Natus Vincere is #1 ranked team in the world and even they have started their run at ESL Pro League S11 Europe not perfectly, they are still incredibly strong. It’s often interesting to take a deeper look at the biggest team playstyle on different maps.
Today we will talk about Natus Vincere and their lovely Nuke. Here are a few features to note of how CIS powerhouse has played at ESL Pro League S11 as well as overall.
If you are going to play (and to win) against Na`Vi on Nuke, you must read this article.
Fast T-pistols
Playing versus Na`Vi on Nuke, you have to expect the issues right from the beginning of the game. 15-20 seconds from the start of the T-pistol round and you get a headshot by initial aggression or simply fast execute.
You can build your strategy for CT-pistol round knowing this habit: Natus Vincere got a flexible pistol rounds playstyle, so you can’t predict where the will put their focus at early timings.
The best option to play versus Na`Vi’s T-pistol is to make a compact passive defence near sites with a decent bait and crossfire setups.
Absence of early aggression both T and CT on gun rounds
An interesting thing on contrast with T-pistol round: Natus Vincere prefer to play without heavy aggression (CT & T) and fast execute (T) at the beginning of the round. As T, both fast executes and early, impudent solo or duo peeks should be expected less than in 15% of rounds, and if we talk about CT-site, the percentage even lower: Na`Vi love to show their aggression in about 10% of gun rounds playing as CT.
Ramp-lurkers’ exploit
Okay, we just mentioned that Natus Vincere don’t like to show their presence at early timings. Then, playing versus Natus Vincere’s T-side, the defence can use the ramp area to collect the information.
Usually, Egor “flamie” Vasilyev or Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy play as ramp-lurkers. And those two guys got a truly different playstyle. But it’s not only about playstyle – different lurkers mean different movements of Natus Vincere over the map.
flamie, the passive and sneaky lurker
You can see a typical movement as a lurker on the radar above. Usually, he takes sneaky, but safe positions and rotates from hut to lobby and back. With that said we have to mention that when flamie plays as a ramp-oriented lurker, Natus Vincere prefer a heavy outside mid-round presence.
Perfecto: more aggressive option
Ilya plays a bit closer to the ramp and leaves the fewer options and space to control for the defence. Also, if Perfecto performs as ramp-lurker, Natus Vincere usually more focused on lobby and squeaky rather than on the outside.
Versatility of CT-pistol round
So the first rule versus Natus Vincere on Nuke: play pistol rounds carefully and expect everything. Na`Vi are truly flexible on CT-pistol rounds – they have many options to use and, probably, preparing pistol rounds especially for each opponent.
All the 3 games they have played at ESL Pro League S11, Natus Vincere have used 3 different pistol rounds setups.
flamie’s inflexibility as ramp-anchor
Not the best thing in Natus Vincere playstyle is flamie positioning as ramp-anchor. Here are his two lovely positions that he takes in 80% of rounds:
This habit can be easily abused by T-side at least a couple of times per half. As an addition, Natus Vincere almost never use double-ramp setups, so it can be their weak spot in the defence.
Weak outside control as CT
The last thing to mention is Natus Vincere’s outside control playing as CT: Natus Vincere almost never actively control outside.
Denis “electronic” Sharipov prefer to hold the outside from the main or behind CT-red. It gives attackers a lot of space, also, Natus Vincere often let Ts to secret totally for free. It’s a conscious decision, but still gives the opponents really a lot of space.
