Na'Vi not sweating "small mistakes" against Spacestation, ready for round 2

^{Banner image: Ubisoft/Kirill B.}

Natus Vincere’s opening bout with Spacestation Gaming was far better for the European side than the final score suggested. 

“We played well”, Jack “Doki” Robertson said in a Ubisoft-organized press conference of the loss. A glance at the statistics from the match proves his point: the game was closer than the scoreline suggests.

Na’Vi lost 7-4, but the three-round gap between them and Spacestation was covered by three separate 1vX clutches. Nathanial “Rampy” Duvall, Dylan Bosco, and Javier “ThinkingNade” Escamilla each clutched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Spacestation is one of the best teams in the tournament, sure, but notching three 1vXs isn’t a consistent way to win. 

Doki elaborated on the match, saying that Na’Vi felt good in their macro approach to the match, but a few key “micro” mistakes doomed them. Ultimately, the Na’vi roster is still confident in their approach, even though on the surface it didn’t look like a good first outing. 

Doki himself had an excellent first game of the Mexico Major. He went 3-0 on his entry plays against the juggernaut North American side, and scored an impressive 82 percent KOST. They held Spacestation’s new star Matthew “Hotancold” Stevens to pedestrian stats by his standards, and nearly eked out a victory. 

“We value consistency,” said Rickard “Secretly” Olofsson, the veteran of the roster. This Na'Vi team is relatively young, and has several players that have never played at a LAN of this caliber before. Some first-game jitters are to be expected. If those can get ironed out, Na’Vi’s opening loss may be seen as an aberration after the tournament has ended.

Na’Vi is still “super confident” they can beat Spacestation in future games, according to Doki. Na’Vi’s truncated group means that in order to move on, they’re going to have to iron out those small mistakes and take maps. Knights, the consensus low man on the totem pole in Group B, were unable to make the tournament due to Australian COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Due to Knights not being able to attend, only one team will be eliminated from Group B, so all Na'Vi has to do to make the playoff stage is to not come last. Unfortunately, that means every game from here on out is going to be a must-win game or near it. Group B consists of Spacestation, FURIA, and Na’Vi, and one of these strong teams is going to go home.