple answer: “We’re preparing it actually for PSG.LGD.”
Impressive win for Team Spirit
This was a statement game for Team Spirit and Yatoro. Once again proving why they’re the TI10 champions. All the rust that seemed to have built up at the Major is all gone. But Na’Vi didn’t exactly look weak. Instead this was strong team that was just outplayed by one of the best in the world. This is the kind of defeat that doesn’t destroy a team. Instead it serves as a foundation to grow and get better, as Na’Vi surely will.
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