League: I really didn't tank!

Chapter 481 What does it mean to know something like the back of your hand?

Preparation time flies by.

The competition officially began shortly afterward.

Amidst rousing music, the host invited both contestants onto the stage.

Chen Dongqing strode onto the stage and waved his arms to the audience.

It's quite noticeable that the outcry today is much louder than it was the day before yesterday.

Clearly, QG's support has increased further after defeating the defending champions TL.

If it was 40% before, it's now about 60%!

Not bad~

Amid cheers from the audience, Chen Dongqing returned to his seat and joined the competition room as requested.

Once all the players were in place, the draft phase began quickly without wasting any time!

Meanwhile, backstage, the OG players arrived at the venue and were intently watching the draft picks screen in the lounge.

In this game, VP's strategy remained clear: prioritize securing the strong offlane combination.

This time, they suggested a combination of Necromancer and Vengeful Spirit, both with long-range attacks.

The OG players were quite satisfied with this offlane composition.

His laning ability is top-tier even in the entire DOTA 2 universe! Bullying melee champions is second to none!

The Necromancer's first skill can heal himself and damage surrounding enemies, with extremely high values.

The third skill is even more overpowered; it restores health and mana by last-hitting minions and can also automatically and continuously deduct the health of surrounding units.

With these two skills, the Necromancer doesn't even need to do anything. He just needs to stand on the lane without last-hitting minions, use his Q skill to heal himself, and the enemy melee team will collapse on its own!

Are there any heroes that can counter the Necrophos? Yes, but these are all long-range mage heroes who generally lack late-game carry potential.

Anyway, picking this hero is an open tactic to bully QG's advantage lane, which will only carry in the late game.

"Well, that depends on what QG says." The European commentator, understanding QG's current predicament, couldn't help but say, "If they pick a strong early-game carry like Corki or Io in their safe lane, they might still have a chance, but..."

The problem is that the airplane sprites that ilex chose didn't perform very well, and they weren't as smooth as the one on Ame.

Will they really be selected in the knockout stage?

As it turns out, no.

Faced with the combination of NEC and VS, QG's decision seemed unchanged. They simply turned their selection box and a shadowy figure appeared.

"Huh?" The audience was stunned.

A phantom?

Speaking of this hero, almost every DOTA2 player knows her, as she is considered one of the representative heroes of DOTA2.

She is the prototype of the Nightmare in League of Legends. She is one of the tankiest champions, has top-tier team fight capabilities, and is synonymous with late-game carry.

If this hero is allowed to reach their power spike, the game can be decided in a single ultimate ability.

The problem is that she came too late.

She even had to save up more than 5,000 yuan to farm money and start her equipment later on!

Five thousand yuan—if it were any other center position, it could probably be used to start a fight.

But for Spectre, that's just the beginning of making money.

That's terrifying.

Moreover, this hero is extremely weak in lane, lacking control and burst damage, completely lacking initiative, and even struggling to last-hit minions!

Backstage, everyone in OG was amused.

Are you crazy?

With VP picking such a strong 3v4 composition, isn't it a bit too presumptuous of you to pick Spectre as your carry?

Is this really just mindless, dragging the game into the late game?

Once Spectre is picked, the outcome of the game is basically decided.

This match can now be officially renamed "Spectre Defense".

As long as QG can keep Spectre alive, they can win the game.

If we can't save it, then we'll send it. There's no other way. The key to victory lies with this one hero.

However, the OG members were fully aware of this situation and immediately sentenced QG to death.

It's been sent; next one.

Are you going to withstand the pressure? If someone picks a Storm Spirit as a counter-pick, won't they chase and kill you for the entire game?

The two sides traded draft picks back and forth, and the lineups were quickly finalized!

As expected, VP picked Storm Spirit as their second move.

QG, on the other hand, chose to pair Phoenix with Spectre.

Phoenix is ​​a hero with nothing special, except for its high stats. As a position 5 hero, it has no control abilities, only high damage and healing, and its ultimate ability is devastating once it lands, which forces the enemy to prioritize dealing with its ultimate.

With his skill stats and the taunt effect of his ultimate, he possesses excellent laning ability, which may help Spectre overcome his weak early game.

The match began quickly.

