From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Ten-player buyback battle

[I got a little carried away this time; I shouldn't have tried to kill the Earth Cat.]

Gu Ran admitted that he had been a bit overconfident and misjudged the damage. He also didn't expect Tidehunter to have a Refresher Orb.

This wave of double supports using buybacks but still failing to push down the high ground is actually quite damaging. With the Soul Stone, they dare not push the high ground again. If the double supports die first like before, the Lifestealer will likely be kited and can only wait for the next Roshan fight.

"I feel like the situation is a bit off. Although the Soul Stone side still seems to have a 15K gold advantage, at 52 minutes, the gold advantage is no longer a reliable indicator. The biggest disadvantage for the Soul Stone side right now is that they haven't bought any supports. If their supports get killed in team fights, they'll be outnumbered. But the third Roshan is about to spawn, so they have no choice but to fight."

Charles's tone carried a hint of worry.

"Kill! Brothers! Kill! The enemy's two supports haven't bought back yet. Every kill is one less enemy to take. We have to engage them before they buy back and respawn, VP!"

Chao saw a glimmer of hope for victory.

At this moment, although the two supports on the Spirit Stone side did not buy back, they did not choose to turt and defend. Just as Roshan was about to spawn, Lifestealer entered Puck's body, and they collectively activated Smoke of Deceit, hoping to take down VP's players first by initiating an attack.

In the mid lane, we saw an Earth Spirit farming minions. Puck initiated, Lifestealer emerged, and Reinhardt immediately used his ultimate. The three cores' output was explosive. Although VP's Bane was nearby and used Nightmare and Claw to interrupt some of the damage, Earth Spirit was still instantly killed.

However, after the King of the Hundred Plays used his escape skill to break the claw, he was exposed to VP's vision. The opponent's counterattack came quickly. Tidehunter made another decisive jump to keep the King of the Hundred Plays in place. Then he pressed refresh and used his ultimate again. The time of the two ultimates was finally enough for VP's Templar Assassin to arrive on the battlefield and take down the King of the Hundred Plays with a stealth attack.

The King of Hundred Entertainments bought a live death.

After killing the Hundred Plays, VP chose not to engage in a direct confrontation with the Lifestealer in the absence of Earth Spirit, and retreated as a group. Templar Assassin immediately activated Black King Bar and ran away, and Earth Spirit also used Buyback.

Although Jiangxia's Clockwerk had his ultimate, he was hesitant to keep anyone in place. While he could potentially take down another enemy core with the help of the Little Dog, Baixi had already bought back and died. If Clockwerk died too, and the enemy had another buyback, it would be a 3v5 situation, which they definitely couldn't win. Therefore, the Soul Stones had no choice but to retreat.

Roshan's health dropped rapidly under the Templar Assassin's damage output. Knowing that the enemy was attacking Roshan, Soul Stone could only try to engage in the team fight, since they had the advantage of the outpost and all three core heroes had buybacks.

On the Soul Stone side, Gu Ran jumped into the Roshan pit first to provide vision, and saw Tidehunter and Templar Assassin. He immediately used his ultimate on both of them. Templar Assassin immediately retreated to the right of the Roshan pit. The moment Clockwerk saw Templar Assassin, he immediately used his ultimate to hook her. Reinhardt also followed up with his ultimate to try to catch Templar Assassin, but Templar Assassin used his ultimate at the last second to push himself out of Clockwerk's gear. Reinhardt could not hit Templar Assassin when he landed, so he could only choose to kill the Keeper of the Light next to him first.

The puppy was pulled back by Bane as it walked into the Roshan pit, but Gu Ran's Puck silenced Bane in time. The puppy then went on a rampage against Earth Spirit, but Earth Spirit was very tanky with Magnetize and Bloodstone. On the other side, Clockwerk had no one to follow up and was killed by Templar Assassin.

"This wave shows the strength of the Earth Spirit hero. In the late game, Earth Spirit doesn't need much skill. Just press the ultimate and Bloodstone to survive for a long time. Puck and Reinhardt can only scratch him. When their two supports died, they tried to kill the Earth Spirit who bought back, but failed. Instead, Lifestealer and Reinhardt were killed by Templar Assassin who arrived later."

On the main stage, the commentator's tone was tinged with anxiety.

"I feel like Soul Stone shouldn't have taken on this shield team! They should have just given the shield to the other side. This is a huge loss!"

