NaVi Dota 2 team

Actual performance statistics of teams is always necessary for fans of betting in the discipline Dota 2. Matches between certain teams are carried out very easily but sometimes they are principle. Knowing all the performance statistics, the possibility of the favorite team NaVi to succeed can be determined more precisely.

Main indicators of NaVi in the last matches:

The number of victories in the last 5 matches: 3 (60%).

NaVi played 19 matches over the last 3 months and won 10 matches - 53%.
Over the past year, NaVi played 63 matches and achieved victory in 33 matches - 53%.

The nearest game of NaVi is set at the championship Coming soon. The team Coming soon will be an opponent and the match will be hosted Coming soon.

The tournament PGL Wallachia Season 2 - Group Stage was a place for the last match of NaVi. At the above-mentioned event, NaVi played a match against the team Alliance, which was carried out on 08.10.2024.

The victory in the above-mentioned matchup was achieved by the esportsmen from NaVi with a result of 1:2.

Considering the statistics of victories in the last 5 matches - 3 victory(victories) (60%), we can say that NaVi are far from their maximal gaming shape.

The tag Natus Vincere has already become legendary for Dota 2 fans. None of the CIS teams has been able to repeat the achievement of the NaVi rosters – the three-time advancement to the main stage of The International. So even despite unsuccessful seasons and the unstoppable roster rotations, esports fans still love this team, root for it even in the case of failures and, obviously, spectacular victories.

Many people root for the veterans of the past rosters: Dendi, XBOCT, Puppey, KuroKy, Artstyle, and others, even if many of them do not play and do something else – train, cast, and so on. The history of NaVi in Dota 2 is full of various pages: the team had both ups and lows but one thing is clear – it is very interesting.

The legends

The organization NaVi was established on December 17, 2009 – it had only a Counter-Strike roster back then. The interesting fact is that the name of NaVi was taken from the movie Avatar and the decryption Natus Vincere appeared later but it suited perfectly – the other option can’t even be imagined now.

The first Dota roster (the first Dota) appeared in October 2010 and after a few replacements, it looked in the following way: Artstyle as a carry (those who have started watching Dota recently are probably surprised), Dendi – of course, on the favorite mid lane, XBOCT, Puppey, and LighTofHeaveN aka Lost. These five would become golden, each player would make his name and the organization famous at the first The International.

TI1 was the first big Dota 2 tournament. The teams did not stand out with synergy and had almost no experience in the discipline: all of them were playing the first Dota. Even two players (Puppey and Lost) had joined NaVi two months before the start of the tournament. But this does not make the achievement of «the golden five» smaller – everyone was in equal conditions and they managed to achieve the historic victory.

The International 2011

Natus Vincere faced no problems in the group, having defeated all opponents, and then crushed opponents in the playoffs, having lost only one map – in the final. The Chinese team EHOME with such players as QQQ and LanM on the roster was beaten in the final with a score of 3:1. Even this fact proves that conversations about the low level of the opponents have no sense. The future Dota 2 stars were playing in other teams too, including xiao8, Hao, KuroKy, Fear, and Universe.

The silver age

The victorious roster was not saved for the upcoming season: Artstyle left the team in October, causing a scandal: the organization was even boycotting due to he had refused to give the percent of the prize money from TI to NaVi. Smile arrived instead of him and Puppey became the captain of the team – he determined its play for an upcoming couple of years. Many fans now think that Puppey had to be left on the roster at all costs.

But we are far from this point: the season started with the victory at the large tournament ESWC 2011. Then, the victories included the first The Defense, two Starseries, and a couple of less important tournaments. Despite NaVi was the leading team in CIS and Europe, they were not the favorites before TI2. Chinese teams were going to Seattle in that status – it was considered that they would leave no chances to representatives of other regions.

By that moment, NaVi’s play had not been perfect: less than a month before the start of TI2, the team had failed in the second season of The Defense and placed only 7th-8th. At TI, it faced serious problems in the group and made it to the upper bracket of the playoffs, making a lot of effort – it turned 2-6 into 8-6 by maps, using their morale and having focused in the last moment.

The path in the playoffs appeared to be very difficult too: NaVi defeated three Chinese teams on their way to the finals, all of them were over with a score of 2-1. They were DK, Invictus Gaming, and LGD – all of them were very serious opponents and considered to be the favorites, the last ones even advanced to the match with a score of 18-0 by maps. The Ukrainian team had to face Invictus Gaming in the grand final again – unfortunately, the result was opposite this time.

