Virtus.Pro vs Natus Vincere – MegaFon Winter Clash Dota 2

MegaFon Winter Clash will have some of the best teams in the world. They will be competing for a prize pool of $ 300 thousand.

With such money on the line, both of these veteran teams will be looking to get the win. So let’s analyze who would win? The highly decorated team of Virtus.Pro or Natus Vincere who have shown signs of resurgence.

Virtus.Pro

Virtus.Pro is one of the oldest teams that are currently active.  The four players of the lineup started playing together in early August 2016, except for Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosyan who joined in February this year after the departure of Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk, who finally left for Natus Vincere.

One of the keys of Virtus Pro is that it combines young stars with legends of Dota 2. On the one hand, we have Arsenij “ArsZeeqq” Usov as coach. He is a Russian national who has coached teams like Effect and Team Empire. ArsZeeqq has been part of Virtus.Pro for two months since Artstyle left the team in September. The lineup also has Alexei ” Solo ” Berenzin as captain and support player of the team, famous in the community for starring in the so-called “322” and having gone through a large number of professional teams. He is one of the most experienced players in the current competitive circuit of Dota 2. He has almost won everything except for The International.

Solo has two very young and explosive players in the core positions, Roman ” RAMZES666 ” Kushnarev of 19 years as a carry and Vladimir ” No[o]ne ” Minenko of 20 years as mid laner. To this combination are added two more calm and cooler players, ” 9pasha ” of 26 years as offlaner and Vladimir ” RodjER ” Nikogosyan of 24 years as support.

Playing style

One of the strengths of Virtus Pro is fast and aggressive team play. We are used to their colorful wombo combos. Virtus.Pro’s statistics are vertigo. In the last eight months, they have played over 100 games as a team in the competitions and have around 70% win-rate. On the Radiant side, they have gotten the most wins with around 70.31%-win rate.

In the last 6 months, they have played with over 90 different heroes, which shows that they are a team with a wide range of possibilities, especially because there are some heroes that three of their players are capable of carrying. And although the goal for the new meta will surely change, Virtus.Pro will surely be sticking to their signature heroes which includes:

• Sand King
• Disruptor
• Death Prophet
• Gyrocopter
• Bane
• Beastmaster

The heroes that are most often played by Virtus Pro are precisely those who are most often banned against this team. While Razor, Lycan, Night Stalker, Io or Naga Siren are the most banned heroes of the team, they are the heroes whom the Russian team prefers not to play against, due to factors such as the pressure exerted on the lanes.

Virtus Pro has participated in four of the eight editions to date of The International. In The International 5, the team got a 5th-6th place with Illidan, God, DkPhobos, Lil, and Fng. And last year, practically with the same roster that they got another 5th-6th place, which seems a quite decent position for the Russian organization.

Although this year many see Virtus Pro as winners of The International since they finished 1st in the DPC, however, they couldn’t change their fate and finished at 5th-6th at TI8. They were beaten by Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket.

After The International, the team seems to have found its way. Virtus.Pro was the winners of the Qualifiers of CIS. Shortly after the event, the team won the Maincast Autumn Brawl. Then in one of the prestigious events of the year, ESL One Hamburg 2018, the team finished at 3rd spot getting beaten by the eventual winner of the competition, Team Secret. However, the Virtus.Pro side performed where it mattered and won the Kuala Lumpur Major by getting their redemption against Secret in the grand finals. Now the team has also secured qualification for the Chongqing Major. Therefore, it looks like Natus Vincere will have a mountain to climb against the veteran of Russian Dota.

Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere is one of the oldest organizations in the eSports industry. The Ukrainian franchise has been associated with Dota 2 even since the first TI took place back in 2011. They made some of the most impressive performances, winning TI1 and reaching the final of the final two. However, since then the team has declined. These days, they are not even considered a Tier 2 team. Natus Vincere has made multiple changes to the roster owing to the terrible results. However, one of the biggest roster change of the team was Dendi.

All eyes are on the replacement of “Dendi”. His name is Idan “Magical” Vardanian and he is only 19 years old. The most relevant thing that he has done in the competitive scene of Dota 2 has been playing for Effect, but without getting to participate in big tournaments. Let’s see how will Na’vi do with him in charge of the mid lane.

Although Natus Vincere did not get the spot for the Major, we saw the team in the DreamLeague Minor where they made an impressive run in the competition but eventually, the team was beaten 3-2 by Tigers in the grand final of the competition.  This is the best result of the team since their victory in the Adrenaline Cyber League back in 2017. They beat VP in that competition, but looking at the VP side today it doesn’t look like that Na’Vi will accomplish this feat in the upcoming match.

Final Verdict

Virtus.Pro 2 – 0 Natus Vincere

Odds on bookmakers

Bookmakers	Virtus.Pro Odds		Natus Vincere Odds
	European	American	European	American
EGB.com	1.14	-714	4.00	+300.00
Betway	1.15	-666	4.75	+375.00
Loot.bet	1.12	-833	5.60	+460.00
GG.bet	1.15	-666	5.38	+438.00
Bet365	1.12	-833	5.50	+450.00