From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Gu Ran finished the last mouthful of instant noodle soup when his phone lit up.

"Old Wang's son next door passed the civil service exam. Want to check out the registration for this year too?"

It was a text message from his mother. He had received countless such messages in the past few months, but he had absolutely no interest in replying.

Open the Excel spreadsheet—last month's expenses: rent 1800, takeout 900, electricity and internet 300, total 3000.

Income: 1200. Platform base salary 800, gift commission 400. Savings: 8000 remaining.

Two years of live streaming, a fan club of thirty-seven people—that's all he has.

Just as he was beginning to consider whether he should give up being a live streamer and actually go back to work in a factory, his phone lit up again.

He picked up his phone impatiently, only to see an unexpected text message:

"Xiao Gu, there's a mid-laner in the Knife Zone who's around 10,000 points and can't make it this season due to some unforeseen circumstances. Could you help fill in? The tournament lasts about ten days, and there's a bonus for finishing it, plus extra bonuses each day based on your performance."

Unexpected joy.

The Pokémon in the Dota 2 section is a very popular series of programs, which is basically held several times a year. It started with popular streamers in the Dota section acting as "Pokémon Trainers" to lead some Dota (Chinese abbreviation for Dota) novices to compete against each other. After selecting their horses each day, they would play a single-elimination tournament to determine a champion.

Later, the invited players were not limited to DOTA2 newbies. As long as they could bring traffic, whether they were other streamers or anyone else, as long as they liked DOTA2, they could receive an invitation.

This kind of event is a great opportunity for small streamers like Gu Ran, because they can team up with or compete against top streamers, and it's easy to gain fans if they have a standout performance.

Gu Ran had signed up for almost every round, but without connections and with a relatively low ranking on the ladder, he never had a chance to play. Receiving a text message from the super administrator this time was an unexpected surprise.

Four hours later, the first day of the Advanced Mentor Competition of the 2028 Second Knife Zone Pokémon Tournament began.

First, the eight mentors selected their favorite contestants in the order of 1-8 and 8-1. Gu Ran was not a mentor and could only wait in the selection position as a horse.

The eight senior mentors are: ZHOU, AXX, Sylar, Baqi Xuhuan Ge, Huaqiang, Da Mengyi, Dstones Shitou, and Shikamaru.

Senior mentors generally have a ladder score of over 13000, and mentors with particularly high scores will be given special consideration in the selection of students to maintain balance.

Gu Ran was selected by his mentor ZHOU, also known as Diao Ge. He is the champion of the second DOTA2 International Invitational Tournament, a veteran in the DOTA2 community, and one of the players who has maintained the best game performance among his peers. He plays the carry role and has a MMR of around 13000. He mainly streams DOTA2 and has gained a lot of fans because of his good skills.

The downside is that he's quite stubborn. Someone once said that Tyrannosaurus Rex's mouth is the hardest thing in the world, even harder than Ultron metal.

After selecting their horses, opponents were randomly assigned. Under the guidance of Brother Diao and with the concerted efforts of his teammates, they won two rounds in a row. Their opponents in the final were the team led by their mentor, AXX.

"Holy crap, facing off against the legendary sea bream catcher!"

"Brother Diao is going to be taking care of his parents again!"

In Brother Diao's live stream, comments flooded the chat like snowflakes. Brother Diao precisely banned the comment "Stable filial piety" for 360 days, and then said...

"All that talk about legendary sea bream catchers is just marketing hype. Today I'm going to fucking kill Xiaxia!"

AXX, also known as A Xiaxia, is hailed as the number one female player in the Dota 2 scene. Although she doesn't have outstanding professional achievements, she has been known for her aggressive playstyle since she started playing Dota 2. Among players of the same generation, she is the only one who can go toe-to-toe with Diao Ge.

So over time, he earned the reputation of "Legendary Snapper Catcher." Snapper Catcher's haters especially enjoy watching his catching moments and then sending sarcastic comments in the live chat.

"Don't kill Snapper Brother (╥﹏╥)Don't kill Snapper Brother°°・(＞_<)・°Don't kill Snapper Brother (≧∀≦)ゞ"

Recently, Brother Diao's win rate against AXX has been relatively low, so his haters have become quite arrogant.

The lineups for both sides were quickly finalized. On the Radiant side, DiaoGe played his best carry, Drow Ranger, while GuRan played Shadow Fiend in the mid lane. On the Dire side, AXX chose to go mid and play Tiny.

In the Pokémon tournament format, mentors have a relative advantage in the first or second position because these positions are most reliant on economy. Mentors can more easily snowball their lead and lead their team to victory once they have enough economy. AXX originally mainly played the third position, but in the Pokémon tournament format, she usually plays the mid lane. She plays aggressively and can suppress the opponent's mid laner, preventing them from having an offensive rhythm in the early and mid-game. She will then quickly buy fighting items to suppress the opponent's development and speed up the game to win.

This time, she chose Tiny, a tempo hero. After getting the Blink Dagger, she can easily kill enemies. With Blink Dagger, she can jump close to the enemy and unleash a combo of Avalanche + Throw + Tree Throw for extremely high burst damage. Heroes with low health in the early to mid-game will basically die instantly if they encounter this combo.

Gu Ran chose Shadow Fiend, a hero not known for his tempo but strong in lane. His third skill allows him to collect enemy souls, gaining one point of attack power for each last hit, up to a maximum of over twenty points, which is very significant during the laning phase.

The second skill, Demon King's Descent, reduces the armor of nearby enemies. The ultimate skill, Soul Elegy, has a one-second casting time, releasing multiple magical shockwaves upon completion. The closer an enemy is to the Shadow Fiend, the higher the damage from the shockwaves. The shockwaves also inflict fear and slow effects.

Shadow Fiend's first skill is:

Shadowwraze (Z/X/C, abbreviated as Shadow Rush)

Shadow Fiend unleashes destructive energy in the area directly in front of him, dealing magic damage to enemies within that area. This skill has three independent ranges (close/mid/long), each with its own cooldown.

Casting range: 200 / 450 / 700

Effective range: 275

Base damage: 100 / 175 / 250 / 325

Stacking damage: Hitting the same target consecutively deals an additional 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 damage per hit (this effect deals 50% damage to non-hero units).

Mana cost: 90

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Casting animation delay: 0.4s

Meanwhile, Shadow Fiend's Lifestone effect - Shadow Swamp: Destructive Shadows slow movement speed, with each stack granting an effect of 3%/6%/9%/12%.

This hero has two playstyles during the laning phase. One is to focus on leveling up the third skill to farm minions steadily and suppress the opponent. The other is to focus on leveling up Shadow Rush and carry mana regeneration items, hoping to kill the opponent's hero and establish an advantage during the laning phase.

Gu Ran's standard starting items: three branches + one fairy fire + two mangoes. He learns the Shadow of Destruction at level one, aiming to exert early-game pressure and try to dominate or even solo kill the opponent during the laning phase.

Although his opponent AXX had 13,000 points and was known for his aggressive playstyle, Gu Ran did not choose a cowardly approach. Putting aside everything else, he had a great mentality when playing games and was never afraid of anyone.