With a 3-1 match score, Natus Vincere managed to take down Cloud9 in the Grand Finals of the Dota 2 Champions League. With their victory, the Ukrainians have earned the grand prize of $62,000, and Cloud9 will go home with the second prize, $31,000.
The second season of Dota 2 Champions League has just concluded with Natus Vincere emerging victorious in the Grand Final against C9. With a score of 3-1, they are the new champions of D2CL, adding one more trophy to their impressive tournament record.
Despite their previous strong performances, C9 was unable to defeat Na'vi. The Ukrainians were able to deploy their strategies without much resistance, frequently earning a significant advantage even before the game started. This is quite surprising, considering the ingenious compositions against previous opponents like Team Empire. Nonetheless, C9's run in the tournament was solid, showing their limitless potential even against the strongest squads of the West.
Prize Distribution
1st - Natus Vincere : ~$62,000
2nd - Cloud9 : ~$31,000
3rd - Empire : ~$19,000
4th - Alliance : ~$12,500
Game One [Winner : Natus Vincere]
C9 opted for the notorious Io-Tiny combo, sending Doom against Dendi's Invoker and Queen of Pain against the Batrider. The first blood went to C9 with a quick assassination of XBOCT's Juggernaut. Using the Living Armor buff, C9 were able to dominate the early game, with Dendi being the only player on the Dire side that did not fall.
Despite various gank attempts, the first big teamfight took place 22 minutes into the game, with C9 spotting and chasing KuroKy deep inside the Dire jungle. Dendi managed to save Witch Doctor with a massive three-man Cyclone into Chaos Meteor combo, winning a 4-1 battle for the Ukrainians. C9 answered three minutes later with a well-coordinated gank near the river resulting in a 3-1 exchange.
The 28th minute proved to be the turning point for Natus Vincere. EternalEnvy and pieliedie attempted to take down XBOCT, but a well timed Omnislash ensured his survive. His team arrived just in time, catching C9 offguard for a 4-1 trade in their favor. A couple of minutes later, another miscalculated Relocate gank caused the death of both the Tiny and Io, while Aui was getting solo killed at the bottom lane. Na'Vi raided Roshan seconds later.
With Dendi in possession of the Aegis of the Immortal and C9 being behind both in terms of experience and gold, Na'Vi decided to enter the Radiant base. C9 used several spells to take down Dendi's Invoker, but to no avail. Coming back to life with his Aegis, Dendi used another massive Chaos Meteor to burn SingSing and EternalEnvy at the same time. bOne7's Queen of Pain went down as well, and EternalEnvy called the 'GG' fully aware that his team could no longer save their barracks or their base.
Game Two [Winner : Cloud9]
Na'Vi chose to execute an unusual mid dual-lane with Ancient Apparition and Morphling, to prevent the rotations of Cloud 9's supports. The presence of Visage and Drow Ranger in C9's line-up caused the quick demolishment of towers using Precision Aura and the Familiars.
The laning phase slightly favored the Ukrainians, with bOne7's Batrider dying twice against Invoker and Rubick. However, the heroes of Cloud9 truly shined with speedy farming that gave them experience and their core items. A bit after the first quarter of the game, the team decided to start pushing aggressively, destroying tower after tower to build a significant gold lead.
The first important victory for Cloud9 came during one of their pushes towards the mid tier-two tower. Na'Vi's ultimate combo did not go as planned, and both Puppey and Funn1k missed the important targets with their spells. The result was C9 winning a 4-0 fight, getting two more tier-two towers and Roshan. Two minutes later, the Dire attempted to reclaim their map control once again, but the clash ended 3-2 in favor of C9. However, SingSing did lose his Aegis to XBOCT's shotgun combo.
With a massive gold and experience advantage, Cloud9 moved to seal the deal by minute 31. bOne7's Batrider managed to isolate Dendi, forcing a low-impact Chaos Meteor before he went down. With Dendi out of the picture, C9 stormed inside Na'Vi's base to win yet another 4-0 teamfight. Puppey then forfeited the game.
Game Three [Winner : Natus Vincere]
C9 selected a strong teamfight oriented line-up with Centaur, Invoker and Alchemist as their core heroes. Na'Vi answered with a very aggressive early game composition, including the Treant Protector - Weaver combination. As expected of their heroes, the Dire had the early game advantage, with Living Armor enabling reckless dives and ganks.
The bottom trilane did not work out for C9, as XBOCT's Weaver managed to get enough farm and experience to have an impact later on. With Dendi completing a fast Blink Dagger and Funn1k's Nature's Prophet providing global gank assistance, the Ukrainians continued to find kills inside the Radiant jungle.
The first set of barracks went down 22 minutes into the game, with Na'Vi managing to kill two heroes and the top barracks losing only one hero in exchange. Nonetheless, the attempt against the middle barracks three minutes later did not go as well, with pieliedie immediately canceling Dendi's Flaming Lasso to help C9 win a 3-0 teamfight.
Not willing to risk and allow C9 to stage a comeback, the Dire entered the Roshan pit with 29 minutes on the clock. The Aegis went to XBOCT, and they all rushed mid to finish the job. This time, the coordination was there, and C9 could not defend. Four heroes went down for the international squad, and Na'Vi destroyed the middle barracks. As the tier-four towers were going down, EternalEnvy called the GG.
Game Four [Winner : Natus Vincere]
In an surprise move, Cloud9 selected Tinker for the support role, played by pieliedie. Na'Vi chose a familiar line-up with Storm Spirit, and things were already looking grim for C9 after the drafting phase. As Na'Vi blocked the Ancients and major jungle camps, C9 was forced to dual lane top with Puck and Tinker.
As expected, the laning phase went horribly wrong for C9. Dendi managed to get a very fast level 6 and Orchid Malevolence, snowballing out of control before C9 could react. His successful roaming was too much for EternalEnvy's gang, as Aui_2000 coud not help his teammates on his own. XBOCT even built a Mekansm on Spectre because he felt that he didn't even need carry items.
The series ended with a Rampage from Dendi by minute 22. With a score of 33-4, Cloud9 called 'GG" while spectators wondered 'What the hell were they thinking?'
