I don’t talk about Dota 2 much on this blog besides the occasional mention about me playing it. But after last week’s sad news, I wanted to dedicate a post to my favorite team. Na’Vi (or Natus Vincere) was the team that got me interested in the competitive side of Dota 2.
When I first started watching tournaments (during The International 2), I had no idea who to root for. I didn’t know the players, the teams, or even the game very well. But there was one team which always got tons of hype whenever they played – the winners of the very first International who were back to defend their title against the Chinese overlords. The charismatic team of Puppey, Dendi, XBOCT, ARS-ART and LighTofHeaveN earned my support during the tournament. I mean who wouldn’t root for the Pudge pickers in the biggest tournament of the year?
After TI2, I continued watching professional Dota 2, learning more about the game, the teams and players in the process. When I could appreciate how good these teams were compared to the players in random pubs I played in, I was hooked.
I watched almost every Na’Vi game that came on. I watched the team succeed and struggle as they slowly dwindled in status from the team to beat to the team everyone beat. I still rooted for them at TI5, unfortunately they were knocked out early despite their impressive performance during the qualifiers. And seeing how they didn’t qualify for the Frankfurt Major, it came as no surprise when they were released from their roster.
Hopefully from this departure we’ll see some great new teams formed. There are even rumors about some of the Na’Vi members staying on despite the release. Thanks for all the memories – especially dumpstering E.G. during the WePlay show matches, introducing Admiral Bulldog to the scene, and the TI3 finals. Until next time, I’ll still be rocking my Na’Vi hoodie with pride while I hop on the (monkey) Business bandwagon. Moonmeander and 8 0 0 0 M A T C H M A K I N G P O I N T S HYPE!