Team Liquid end the party early for Navi | The Manila Major | Dota 2

Team liquid eliminates Navi, ending their run in the Manila Major. Obviously coming into the game everyone predicted this would be an easy match for Liquid and it certainly was. Navi end up claiming a top 8 finish and Liquid advance to face Team Fnatic.

Game 1 of the Manila Major match between Team Liquid and Navi was pretty one sided, as Liquid understanding Navi’s early game aggression pick static heroes like Dragon Knight and Lone Druid. There was some early game aggression though, like Artstyle getting the first blood and also picking off Fata a couple of times, but Liquid always got the trade off which was free farm of Lone Druid. Matumbaman was hardly disturbed in the laning phase and he was topping the net worth chart throughout the game. That level of unchecked farm proved too much for Navi to handle as they slowly lost control of the game, and liquid successfully managed to take the game slow and make it a farm fest. Navi’s Artstlye farmed up pretty well on his enchantress, but that was the only upside for Navi. And even though there was a miscommunicated fight in the midlane for Liquid where kuro swapped Matumbaman into the fight just as his aeges expired leading to a catastrophic fight for them, it dint really lead up to any follow up objective. And Liquid ending the game soon after that.

Game 2 was no different . This time Navi drafted to their strength. Sonneiko was on his Bounty Hunter, Ditya Ra was on his Lycan, Dendi Qop, General Nature’s Prophet. Overall a comfort draft for Navi. Even liquid pretty much got their draft Fata on the Death Prophet, Matumbaman on Sven, Jerax on his iconic Tusk and also Kuroky on his greedy jungling Beastmaster. The early game went really well for Sonneiko and co, as they got some good early kills, but Navi again leaving Sven unchecked. Mind control got so much out of his lane. He was left 1 v 1 against Ditya Ra’s Lycan which Timbersaw just dominates. And the trade off was just not there as the duo of Artstlye and General failed to significantly apply pressure to Sven. Sure they were getting track kills but the networth of Sven and Timbersaw was scaling better, and Navi’s line up had to snowball with the gold advantage from track kills, but a really fat Sven was just too much for them to handle and once again Navi losing the game by committing the same mistake.

Altough Navi’s Manila Major run ends, there are a lot of positives to take from this tournament. Like Sonneiko and Artstyle’s support duo working out so well for Navi. And General also making big plays  happen, and overall a good performance for Navi and the only teams to take away a series from them were OG and Liquid, 2 of the top 3 teams (according to the panel) in the tournament, So Navi should be really happy about it. Almost all the experts and also most of the viewers predicted Navi to end in the bottom 3, but against all odds, they made it this far in the tournament. And this is a step in the right direction for them to steadily make their come back into the pro scene. Still a long way to go, and it is important that Navi see that they made some mistakes and also make sure that they rectify them. Nonetheless it is really good to see Navi back in big tournaments, and hopefully it won’t be long before they start winning some. 

That was our take on the Team Liquid vs Navi series in the Manila Major. Drop us a comment down below if you have enjoyed reading. To read more on Dota 2, click here.