Chen Dongqing, wielding Spectre, bought his starting gear, left the fountain, stood at the bounty rune's spawn point, and then casually checked his skills.

The reason why Spectre is so strong in the late game is mainly due to two of her skills.

One is the third skill, [Refraction].

This is a passive skill with a simple and straightforward effect: at max level, Spectre takes 22% less damage and reflects that damage back to all enemies within a 1000-yard radius.

(The max-level stats in the image are 20%, and in TI8 it was 22%. I checked, and the skill is exactly as I described. You don't need to worry about the other stats; they're all part of the later mechanics.)

There is a kind of beauty in pure numbers.

The 22% damage reduction at max level is already a terrifying figure. This damage reduction alone is enough to make Spectre one of the tankiest heroes in the late game.

In addition, the rebound effect is even more terrifying.

This is not an evenly distributed rebound, but a rebound that occurs one by one.

If the damage reduction is 100 points, then each enemy within 1000 yards will suffer 100 points of damage.

Moreover, this is pure damage, ignoring armor and magic resistance, directly deducting 100 health from you!

This means that if Spectre has 5,000 health and stands in the middle of five opponents, he doesn't even need to do anything. He can just stand there and take the hits until he dies, and he can deal 5500 damage with [Reflection].

This is the late-game carry; all you need to do is withstand the damage and absorb it to unleash explosive damage.

In addition, Spectre's ultimate ability is top-tier.

The ultimate ability is called "Ghostly Appearances," similar to Nocturne's ultimate ability "Shadowy Appearances" in League of Legends. It is also a long-range dash skill.

But he wants to go further and faster.

After using her ultimate ability, Spectre will create a clone behind each enemy champion that inherits 80% of her attack damage and will automatically attack the enemy.

Five clones inheriting 80% of the attack power chase after the opponent and attack. Just based on this base value, it is already a very powerful damage skill.

In addition, during Spectre's ultimate ability, she can freely swap positions with any of her clones and instantly appear behind the enemy.

Even if Spectre is in the top lane and the enemy is in the bottom lane, Spectre only needs to activate his ultimate and then switch places with his clone in the bottom lane to instantly run to the bottom lane and kill the enemy.

If you're even faster, you can even switch positions back after you've finished killing someone.

That's why everyone says Spectre is so powerful in the late game. Once you get ahead in the late game, all you need to do is use your ultimate to summon clones, teleport them behind the enemy support, and just keep chasing and attacking them. The enemy won't even dare to attack you.

If the opponent attacks you, you'll be deflected and your entire family will explode!

Chen Dongqing couldn't help but marvel as he looked at the skill descriptions.

This skill mechanic is incredibly powerful, even in a game like Dota 2.

Of course, everything is in balance.

This hero relies on his ultimate and tankiness to survive. Before he gets the necessary equipment and levels, without his ultimate and tankiness, don't expect this hero to be of any use; he's basically useless.

Chen Dongqing's mind was racing, already considering how to get through the Ghost's weak period.

The opposing VP team is very aggressive and will definitely not let him off so easily. They will surely launch a crazy attack on his Spectre.

Based on the opposing team's lineup, their first wave of momentum can only be triggered at level six.

But VP definitely can't accept starting the game at level six, because that's too slow.

Therefore, they will definitely seek change.

In that case

Xu Linsen (Chen Dongqing) suddenly called FY from another road.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the VP members were already discussing when to cross the Spectre's tower.

Because their mid laner picked Storm Spirit, who needs to reach level six to gain mobility, theoretically, their only opportunity to make a move is at level six.

But just as Chen Dongqing had predicted, VP's people didn't want Spectre to develop so comfortably for six minutes.

Too slow!

VP's strategy this game was clear: if they wanted to make changes to the bottom lane, they couldn't do it directly.

It's safer to free up the mid lane first, and then work with the mid laner to gank the bottom lane!

This tactic is all too familiar.

Although it's not the same game, and the game concepts are slightly different, the overall approach is exactly the same as QG back then.

Chen Dongqing was very familiar with this approach. When he first figured out the operational strategy of VP during his meditation training, he was quite surprised that it was so similar.

With this shared relationship, Chen Dongqing gained a deeper understanding of VP.

