pride

The Internation 5 – Part IX – Natus Vincere (Na’Vi)

Posted on by cloudvstheworld

Na’Vi have had a roller coaster of a year. Once the poster team of Dota 2, they have struggled in the last year and a half to find a consistent form. While still world class, they aren’t the powerhouse of a team that they used to be, having chewed up and spit out 2 captains (fng and Goblak) killing a star support player (Vanskor is employed with Na’Vi but is suffering from some lingering health problems) over the course of 12 months, the departure of Puppey and Kuroky really doesn’t seem like much compared to the tumultuous year they have had.

It is now the 2nd day of TI5 and Na’Vi have not had the best run of it. Looking strong in their opening game against Cloud9, they drew the two game series as the underdogs. Then MVP.Hot6, a team who rarely plays outside of Asia, drew with Na’Vi again to give them a respectable 2-2 record. Unfortunately the games that took place today were less successful. They had one series against Team Secret which no one expected them to win, and then another against Complexity, losing both of those games as well. Complexity, who I previously said had little to no chance of doing well in TI5, are playing out of their god-damned minds. Beating Na’Vi caused an upset, but drawing with Invictus Gaming and whitewashing MVP.Phoenix, who really aren’t playing their best Dota, have caused them to be 3rd in their group! The resurgence of EG last year was seen by many as a flash in the pan, giving America one good squad. Now, with Complexity’s showing, America have 2.

But we’re not here to talk about Complexity, except to apologise and say I wish them the best of luck, and actually increase them to 7th/8th place. They’re not flawless, but they are playing with their heads and, in such a high-pressure environment, that might be enough for them. Na’Vi, I think, have been really lacking in the drafting area.

Artstyle, their captain, has made some risky decisions but his team have really played well with them. I think his style suits Na’Vi greatly and, besides their first game against Complexity today his drafts have been okay. The game in question featuring a very poor draft, in my opinion, opening with a Winter Wyvern and Dazzle combo to completely give his draft away and allowing Complexity to counter pick their support duo completely, and then running with an offlane Earthshaker which, we all could see, was powerless against the first pick Tusk from Complexity. The problem he’s having is not the drafts themselves but more how they are so easy to read. Dendi needs his Shadow Fiend or his Leshrac but, this patch, he’s not good on any other heroes besides perhaps QoP of Pain. XBOCT does XBOCT things, to be honest his hero pool is massive, Artstyle gets a farmless hero and Sonneiko gets a Earth Shaker or Winter Wyvern. The only one people can’t predict is Funnick because he can play almost anything at any time, provided it’s not something stupid like Crystal Maiden offlane.

This isn’t so much of a team breakdown like the last, more of a moan on how I think the team is doing in TI5. To have a chance at getting into the winner’s bracket they need to win, I think, 2 of their 3 remaining matches. Complexity could have been considered a confidence match today, so Na’Vi tomorrow need to ramp up their game. I think they actually do fairly well against Chinese teams, so tomorrows matches against LGD and Fnatic might go well for them. I think they have a fair chance to bag a 2-0 against Fnatic but LGD is an entirely different beast. They may run some kind of pocket strategy to catch LGD by surprise. I saw XBOCT playing a Clockwerk in a “behind the scenes” video Na’Vi did, but I’m not sure how viable that is against a professional team.

I think that, to improve, Na’Vi need to stick to what they’re good at and play within the confines of the current meta. Obviously, with bans and counter-picks, that’s not always an option, but when it is they need to do what they’re good at.

The Confederate Flag

Posted on by cloudvstheworld

There’s been lots of things going on in the past few days. If you’ve miraculously managed to avoid all the news about America and, even more miraculously, if this is where you’re first going to hear about it, then I might as well recap it. The Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare should remain in the USA (It’d be lovely if the Tory Government thought that free healthcare should be for everyone as well, but more on that another time) gay marriage has been legalised across the United States and the Confederate Flag is being taken down everywhere that it is shown. On public property that is. Today I wanted to talk about my views of it, having lived in the UK all my life, also being white and having only visited America once for a week.

I think that people finally taking down the Confederate Flag after the South lost the Civil War 150 years ago this year is a good thing. Not just because I am really into strategy games and so I think that, when someone has been conquered, they should stay conquered and not be allowed to do this sort of half-arsed pseudo-resistance but because the Confederate Flag represents something slightly more important than “Southern Pride.”

The confederate flag, to an outsider, represents ignorance. It represents a certain pride in being racist and homophobic, and that you, as a Confederate Flag owner, as someone who in unhappy with a progressive society, working towards equality. I’ll cover what I think about equality and how to achieve it in another post but my general ruling is that “equality benefits us all.”

However, while I think it is important to get rid of symbols like the Confederate Flag in public places, and shame the people who proudly display it in their homes or where ever they choose, this is merely a distraction from a bigger issue, and some companies and people have proceeded with, what I would argue, are foolish actions that take even more attention away from the real reason why the flags are being taken down. Apple, most notably, removed all games displaying the confederate flag, which is slightly more ridiculous than Steve Ballmer’s comments on the introduction of the iPhone and slightly less ridiculous than the claim that global warming is a myth.

The thing is, in case it wasn’t obvious, the real issue here is about racism. I don’t think you can argue that racism doesn’t exist in the USA. I don’t think you can argue that anywhere is free from racism, providing you’re not just trying to take the piss and talk about another galaxy, that is. In my opinion, racism doesn’t have an easy fix. You can enact all the laws you want and put as many boots on the ground as humanly possible, but it’s not going to make every member of the KKK suddenly drop everything, be reborn and hug the nearest minority.

There is a certain degree of difficulty in even suggesting the right path to tread because it seems that the racists that seemingly infest the South of the USA are like the mobsters from the Godfather; always with a backup plan with enough people in their pocket to protect themselves, while being stubborn enough to continue their everyday lives while under scrutiny. I was going to say that education is probably the key to combatting it, but there are so many other factors. The working environment, family, the diversity of the area, etc. It doesn’t help that surrounding big events that are supposed to be sparks for national revolution, for example, the shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, are so much filled with misinformation and misguidance that no one can get a clear picture.

I feel like I have meandered around a point without saying a whole lot. Very similar to the story I was talking about, actually. I’ll conclude here as anything more I can say is fairly superfluous, but I will say this: One will not dismantle racism itself by taking away its current idols and its age old banner. Sooner or later, another symbol will be found and this cycle will repeat.