Natus Vincere: voted into EPICENTER, fans to blame

Last year Natus Vincere was invited to The International 2016. Does anyone remember how that turned out? I recall a dead last finish, just like TI5. This organization has been around Dota 2 for a long time, and accumulated many fans throughout their tenure. However, at the moment Na’Vi looks terribly weak. Nonetheless, NV was voted into EPICENTER 2017.

I’m not sure what the Dota 2 community was up to. Did they know that Na’Vi would go 0-8? I think the result was foreseeable. I was more surprised by Clutch Gamers doing the same.

Voted into EPICENTER, Na’Vi’s disappearing act

NV went (0-4, four sweeps) at EPICENTER. Every Group A team was formidable. None of these teams are pushovers: OG, Team Liquid, Team Secret, and LFY. OG arrived to China out of form and still made easy work of NV. An in-form LFY squad went undefeated, leaving NV with zero outs. No one saw their group stage run coming.

NV’s silver lining for the EPICENTER failure lies in the fact that they tied Clutch Gamers. CG beat Faceless twice and created a hype train. Earning 1% of a $500,000 prize pool is heartbreaking. That is not what players show up for. It’s deserved given they didn’t play their way into the tournament. This is certainly one of those “ball don’t lie” kind of situations. Fans called upon NV, but the players weren’t ready.

EPICENTER was a mini TI in many ways. Most of the teams will be at TI7. Clutch Gamers didn’t make it. TL, EG, LFY, Secret, iG, VP, and OG are locked in. It’s been a few years since NV could keep up with these teams. I have a message for the NV fans. Don’t make that mistake again. Your team isn’t ready. You’re responsible for embarrassing them. 0-8 was avoidable.

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