Now, as soon as the VPs take their pants down, Chen Dongqing knows what kind of shit they're going to take!

The two sides' minions converged, and Chen Dongqing, who had chosen the weaker lane, was quite conscious of his position and secretly lured the minions from behind before observing from a distance.

Once the enemy melee minion is low on health, he uses his first skill on it.

Spectre's Q is similar to Nocturne's Q, throwing out a dark path. Enemies hit by the skill will also leave a dark path behind them when they move. Spectre will gain a movement speed bonus when stepping on the dark path.

However, compared to Nightmare, Spectre's mechanics are stronger. Her Dark Path is a headshot-based attack, which is basically guaranteed to hit. Furthermore, Spectre on Dark Path can move regardless of the terrain and easily pass through walls.

Of course, Chen Dongqing's use of Q this time was purely for finishing off an opponent.

A dark path stretched out, landing precisely when the ranged minion was low on health, allowing Chen Dongqing to finish it off without giving the enemy a chance to deny it. After finishing off the ranged minion, Chen Dongqing wasn't in a hurry; he stood behind, waiting for the minions to be low on health before going in to finish them off.

Against that opposing bot lane duo, he really didn't have many opportunities to last-hit minions; it was already a miracle if he could Q a few minions.

The Necromancer's Q skill is too overpowered. It heals his own minions while attacking enemy minions, and his passive skill continuously reduces minion health. This hero can't control the wave, as the minion wave will come quickly, and he can just farm under the tower.

Soon, the minion wave was pushed to the position under Chen Dongqing's tower.

It's still early, and the enemy can't do anything to him with this tower dive; he can comfortably finish it off.

However, it's worth mentioning that last-hitting under the tower in DOTA 2 is very difficult, since towers deal very little damage to creeps, unlike in LoL where you can consistently leave them with low health for last-hitting. You need to manage your own health carefully.

Chen Dongqing felt no pressure at all. He would attack whenever he could, and if he couldn't, he would use his skills to finish off the remaining enemies, effectively securing a wave of tower dives without missing a single one.

At this point, it can be noticed that the opposing team's position 4 Vengeful Spirit has disappeared from the bottom lane.

Upon seeing this message, Chen Dongqing remained calm and composed, continuing to deliver the final blow.

The disappearance of position 4 could mean two things: either they went to farm jungle monsters.

In DOTA2, neutral creeps can be pulled a long distance and their aggro can be transferred to creeps. Therefore, you can pull neutral creeps into the creeps' path and forcibly stop the creeps.

This allows you to forcibly control the pushed minion wave back.

Another possibility is that it went swimming.

Actually, pulling the jungle camp is more likely in these two operations. After all, normally, pushing the minion wave forward is like rewarding Spectre, so you have to control the minion wave back.

But if they were VPs, they certainly wouldn't do that.

They will definitely become more radical.

Sure enough, from God's perspective at this moment, VP's position 4 Vengeful Spirit was already stepping into the mid lane in the darkness.

Vengeful Spirit, abbreviated as VS, is a hero with a hammer-like skill that can stun enemies. When paired with his teammate Storm Spirit's other stun, the success of a gank depends entirely on whether they can land their skills on the enemy.

At this moment, it can be seen that Maybe in QG's mid lane seems unaware of the danger, and he even intends to control the rune at four minutes.

VP2 and VP4 both smiled.

Still planning to control the talisman? Then you're dead.

"Kill him!"

As they were talking, VP's mid-lane Storm Spirit quickly followed up, pulling Maybe back with a pull, and then followed up with an auto-attack followed by [Afterimage] followed by another auto-attack, unleashing his burst damage.

Taking advantage of the blue cat's control time, VP's fourth position appeared from the side and followed up with a hammer!

This kill seems to be a sure thing!

But just then, there was a sudden noise nearby.

A snowball suddenly rolled out from the darkness beside them. FY's Tusk rolled the snowball and rolled into the arena, knocking out both of VP's players 2 and 4!

"OMG! FY!" the European and American commentators shouted at the scene, "This is a crucial counter-gank!"

In the scene, after FY's snowball knocked out two people, it then created a circular ice wall, trapping the opposing mid laner inside and rendering him unable to move!

