On their Day 4 Group Stage matchup, Na’Vi and Vici Gaming faced off with an upper bracket spot on the line.
Na’Vi started out strong in the first game with early kills but Vici Gaming easily bounced back with kills of their own.
Na’Vi got a great kill off Vici Gaming’s mid-player Zeng “Ori“ Jiaoyang’s Storm Spirit, who played a little too greedy and decided to stick around to farm jungle creeps after losing most of his health.
Both teams played aggressively, with each team taking out their opponent’s cores in back and forth skirmishes. But after a disastrous team fight where Na’Vi went in without ultimates ready on Evgeniy “Blizzy” Ree’s Bat Rider, Vici Gaming managed to take four kills to start building on their experience and gold lead.
With Na’vi’s penchant for team fights still strong despite taking loses, Vici Gaming was more than willing to adapt and play the same game with their lineup.
Unfortunately for Na’Vi, Vici managed to outfight them each time and game one ended after 38 minutes.
Vici Gaming started the second game strong, taking 10 early kills and 8,000 gold ahead of the 15-minute mark. The CIS squad wasn’t one to give up though, as Na’Vi fought back to get three kills off Vici Gaming in a clean team fight.
That wasn’t enough though, as Vici Gaming continued to build their lead, while Na’Vi resorted to pick offs and avoiding the bigger team fights. With Vici Gaming forcing their hand, Na’Vi’s Vladislav “Crystallize” Krystanek Morphling made a big play to avoid getting hit by the Outworld Devourer’s Sanity Eclipse ultimate.
But the game was mostly over by then and Na’Vi called it after 36 minutes.
Vici Gaming have secured their Upper Bracket spot, with one series left to play against Group B leader OG. Na’Vi will have to wait and see how the other teams perform to know where they stand on the last day of the Group Stage.
Be sure to check out our coverage of The International 2019 Group Stage for more TI9 action.
