Team Nemesis eliminate NAVI 2-1 at BLAST Slam VIII, three days after PGL silver

NAVI are out of BLAST Slam VIII. Team Nemesis beat them 2-1 on Wednesday, Sept 30, in the Group B losers' match, and in this group format the loser goes straight home.

It ends NAVI's trip after just two series, both lost 2-1. They share 13th to 16th place, worth $7,000, with Level UP, who lost 2-0 to Xtreme Gaming in Group A on the same day. Only three days earlier, NAVI were playing a grand final.

How did Team Nemesis beat NAVI at BLAST Slam VIII?

Team Nemesis won games one and three on Radiant in 42 and 43 minutes, while NAVI's only win was a 32-minute game on Dire. Jabz led the way with 27 kills across the series.

NAVI's game-two win tied the series and was the shortest game of their event. Nemesis then closed out the decider.

Thai veteran Jabz finished with 27 kills, 5 deaths and 28 assists across the three games, per Field Level Media. He won his first Major at the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018 with Mineski, according to Liquipedia.

The series followed a pattern NAVI will not enjoy watching again. In their opener on Sept 29, they also won game one against 1w Team, a 44-minute win on Dire. Then 1w took the next two games in 50 and 49 minutes.

Why were Team Nemesis stronger than at PGL Wallachia?

Nemesis brought their full five to BLAST Slam VIII. At PGL Wallachia Season 9, Ken and Jabz could not attend because of visa issues, and stand-ins played in their place.

These two teams met less than a week ago. In Bucharest, NAVI beat Nemesis 2-1 in the first round of the lower bracket on Sept 25, with Mo13ei and SaberLight standing in for Ken and Jabz, NAVI wrote at the time.

At BLAST Slam VIII, Nemesis field JaCkky, Ken, Jabz, JhoCam and NARMAN, a lineup from Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Mongolia. They earned their spot through the RES Unchained 5 Southeast Asia Closed Qualifier.

The full team already made noise on day one. Nemesis took the first game off TI champions Team Spirit in 48 minutes before Spirit came back to win 2-1.

From PGL silver to an early exit

The drop is steep. At PGL Wallachia Season 9, NAVI lost their first playoff series 2-1 to LGD Gaming, then won four in a row in the lower bracket against Nemesis, Aurora Gaming, Xtreme Gaming and LGD.

Team Yandex stopped them 3-0 in the grand final on Sept 27, and NAVI took home $175,000. We covered that final here.

The team of gotthejuice, Niku, pma, daze and Riddys came to BLAST Slam VIII through the RES Unchained 5 Europe Closed Qualifier. NAVI's own preview flagged the Nemesis series as a must-win, since the losing side would be eliminated.

What's next for Team Nemesis at BLAST Slam VIII?

Nemesis play 1w Team in the Group B decider on Friday, Oct 2, at 15:00 CEST. The winner moves on to the Last Chance stage on Oct 3, the loser is out.

The winner of that decider finishes second in Group B. Team Spirit already won the group, as we reported here.

The six-team playoffs run Oct 8-11 at BLAST Arena Studios in Malta, all best-of-three except the best-of-five grand final. The champion takes $270,000 of the $750,000 prize pool.