Blue Cat doesn't have any mobility skills before level 6, and there's no Flash or similar ability in this game. If the two of them get trapped like this by Tusk, the game won't end until one of them dies!

Maybe, with his health nearly depleted, remained calm. He knew the two opponents were no longer capable of dealing damage, so he was quite safe. Instead of running away, he turned around and used [Light Strike Array] to stun the enemy Storm Spirit, then followed up with [Dragon Slash], and then, relying on his two stacks of passive, he unleashed a barrage of auto-attacks, dealing terrifying damage befitting a lane bully like Lina!

Ultimately, QG's Maybe and Fy made a decisive move after their initial attack. Despite being the second to attack, they relied on their combined strength to secure the first kill. Lina's basic attack eliminated the enemy's Storm Spirit!

There's not much to say about the last one, Vengeful Spirit. Maybe just takes a wand to heal and makes a quick getaway!

Below the stage, countless spectators erupted in applause, cheering for FY's perfect counter-gank!

At this moment, the domestic live streaming rooms also began to flood with messages such as "[FYGOD]", praising Xu Linsen from all angles!

FY's move came at just the right time!

This level of support is something TP can't provide.

FY realized early on that his mid laner would be ganked, so he abandoned the offlane lane matchup in advance and headed straight for the mid lane!

But at this moment, the QG voice channel presented a completely different scene.

"Amazing! Amazing!" FY exclaimed, showering the comment with praise. He asked in astonishment, "Brother Tree, how did you know he was going to grab the middle one?"

At the very beginning of the competition, Chen Dongqing specifically reminded him about this matter.

At the time, Chen Dongqing said, "Their bot lane can't pressure us, and their mid laner can't move, so they'll definitely have to find a way to gank mid first. Xu Linsen, when you see VS disappear, go straight to mid to protect Chao Ge, understand?"

Fy had a slight doubt at the time, but after thinking about it carefully, the first wave of ganks to the mid lane did seem like something VP would do, so when he saw VS disappear in the bottom lane, he also rushed to the mid lane.

It has to be said that VP's timing for ganking mid was really good. They ganked mid when the rune was spawning, which at the very least helped their mid laner secure a rune.

Fortunately, Chen Dongqing anticipated this move and remotely controlled FY to successfully defuse it!

After this, VP's mid laner Storm Spirit was severely weakened. Not only was he unable to gank bot lane earlier, he was also significantly slower to reach level six, causing his usual ganks to be delayed.

In the bottom lane, Chen Dongqing, who was pushing the minion wave forward, saw this situation and simply smiled and said, "I told you, I know them very well. Just listen to me from now on, and I guarantee you'll win today."

"OK, OK!" Upon hearing this, the QG members felt an immediate surge of security and nodded vigorously!

After that, there weren't any situations in the match where Chen Dongqing needed to give instructions.

After the setbacks of the last wave, VP can't make any waves in the short term and needs to wait for the next opportunity.

For the next three minutes, the supports on both bottom lanes were extremely busy, running back and forth between the jungle and the lanes.

As a position 5 player who has assisted both Ame and Chen Dongqing, two top-tier players, xNova has a clear understanding of how to serve his carry.

Phoenix threw out several Phoenix Fires at the 56-second mark, simultaneously luring the monsters from three nearby jungle camps out of the camp and creating three sets of double jungle camps.

Then, after about ten seconds, attack the jungle monster near the minion wave again, lure it towards the minions, and in doing so, hook the minions into the jungle.

With two waves of jungle monsters grouped together, dealing with this wave of minions will be no problem at all. The enemy bottom lane is destined to lose a wave of minions.

Chen Dongqing scanned the minimap, nodded in satisfaction, and continued receiving tower knives.

Since you, Necrophos, are strong in lane, then I'll just keep hoarding jungle camps and ganking creep waves, and I won't even bother laning against you!

But the good times didn't last long. After finishing off a wave of minions under the tower, the next wave of minions didn't appear as expected.

Clearly, the opposing team has also hooked the minion wave.

Chen Dongqing wasn't worried; he farmed jungle camps when there was no lane available.

Chen Dongqing ventured into the jungle and began clearing out the monsters that Phoenix had stockpiled.

