The Retry have defeated Natus Vincere in the Dota 2 Star Championship grand final and will walk away with a $10,000 cash prize.
In the first game, Na`Vi quickly scored first blood with Dendi landing a short hook onto Crystal Maiden. The slight advantage on middle ground was evened out by the Russians' bottom lane who took out Light of Heaven two times. Pgg as Enigma on top meanwhile had to fight Na`Vi's hard carry XBOCT who controlled Nerubian Weaver.
Putting himself in the limelight throughout the game was TR's semi carry Bl00dAngel, who fired numerous clutch-arrows towards the Dire and followed them up aggressively. A 7:4 turned into a 15:6 after 25 minutes, with Na`Vi not seeing much from the game since the first ten passed. Thereafter the Ukrainians only managed to win one fight, following a great initiation by AA on Tidehunter, who interrupted PGG's blackhole to turn around the battle. TR were then to regroup themselves and claimed Roshan's Aegis, before sealing off the game, killing Nerubian Weaver two times after immediate buyback, thus leaving the Dire's base without sufficient forces for a successful defense.
Going into the second game Na`Vi decided to first-pick Anti-Mage, who they were previously up against in the first encounter. The Ukrainians worked out a lead of 3:1 with bottom lane going exceptionally well, where a Crystal Maiden, Venomancer and AM did not let Broodmother into the game. The gold advantage expanded for Na`Vi going from 7:5 to 11:8 by the 20-minute-mark, plus killing the opponent's courier. The Retry were unable to comeback from a non-spectacular game with Anti-Mage evolving to the hero to eventually make the difference. Surrender came after 38 minutes with the score being 18:8.
The game to decide the series then started out interestingly, seeing the lesser conventional Zeus and Lightning Revenant getting picked up by TR. Together with a Tidehunter and Prophet, that added a global component to their lineup, the Russians had a surprisingly easy time setting up kills through ganks. Even more disturbing for Na`Vi was, that the solo Drow Ranger by XBOCT evolved to the major victim, dying repeatedly without sufficient protection.
The Russians worked out a 9:3 lead with the Prophet's treants putting huge pressure on towers. Moving up towards the Dire's base TR had a tougher time continuing where they started, as Puppey on Venomancer did his best to protect the defense-line with plague wards.
Given the constantly growing strength of Razor and Na`Vi being too unprotected for the casual nukes of Zeus, Tidehunter and above named, the chances of a comeback shrank consistently. After claiming Roshan, TR eventually felt safe enough to deal the finishing blow and did so, claiming the first Dota 2 Star Championship title and $10,000 prize money over Na`Vi who walk away with $5,000. The third place decider was won by Moscow5 who faced and beat Mousesports.
Dota 2 Star Championship standings:
1st place -
The Retry 10,000 $2nd place -
Natus Vincere 5,000 $3rd place -
Moscow5 3,500 $ 4th place -
MouseSports 1,500 $ Finalizing comments from TR's Artur "Goblin" Kostenko