Of course, losing in the final is always disappointing, and placing second at TI after you were the winner at the past tournament is even more disappointing. But considering the fact that very few people had believed that NaVi would place one of the higher positions, this result was really impressive. They managed to fight with the reigning Chinese teams equally – and even more, they defeated all of them, however, IG had to be beaten twice to earn the championship title.

The team only secured its status after TI 2 – it has already become legendary. At that time, there were no roster changes until the beginning of the upcoming season. NaVI achieved a series of victories at large tournaments without Chinese teams in the first half of the season: ESWC, Starseries, and others. However, the team did not feel the full satisfaction from its play, due to which the roster was changed in the middle of the season: Smile and Lost were replaced by Funnik and KuroKy in February.

Despite many people thought that roster changes would provide some benefit and Smile and Lost were not as good as they had been before. However, the new roster was not able to find its play in the upcoming couple of months – there were no results, so fans started worrying. Everything changed near June: the team achieved victory at three tournaments in a row, having defeated the mighty LGD in the final of the first one, Alienware Cup 2013. As a result, NaVi was going to TI3 as one of the favorites, albeit not the main one.

This status was confirmed in the group, having placed first, and everything was as usual in the playoffs – the team played two typical and very close series with victories 2-1. They managed to pass Orange Esports and TongFu this way, NaVi used the combination of Chen plus Pudge and made the legendary hooks under the fountain, which turned the situation in favor of the Ukrainian team.

NaVi lost to Alliance in the winner’s final, so they had to beat Orange one more time – the most famous TI grand final happened after that. If you have not seen it – you must do it. Unfortunately, NaVi was second once again. This silver medal was way more painful than the first one because the victory was so close. However, the result was positive and it seems that the new victories at TI will definitely come back soon.

The fall

The roster remained the same for the new season. The team started winning tournaments and collected a bunch of cups by the middle of spring. The results became worse after that but very few people were confused: it was considered that the team was at TI4 in their thoughts and was preparing for it. Other tournaments were not that interesting for such a titled roster.

Fans expected the highest achievements from the team: after the first two places in a row, it was time to return the championship title. But the game went wrong: NaVi finished the group stage (and there was only one group at that tournament, so all 16 teams played against each other once) with the map difference 8-7. They made it to the lower bracket of the playoffs and lost to Cloud9, after which they were eliminated from the tournament, having held the 7th-8th place.

This was a cold shower both for the organization and fans. Such an early elimination was something unimaginable after three years in finals. It appeared that there had been an  in-team misunderstanding in the team before the tournament. As a result, Puppey and KuroKy left the team and created Team Secret. The choice of the management was approved by the majority of fans: if there had been no chance to reconcile the five, so they had to save, at least, the main assets of the team – Dendy and XBOCT.

Very few people could imagine that this reshuffle became the end of the golden era of NaVi. Changes had to happen, the weak result at TI4 confirmed their necessity but it seemed that the team would come back to the elite division soon. Vanskor and Fng, who took the captain slot, were the new players first. Both managed to prove themselves in other CIS rosters and were considered to be the rising stars.

But the turmoil began in the team: there were no results, so the replacements of players became regular. Fng left first – «the veterans» had not recognized him, so he spent a bit more than two months in the roster. Then, Goblak and DKPhobos joined and left NaVi quickly, the results did not appear after all. The roster was formed only by April: the unchanged Dendy and XBOCT remained in it, there was Funnik too, during this chaotic season, he had time to go inactive and return. One more spot was taken by the young player Sonneiko who proved himself nicely in Power Rangers, and the legend of the club, Artstyle became a captain. The scandalous departure was forgotten.

Due to the season being unsuccessful for NaVi, the team did not receive an invitation to TI and it was difficult to think about passing the qualifiers, considering the state, in which the team was previously. Changes for the better were noticed under the leadership of Artstyle and they managed to win the qualifiers. Fans were cautiously optimistic: at the June tournament DreamLeague Season 3, the team advanced to the final, however, it lost to Virtus.pro there.

This time, NaVi was not considered to be among contenders for the title but there was a little hope: three legendary players, the winners of the first TI were still on the roster. Unfortunately, the tournament destroyed all illusions: the performance at TI4, which had been considered to be failed before this, was a dream, compared to what the team showed at TI5. Natus Vincere held the last place in the group with a map difference of 3-11 and lost the first playoff match. The last place – that’s how the point in the history of that roster was made.

Searches

Artstyle was benched right after the tournament, PSM became a captain but lasted not long at all. The results were horrible, so it was announced in October that «the new era» was coming and the roster was fully disbanded. As a result, «The new era» became an object for jokes, which is not forgotten now: the totally new roster included the old players – Dendi and Sonneiko, there was also Funnik but on a temporary basis. Then, Artstyle returned to NaVi again, the last two spots were taken by Ditya Ra and Ax.Mo.