At this point in time, Spectre couldn't even defeat two wild minions, and his combat strength was worlds apart from Sven's.

But it's not a big problem; everything will be alright.

xNova first blocked the wave line again, then came over to help the big brother throw Phoenix Fire, and then directly shot laser!

Once Phoenix unleashes its two AOE skills, the jungle monsters are basically all severely damaged. Moreover, the laser can deal damage and heal teammates at the same time. While the jungle monsters are being weakened, Spectre is also fully healed!

In terms of service, it's basically top-notch.

Chen Dongqing didn't need to do anything. He just needed to wait for the jungle monsters to be low on health, throw a Ghostblade at them, and use the AOE damage of Shadow Path to take down all the minions. Then, a few basic attacks were used to finish off the big jungle monster, and his economy took another small leap!

At this point, Chen Dongqing had saved 1500 yuan, but he was not in a hurry to buy equipment; instead, he wanted to continue saving.

In this version, Spectre's first major item must be Radiance. This item can be simply understood as a Sunfire Cape that increases attack damage, dealing 60 damage per second to surrounding enemies, and enemies that are damaged have a 15% chance to miss their attacks.

The advantage of this item over Sunfire Cape is its larger range, which is 700 yards. Basically, all enemies on the screen will be damaged, making it very convenient for clearing jungle camps.

In addition, clones can also share the Radiance effect, but the damage is reduced to 35 points per second.

Once Spectre uses his ultimate, a clone will appear behind each of the five enemy heroes, and all five of them will be burned by Radiance!

Radiance has always been Spectre's signature item. Back in Dota 1, when supports had no real power, no levels, no gold, and low base health, Spectre could easily wipe out a support's health with just one ultimate, and the clones plus Radiance could even kill the support!

Back then, even if Spectre was at its worst and it took thirty minutes to build Radiance, as long as it could build it, everything was fine.

The Radiance item is great in every way, except that it's too hard to obtain.

His crafting path is quite simple: a Saint's Relic costing 3750 gold, which has no extra attributes except for attack power; and a crafting reel costing 1350 gold, for a total of 5100 gold. It is expensive and the crafting path is extremely uneven.

Many times you'll see Spectre still only have one starting item and a pair of boots after ten minutes or so. That's because he's saving up for the 3750 gold from the Sacred Relic.

Undoubtedly, this incredibly valuable relic of the saint further exacerbated Spectre's already significant weakness in the early game.

So although Chen Dongqing had more than a thousand yuan, it can only be said that he still had a long way to go.

And this carefree Spectre is clearly going to continue to be targeted by VP.

Seven minutes quickly passed.

Chen Dongqing's laning phase was still tough. In order to last-hit two minions, he was hammered by the opponent and lost half of his health. He could only eat trees under the tower to recover health and managed to last-hit a wave of minions under the tower.

Meanwhile, on the other side...

VP's mid laner, Storm Spirit, finally reached level six after being bullied for so long.

VP's mid laner gritted his teeth and headed to the bottom lane, determined to unleash all the suffering he had endured in the mid lane on Spectre!

A triple gank on the bottom lane, it just happened!

A level 6 Storm Spirit can dash in whenever he wants. They just need to wait for the minion wave to push in, then Storm Spirit uses his ultimate to dash in, pull the enemy back, and then Vengeful Spirit uses his hammer. Spectre's head is then in the bag!

After killing someone, Blue Cat can even use his ultimate skill to escape, coming and going freely.

This was a rhythm they were bound to have, but they made a small mistake in the early stages, which slowed down the rhythm a bit!

Of course, this is ultimately just theory.

Clearly, VP's current momentum was also within Chen Dongqing's calculations.

He actually didn't see Blue Cat's location from beginning to end, but he could tell from the smell that Blue Cat was definitely rushing down!

He had prepared for this move early on. Spectre showed his face once in the enemy's vision before diving into the jungle and creating a dark path. Spectre then used the dark path to cross walls and head straight for the mid lane!

Meanwhile, in the mid lane, Maybe's Lina, like Storm Spirit, had already disappeared without a trace.

VP thought the Lina had come to support the bottom lane, but they didn't take her seriously at all, believing that the Lina couldn't save Spectre.

