From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Chapter 108 The Formation of Line Optimization

The match began amidst the arguments in the chat. At the start, both sides were vying for the bounty runes, with VP gathering their forces and securing the bounty rune in the left river. Meanwhile, Soul Stone's team, primarily focused on the right side, secured the bounty rune in the right river.

After securing the rune, Jiangxia's Ember Spirit didn't head directly to the top lane. Instead, he used the wards he placed in the mid lane to spot VP's offlaners, who were preparing to return to the bottom lane from their own triangle area.

[Can I wait here for them? Can you lean against me?]

Jiang Xia pinged the woods next to the stairs in the opposite triangle area. Upon receiving the message, Wang Chunyu and Lao Fang immediately headed towards the opposite triangle area.

VP's two players in positions 3 and 4 were clearly unaware of anything. The Lightsaber guy's Langgo swaggered into his own triangle area and suddenly saw an enemy Ember Spirit emerge from behind the trees. The big gun barrel was pointed at his face and a burst of lightning struck, dealing high damage and having a slowing effect. At this moment, the Witch Doctor came over and cast a spell, and the Phantom Lancer also contributed a Soul Spear.

Langgo lost some health while grabbing the rune, and after taking this combo, he only had a quarter of his health left. He tried to run back home but was blocked by the Ember Spirit, then chased and attacked by the illusions of the Witch Doctor and the Phantom Lancer, and finally took down by the damage from the witchcraft spell.

FirstBlood!

[0ldFang kills Saberlight, earning 307 gold + 78 gold split between 2 heroes]

"We can see that Soul Stone made a small design at the start of the game to get the first blood on the enemy team, and the Witch Doctor's level 1 burst damage..."

The damage is still too high. The curse will deal more damage based on the amount of health the opponent has lost. A hero being focused down will basically die if they are hit by the curse.

The commentators on the main stage marveled at the Witch Doctor's explosive performance, while Pig Brother's livestream also discussed the hero: "I've noticed that Witch Doctor's pick rate in recent matches has been quite high. This hero is awesome, very strong in lane. PV was the first hero they played. Dukalis's Wild Dog would just go for the second and third skills and not learn the first skill, and with a carry with some damage output, he would often crush the opponent's offlaner."

Charles had actually encountered such a witch doctor on the ladder recently, and could only say that he was tormented terribly.

"Indeed, the Witch Doctor is a pretty powerful hero. This time, the Gromp gave up first blood right at the start. It feels like those two brothers in the offlane are going to have a good time!"

As Chao Ge said, in the bottom lane matchup, the combination of Phantom Lancer and Witch Doctor completely dominated the opponent. The advantage of Soul Stone in this matchup lies in the fact that Witch Doctor's level 1 Voodoo Heal provides considerable healing, making him unafraid of being poked.

If the opposing team wants to kill Phantom Spearman, Langgo's Frog Force is a ground skill, and Monkey can simply use his second skill, Divine Speed, to jump away, making it almost impossible to kill Monkey.

On the other hand, if the Soul Stone wants to make a move, as long as the skill level of the Witchcraft Spell is high enough, it can easily deal a lot of damage by coordinating with the Soul Spear of the Phantom Spearman. In addition, they have the advantage of having one blood, and their level will be slightly higher than the opponent's. If they reach level three, it will be easy for them to get a kill.

And that was indeed the case. After the monkey and the witch doctor reached level three first, they unleashed a burst of damage that severely injured Langgo. In the end, Langgo was killed by the final damage of the witchcraft spell under his own turret, succumbing to the poison.

Gu Ran, the Earth Spirit in the mid lane, suppressed VP's mid laner, Bed God, in last-hitting because his innate skill, Residual Rock, can increase attack power. However, since Rolling's second skill provides a shield and his first skill provides a dash, it is unlikely that he can get a kill without the help of a support.

Although VP has a strong Shadow Fiend and Bane combination in the top lane, because of Enigma's summoned mini-Enigma to dispel Nightmare, VP has difficulty getting kills in lane and can only gain a slight economic lead in last hits.

So after the laning phase ended, Soul Stone's side had an advantage in both lanes, and the situation was very good.

Although Lu Chen's Enigma was suppressed by Shadow Fiend before level 6, after level 6 he had Drums of Endurance, the enemy Shadow Fiend was not too willing to defend his own tower alone. After all, if he was pulled by Black Hole and then hit by Enigma's small Enigma's volley, he would die instantly. So he went into the jungle early, and the top tower was pushed down by Enigma at about nine minutes.

[I can come over to help secure the rune in the mid lane this time; we can watch how it goes.]

At 11 minutes and 50 seconds into the match, Lu Chen's Enigma finished clearing the resources in the top half of the map and began to push VP's mid tower. This is the typical rhythm for the hero Enigma. Many viewers who don't watch the game much might think that Enigma is picked just to unleash his ultimate in the late game, but in reality, he is mainly used as a pushing hero.

VP knew that Enigma might gank mid, so they had their mid laner, Pangolier, stand under the tower to farm the creep wave, while Bane stood in the woods next to the first tower to ambush. As a result, just as Stonescale Swordsman used Bluff to clear a wave of creeps, Earth Spirit suddenly rolled onto his face and followed up with Magnetic Grip's silence and ultimate Magnetize. At the same time, Ember Spirit's ultimate Lizard Kiss came from the left side of the map.

The source of the chaos quickly emerged from the nightmare and slept with Gu Ran's earth cat, but he didn't expect that five Soul-Soul Stones would arrive this time.

A phantom spearman and a witch doctor burst forth, unleashing a witchcraft spell followed by a bouncy ball and a soul spear, causing his health bar to melt away like snowflakes.

Meanwhile, the Stone Scale Swordsman was silently taken away by the cannon fire.

After two players died, VP was unable to defend the tower anymore. In the end, the mid-lane tower was destroyed by Lu Chen's Enigma, and the economic difference between the two sides reached 2K.

"After the enemy's mid tower fell, it became much easier for them to launch an attack with Soul Stone. They could easily enter the enemy's jungle and triangle area with Smoke of Deceit, and it was also easier for the mid laner to control runes. The enemy's Pangolier was in trouble. Without the tower, the creep wave was easily pushed over, making it difficult for him to control runes. If he couldn't control runes, he could also lose momentum. It felt like VP was going to be suppressed."

Chao Ge had watched a few of VP's matches, and he roughly knew the opposing team's style. If the mid laner wasn't fed, it was easy for them to play as three carries farming, with the supports camping and waiting for the carries to break through the fog of war.

This perfectly aligns with the tactical approach that the Soul Stone team had planned in advance.

The Soul Stone team wasn't in a hurry at all. After selecting their lineup, they realized that the opponent's two supports lacked initiation. As long as the mid laner didn't have a rhythm, it would be difficult for the opponent to attack. Before Phantom Lancer's power spike arrived, there was no need for them to force fights against the opponent. If they were counter-ganked, it would be equivalent to giving the opponent their rhythm.

Twenty minutes into the match, the Pain Cube refreshed. The VP team quickly gathered in the lower right corner of the map to prepare to control the cube, while the Soul Stone team concentrated in the upper left corner of the map, seemingly having no interest in the cube.

[The enemy's armor reduction system is breaking through the cube too quickly. Our Monkey King doesn't have Aghanim's Scepter yet, so there's no need to engage them in team fights. We'll just wait until they finish the cube and then take down their top tier 2 tower.]

Under Gu Ran's command, VP successfully secured the Rubik's Cube, while on the top lane, a bunch of small puzzles pushed down the Dire's second top tower.

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