The situation became funny due to bad marketing but there were even more serious problems. The invited players did not look like the best ones in CIS, even not talking about the world arena. NaVi was slowly going in the shadows. Results were respectful, and reshuffles continued – General arrived. The team started playing better with him: they managed to perform successfully at a couple of big tournaments. Of course, the success was not like before but compared to the nightmare of autumn 2015 or the beginning of 2016, their play became way better.

They even won another Starladder tournament, which was hosted in two weeks before TI6 – Secret was defeated in the final and it provided fans with hope in the perspectives of the team at the main tournament of the year. The team showed not the worst performance in the group – compared to what had happened a year before. The team finished with a map score of 6-8  and went to the lower bracket where they lost the first match. Unfortunately, despite it looking well, the result was similar to the one at TI5.

This did not satisfy both fans, the organization, and the players, so searches for the best teammates for Dendi continued. Only he and General remained from the past roster and it was joined by Pajkatt, rmN, and Biver. These changes were met without any particular enthusiasm – the players of not the highest level joined the team again. Suggestions that the organization did not want to invest in the Dota 2 roster seriously to fully compete with top teams started sounding among fans.

There were no results: NaVi was not invited to big tournaments and they were not able to make it to them through the qualifiers. Only in June 2017, they managed to participate in the first big tournament in the season – Epicenter. The result was the last place. And the season was coming to its end and they were not able to get to TI directly. The team reached its new lowest point this time: it did not qualify for TI7 and even failed to proceed to the playoffs of the qualification.

The roster was changed once again after such a catastrophe: only two players, all the same Dendi and General stayed on it. Reshuffles continued, players came and left – there was only Crystallize who joined for long among all of those who appeared then. Sonneiko returned to the team and it even showed modest success with him – at least, it started passing qualifiers and fighting for good places at large tournaments and GeneRal became known as «Vitya-Machina».

Sonneiko argued with teammates and left at the beginning of the upcoming season. The team was disassembled before the TI8 qualifiers: it would have passed it in its best shape in that season but it was not able to proceed to the close qualification in the state, which was in summer – NaVi has not fallen that low.

In the shadows

It became the last straw, which overfilled the management’s patience: searches for the best teammates for Dendi were over – the decision was made to say farewell to the legend. Only Crystallize remained from the previous roster and Sonneiko returned one more time. The team was completed with Magical, Blizzy, and Chuvash. This time, the season was spent almost without replacements: Zayac came instead of Chuvash in April. The organization was rebuilt finally: Virtus.pro was ruling in CIS and NaVi was pretending to become the second in the region – there was no sign of talking about the world leadership.

Many fans stayed loyal to the favorite tag but, after all, it can be said that the team learned how to live in the shadows, compared to the previous years. They were unable to have big achievements and if there had been roster changes before, everything was clear at that moment: the team was playing as it could and there was no need in touching it because everything could return to losses in open qualifiers.

They failed to qualify for TI9 directly but the qualification was passed this time. The group was nervous, only one map separated them from not reaching the playoffs but things went way better in the playoffs and they managed to achieve a confident 3-0 victory over WInstrike in the final. NaVi became the second CIS team at TI9. No one expected big results from them and fans were pretty optimistic – after the previous years, the fact of coming to TI could be considered as a success.

The team performed on its level: they were fighting in the group and finished with a map score of 7-9. They lacked only one victory to proceed to the upper bracket of the playoffs but they lost to Mineski in the first round of the lower bracket. Despite low expectations, one more elimination in the first playoff round was painful.

The captain, Sonneiko who made a mistake in the decisive moment, was accused. He and Blizzy were replaced with illias and Pasha. The organization especially counted on the last one and his experience of victories with Virtus.pro. Everything continued like before: not too bad but not too good. Zayac stood out in the roster – Virtus.pro was interested in the player, after which he left with a scandal. Due to the mistake in the contract, he just left without any compensation for the organization.

Results became even worse after that, a few replacements happened, and then the decision to disband the roster was made. The full stack FlyToMoon was signed on a trial period instead of it: its players include the good old GeneRal, Iceberg, RodjER, and ALWAYSWANNAFLY who have already become the veterans, and also V-Tune. At first glance, the roster does not stand out but who knows  – it might prove it well.

NaVi has been in Dota 2 for many years, the scene can’t be imagined without this tag. Players join and leave and the team remains and fans remain with it – but it is not worth to disappoint them too frequently. The organization has passed a long and difficult path, reached the heights, and fallen to the very lows – it is time for it to start winning again!