But in fact

Maybe's Fire Mage didn't even go down.

The moment VP pushed the bottom lane minion wave to the tower, the vision under the tower suddenly opened up – there was no one there!

Blue Cat, who had been waiting on high alert, was immediately dumbfounded.

What about people?

The ghost soon showed itself.

The Spectre, who should have been in the bottom lane, is now in the mid lane, happily farming minions!

Huh? In the mid lane? Where's Annie?

The Fire Mage is on the top lane.

Maybe's extremely inspired move, appearing counterintuitively in the top lane, relied on FY and Charles's crowd control to lock down the enemy, and then used the [Light Strike Array], [Dragon's Vulnerability], and [God's Annihilation Slash] combo to directly take down VP's carry!

Spectre took the mid lane, Lina killed the top laner, QG's two cores both have a bright future!

Only the VP team was completely dumbfounded, never expecting the plot to unfold in such a way!

After quickly finishing the mid-lane jungle camp, Chen Dongqing, worried about being caught by Blue Cat, quickly retreated back into the darkness. He deliberately took a few detours to find a secluded jungle spot, where he painstakingly ate two groups of small jungle monsters, finally reaching level six!

Chen Dongqing licked his lips, and the low-health Spectre immediately teleported back to town to fully recover.

At this moment, on the bottom lane, the opposing bottom lane duo had once again pushed the minion wave to the tower.

Without hesitation, Chen Dongqing activated his ultimate move, [Ghostly Shadows]!

Five clones appeared behind the five enemy players. Chen Dongqing selected two enemy clones, swapped positions, and returned to the bottom lane!

Taking advantage of the position of the two opponents pushing the tower, Chen Dongqing used his ultimate as a teleport to return to the tower and farm the wave of minions that were pushing into the tower!

Eating the mid lane, the jungle, and the bottom lane, Chen Dongqing hasn't been idle for the past minute or two, constantly gaining gold!

At this point, it's clear that Spectre's economy has reached three thousand!

In just over eight minutes, three thousand gold might seem average for other carry players, but for Spectre, it's an absolute godlike start!

It's like Nasus using his Q to last-hit every single creep at the start of the game!

It has already taken off!

Backstage, Coach Xiao Ba looked at the scene before him and was filled with emotion.

An hour earlier, Chen Dongqing said he knew everything about the VP, but I was still skeptical at the time.

After all, the two teams haven't played each other since the group stage, and they haven't even met in training matches, so they have no way of knowing each other.

How did you manage to know it so well?

Just by watching games and recordings?

As it turns out, he did indeed lack vision.

Three minutes in, he directed FY to counter-gank mid lane; seven minutes in, he abandoned bottom lane and directed Maybe to gank top lane to mitigate losses, while he himself farmed mid lane.

One person commands the entire team, manipulating the opposing team at will!

That's absolutely amazing!

From now on, whatever Brother Shu says goes!

Backstage, the OG members stared solemnly at the scene before them, as if they had witnessed something extraordinary.

For some reason, QG seems to have undergone a dramatic change after entering the knockout stage.

During the group stage, VP's attacks on QG were almost always aimed at their weak points, leaving QG with no chance to fight back and easily winning the first game.

In the second game, if QG hadn't come up with a surprising tactic to fight a triple-team and managed to save their carry, the outcome would have been very uncertain.

At the time, they all felt that VP was tactically superior to QG.

At that time, the OG members were even excited and thankful to VP for helping them find another weakness in QG.

But now, it seems everything has changed.

VP's offense is no longer frightening against QG; in fact, it's almost like they're playing dirty.

QG's textbook-perfect defensive counter-attacking ability today really opened their eyes.

Does this mean that QG has never had this problem?

Were they just playing around during the group stage?

These specific details are something that the OG team is destined to never understand.

All they know now is that this Spectre, with 3,000 gold in eight minutes, has perfectly weathered its early game weakness.

Next, he will most likely carry the game.

My original plan was to write about only one match of the BO3 series against VP, and skip the others, so it should only take one chapter.

But I didn't expect that this single match would already exceed the length of a chapter.

This wave was due to my poor control; it should definitely end tomorrow, and we should be able to start the next round as well.

(End of this chapter)