Dota 2’s The International 2012: Na’Vi keep European hopes alive as LGD dominate on day two

While talk at the end of the day would be squarely focused on defending champions Na’Vi, the second day of The International started with one word on everyone’s lips: Morphling. The undisputed breakout hero of this year’s tournament, Morphling has become a divisive subject across message boards, social networks and, of course, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall itself.

It seemed only fitting, then, that Orange – famous for a brash, aggressive playstyle that capitalises on kills rather than towers – chose to change tack with the first match of the day and focus on squashing CLG’s defences while letting eSports superstar Mushi farm up as Morphling. This was the opening match of a day which largely revolved around teams fighting for survival in the best-of-one Losers’ Bracket. Orange managed to keep on top of their Swedish opponents, including CLG’s famous Pajkatt with his most feared hero, Invoker, and MiSeRY with a surprise Luna pick, and quickly sent them out of the tournament. But even Mushi’s Morphling couldn’t stop the team from losing out in round 3 of the Losers’ Bracket to a long 60-minute match against EHOME, and Orange were eliminated alongside coL, EG, Darer, TongFu, EHOME and Zenith.

The departure of EG and coL in a pair of 40-minute games thoroughly quashed hopes for an American victory on home soil, and Dota 2’s Asian teams continued to show their impressive dominance over the burgeoning competitive scene. But it was Na’Vi who managed to dominate the day, winning over the audience, reasserting themselves after a shaky start, and reawakening the form that saw them win last year’s $1,000,000 grand prize.

The match was the Winners’ Bracket semi-final and their opponents were iG, who many have tipped to play LGD in the Championship Final on Sunday. For a time it looked like iG would beat the defending champions easily, too, despite the Benaroya Hall being flooded to chants of “Na’Vi” at the start of their opening game.

Na’Vi, who indicated ahead of the tournament that they could predict iG’s tactics, got off to a shaky start; their first major play in their opening game was in using four heroes to fell iG’s tier one top tower before immediately losing their own mid tower, alongside AA’s Venomancer and Puppey’s Chen, to a tri-lane push from Zhou’s Morphling, YYF’s Night Stalker and ChauN’s Rubick. iG.Faith’s Shadow Shaman, left on his own to farm the bottom lane while all the previous action happened, reached level 6 shortly afterwards, and used his Mass Serpent Ward ultimate to drop Na’Vi’s bottom tower and leave Na’Vi in a particularly precocious situation only eight minutes into the game.

The most popular Dota 2 team in the world never managed to recover. Na’Vi’s biggest successes in the first game came from numerous instances of its players being able to teleport away before being killed, which effectively highlights just how badly the team was performing. Na’Vi conceded after 16 minutes, powerless to stop an iG team using the kind of aggressive tactics that, in a different game, Na’Vi themselves would be using.

The pressure was on for the second game, then, but Na’Vi certainly rose to the occasion on what was easily the most dramatic game of the day, and perhaps the tournament so far. Na’Vi’s loss in the first game seemed to be due to team composition rather than play, and started the second game by banning Invoker and Morphling – a safe choice, considering the current reputation of both heroes in the tournament.

iG, on the other hand, banned Pudge, denying the audience the opportunity to watch the fan-favourite Dendi playing as his star hero, but picked Naga Siren and Dark Seer. The shrieks of the audience filled the auditorium: how would Na’Vi play against such a vicious combination of two of Dota 2’s most controversial and banned heroes?

Over the duration of the picking phase Na’Vi went with Rubick, Enigma, Juggernaut, Shadow Shaman and Enchantress. Their objective was clear: the Ukranian team were going to play so aggressively that iG’s level-dependent Naga Siren and Dark Seer wouldn’t be able to get to their all-important level 16, the point when they often overpower a team. iG opted to complement their terrifying duo with Tidehunter, Puck and Lina, signalling that they hoped to win out using terrifying disables and massive bursts of AoE damage.

As the match started Na’Vi’s AA managed to just about avoid falling victim to a five-lane push before the creeps spawned, and dished out some damage of his own two minutes later by shackling YYF’s retreating Dark Seer and drawing first blood. XBOCT’s Juggernaut then attempted an aggressive push on iG’s bottom tower at the 2:30 mark, with Na’Vi losing out the middle lane and leaving Zhou’s Naga Siren and Faith’s Tidehunter alone in the top lane to push a tower of their own. But refusing to go down lightly, LightofHeaveN’s Enigma and Puppey’s Enchantress managed to take out Tidehunter and deny their own tower, stopping game-changing gold from lining the pockets of iG.

The second game was a match of big plays, but the most decisive play came 17 minutes into the game after Na’Vi’s felled their fifth tower and headed for the sixth in the bottom lane, their tower pushing strategy blossoming after a shaky start. iG attempted a retaliation, cloaking themselves with Smoke of Deceit and heading down the river to approach Na’Vi from behind. The attack seemed unstoppable on paper: Naga Siren’s initiated with Song of the Siren to stun the whole of Na’Vi, Dark Seer forced most of the team into one place with his Vacuum, and Naga followed up on the damage streak with a Mirror Image and a Rip Tide before Tidehunter unleashes his fatal Ravage and Puck and Lina set loose an Illusory Orb and a Light Strike Array.

But Na’vi’s comeback was swift and fatal. Enchantress stemmed the damage with Nature’s Attendants and attracted the focus of iG’s fury, while Juggernaut, who narrowly avoided the Vacuum, spun into the clustered armies with his Blade Fury. Rubick pushed himself out of the group with his Force Staff and left Lina floating in the air aimlessly with Telekinesis, before an incredible Spell Steal allowed Na’Vi to pick up Tidehunter’s Ravage, deployed against its owners after Enigma activated his Black King Bar and sucked the majority of iG into one place with a potent Black Hole.

Puck went down, Juggernaut finished off Dark Seer, Rubick blasted Naga Siren with a Fade Bolt to get the kill, Shadow Shaman cast Hex on Tidehunter before Enigma got the fourth kill, and Rubick activated a bottled Haste rune to chase a fleeing Lina and finish off the decimation of the entire team. Na’Vi immediately pushed up to iG’s bottom barracks as the crowd roared into a standing ovation, clinching both melee and ranged barracks with Shadow Shaman’s serpent ward ultimate, the same tactic which caused Na’Vi so many problems in the preceding game. Na’Vi lost Enchantress in the attack, but took down Tidehunter and Dark Seer a second time. It was the most impressive display of the tournament so far, and achieved without a Morphling in sight.

iG could never get back into the game, and after having their team wiped out completely a second time conceded defeat at 25 minutes. The team couldn’t revive their earlier form in the deciding match, either, losing control of the map and finding themselves outfarmed by Na’Vi after 20 minutes and being forced to push aggressively to stand any chance at winning the game. iG glimmered with occasional flashes of hope for the next 15 minutes, but eventually XBOCT’s Anti-Mage, the undisputed star of last year’s International, proved too potent and iG was forced to concede defeat and drop into the Losers’ Bracket ahead of Sunday’s finals.

Elsewhere, LGD managed to continue their unbroken streak even further with a convincing 2-0 defeat of Zenith across 80 minutes. LGD has won all 18 games since the start of the group stages and seem determined to make it to the final on day three: the only team now standing in their way are Na’Vi.