The Fall of an Empire

Dota2 has been on of the most competitive e-Sport that has been introduced till date.It was one of the first e-sport that had the biggest prize pool ever for a single tournament.A huge amount of 1.6 million$ to be given among the 16 teams invited in a span of 5 days.It just set gamers on fire.After hearing about such a tournament almost everybody was jaw dropped.The word about the tournament and a whopping million dollar started to gain attention of every Dota2 player across the world.So everyone who either played in pubs for fun or for some other cause and were invited to TI now had a cause to play for freaking 1 million$.

Basically at the time of TI 1 16 teams were invited and about half of them were from Asian continent.Specifically speaking the Chinese were the most favoured nation when it came to Dota2 and assumptions in the Dota2 community were that E-Home would win the title solely without any competition and it was all going smooth for E-Home even they would have predicted their victory and being nominated as the first ever winner of The International.

The tournament started and the “game was on”.E-Home kept on crushing their enemy one by one and making it to the upper brackets but unfortunately losing to Scythe gaming which shredded their dream a bit for a while and now they were in the lower brackets.What could have been their direct entry to the finals turns out they have to plays some more matches.So starting their way in the lower bracket they still crushed their opponents and made it to the final.What everybody predicted was about to come true and even E-home were quite confident about themselves.

But after the final match,it was another team that won the tournament.A team that no one predicted would win the TI had actually done it,they won the TI beating the favourites of the tournament E-Home by 3–1.No one noticed but this team came through the tournament undefeated and the insane game plays by “Dendi” and “Light of Heaven” actually help them win the TI.Na’Vi did it and they became the first team to win the TI.It was all just a beginning,the road to glory was further more,they continued winning tournaments after tournaments.

Then next year valve announced TI 2 with same whopping amount of 1.6 million$.Again this time Na’Vi kept on crushing their opponents and reached the finals but this time it was not Na’Vi to lift the Aegis of Immortality again and lost it to Invictus Gaming a Chinese team that like Na’Vi in TI 1 surprised everyone by winning the tournament but it was still a decent place to obtain in a tournament full of competition.

Valve announced TI 3 in 2013 with a prize pool of 2.8 million $ and this time Na’Vi wouldn’t like to repeat any previous mistake that they did commit in the last TI.Tournament started well and reaching the end all the Chinese teams were eliminated and it was a newly formed Swedish team Alliance and Na’Vi that were in the finals.So the finals started and at one point they were 2–2 and with Dendi dominating with TA seemed like Na’Vi is going to be the first team to lift the Aegis for 2 time but unfortunately Alliance outplayed them and Na’Vi lost once again in the Grand finals of the TI.

Following the TI 3 where NA’Vi was runner up,the downfall of NA’Vi had just begun,following year Na’Vi won some other tournaments but following the next TI they barely made it to top 8 in TI 4 and then in top 16 in TI 5 and TI 6.

Na’Vi is having such a rough phase now that they failed to qualify for TI 7 and it would be the first time in the history of Dota2 that “Na’Vi Dendi” would not be participating in the TI.So what went wrong with Na’Vi and why did they started to fall after what they accomplished in the field of Dota2. Actually there is not one single reason for failure of Na’Vi but many.Some of them could be-:

• Na’Vi’s Game play-: Well when Na’vi won the TI 1 in 2011,Dota2 was more of a strategic and safe play game.Players used to make sure that if they are going to initiate then they better be prepared for it,so there would be no unnecessary fights and clash concerning the game and players could farm free or roam on their side of jungle more often but with more popularity of dota2 and introduction of new and aggressive players the game play changed,now every team wanted to outplay their opponents by ganking frequently and farming fast and then utilising time zones in games and creating space for cores.So Na’Vi couldn’t move to the new concept and they fell victim to the changed strategy of opponents and with introduction of more young and new players it just became more difficult for Na’Vi to cope up.
• Stable Captain-:After the departure of TI winning captain ArtStyle,Na’Vi chose Puppey as their new Captain and he lead them to the grand finals of the following TI 2 and 3 but after Puppey part his ways from Na’Vi,they were left without captain but this time ArtStyle joined back with the changed roster and now it was not the old Na’Vi that played back in TI 1 so he has to face difficulties with the changing meta and level of competition.Na’Vi did bad in the TI and hence were in last position.
• Holding Dendi-:Na’Vi had been in pro scene since 2010 and after the TI 1 one thing that stays common for Na’Vi is their poster boy Danil “Dendi” Ishutin,who has been with Na’Vi since their early days maybe it’s time for Na’Vi to change their position 2 and release Dendi and try to form a different team with a totally changed roster. Dendi might not be a problem but still he has been there for so long that every new player has to adjust his game play according to Dendi’s game play which might over shadow the play style of new players.
• Team Selection-: Na’Vi members include player from CIS region only maybe that is one of the problem.When you are competing in a world class event than you need to have finest of all but Na’Vi only selects players from a specific region that might be one of the problems with Na’Vi.You want to do better than you got to increase your area of selection because with growing influence of dota2 US and SEA players are rising more.

Now as the time passes maybe Na’Vi may have difficult times in recovering their old glory days but nothing is impossible in world of Dota2. Factors such as strategy,drafts,execution and a good team will surely help you win the match but at the end of the day,it’s the bonding between the teammates that is the important factor

Hope one day Na’Vi will rises up again as they were in their glory days.

The best game play of all time is also shown by Na’Vi,when they shredded the “Patience of zhou” when playing against Invictus Gaming.

Once a Na’Vi fanboy,always a Na’Vi fanboy.

Another sad Na’Vi fanboy.