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Natus Vincere surprised many of their critics with how well the Dota 2 team performed towards the end of last season, and with the addition of Pavel “9pasha” Khvastunov, the team won WePlay! Reshuffle Madness in just two series.
Na’Vi were one of two teams to receive direct invites to the tournament’s playoffs based on last season’s results, with the other being J Storm, meaning they were essentially slotted to play against the best teams from the qualifiers.
The players matched up against the brand new HellRaisers roster in the semifinals and utterly dominated the team that looked strong throughout the event. It didn’t seem as though Na’Vi struggled at all in this series, sweeping their opponents in a quick 2-0 win.
J Storm were upset by Positive Guys, which is likely one of the reasons the team pulled the trigger on another player move right after the event ended. PG, a team with top level players like Igor “iLTW” Filatov and Alexander “Immersion” Hmelevskoy on the roster, pushed Na’Vi to the brink.
The grand finals were much tougher on the seemingly superior CIS squad, going the full five games as PG traded blows at a relatively even level, which resulted in the underdogs going up a game early. Na’Vi ended up pulling out the win in game five, finishing the team’s first official event with a win.
The win happened while the organization is also fielding its old championship roster from The International 2011 for Midas Mode 2.0, making this an overall solid weekend for one of the most beloved Dota 2 teams.
With the opening qualifiers for the Dota Pro Circuit starting on Oct. 5, this roster will likely be one of the favorites to come out of the CIS region to compete.