Gu Ran's Puck was powerless against the enemy's bunch of tanky heroes and the Keeper of the Light's healing, so he had no choice but to retreat. This was a VP wave.

Control Roshan's Aegis.

Don't give out buy-outs, let's set up two routes. We don't want to engage the other side since we're not fully manned.

The Soul Stone team was very patient, just watching as VP destroyed their top and bottom lanes.

After VP destroyed two lanes, those who saw the Soul Stone were basically about to respawn, so they chose to retreat for safety, and the economic gap between the two sides narrowed to 1k.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have tried to steal that shield. It wouldn't have mattered if the enemy TA had one!"

Charles also started to offer hindsight analysis, saying that the previously advantageous situation has now become a 50/50 match. The advantage is that VP's Earth Spirit and Keeper of the Light are currently on cooldown for buyback, so they dare not push the last lane of high ground, fearing that if Earth Spirit buys back and dies, the game will end immediately.

"Is this going to drag on to ninety minutes again? I think neither side is too hesitant to fight. Holy crap, this Templar has a Divine Rapier, and the neutral one is a Divine Crown. Their damage output is insane!"

The match slowly dragged on for sixty minutes, with the situation evenly matched on both sides, and everyone had acquired level 5 neutral items.

At 62 minutes, the fourth Roshan spawned, and both sides activated Smoke of Deceit. All ten players on the field had buybacks. The Soul Stone was prepared to clear their own main jungle first. They had a ward on the high ground in their main jungle to the right of the second mid tower, but as soon as they got to the bottom of the high ground, they saw the enemy Earth Spirit!

Gu Ran reacted the fastest, taking the lead and using Blink Dagger to enter the fray, then used his ultimate to bind the enemy Earth Spirit, Templar Assassin, and Keeper of the Light. Clockwerk tried to hook Keeper of the Light but was outmaneuvered by Eul's Scepter. Hundred Plays King followed up with Wonder Wheel and Beastmaster, Dawnbreaker followed with his ultimate, and Lifestealer activated Berserk and chased after the tankiest Earth Spirit.

VP's Tidehunter used Blink Dagger to jump onto the backline's Hundred-Player King, intending to use the same strategy as before to kill the support first. He refreshed his ultimate and used it twice to solo kill the Hundred-Player King, but the Hundred-Player King had buyback this time, so he immediately bought back and rushed to the battlefield.

After the frenzy ended, the little dog continued to chase and bite Earth Spirit with Black King Bar. Bane tried to use Claw to interrupt the little dog's output, but Puck silenced Bane. Templar Assassin with Divine Rapier chose to attack the second tank, Dawnbreaker. After the little dog bit Earth Spirit to low health, it used Aghanim's Scepter to enter Earth Spirit's body. Earth Spirit rolled away from the center of the battlefield but was bitten to death by the little dog inside. At the same time, Reinhardt was also taken down by Templar Assassin.

XS kills Abed, earning 620 gold + 1084 gold, split among 4 heroes.

Timado kills Huaqiang, earning 621 gold + 1056 gold split among 4 heroes.

Earth Spirit and Dawn Star were instantly bought back the moment they died!

The puppy turned around to attack Templar Assassin, but was caught by Bane's second ultimate. Templar Assassin's damage output with Divine Rapier was explosive, taking down Templar Assassin in two hits.

With the help of Tidehunter's output, nearly half of the little dog's health was taken down, while Gu Ran's Puck's Silence was on cooldown and couldn't cut off the claws of the source of chaos!

Just as the puppy was about to be beaten to death, the king of acrobatics who bought it back arrived in time and saved the puppy with an escape technique!

After the puppy emerged from the box, it unleashed its Berserk ability and bit the Templar Assassin. Clockwerk stunned the Templar Assassin with a Cataclysm followed by a Power Coil, and the Templar Assassin's health bar vanished like snowflakes. The Templar Assassin died, and the Divine Rapier fell to the ground. Although the puppy was left with only low health, the enemy's highest damage dealer had already fallen, and the remaining brothers couldn't finish him off!

He turned around and slapped the low-health Tide, scaring Tide into quickly eating the cheese. The dead should be immediately revived by buying back their lives, but this place is closer to the Radiant, so the Soul Stone will definitely arrive faster after buying back their lives!

"Wait a minute! Templar Assassin got Aghanim's Scepter! After buying back, he used Thunder God to teleport to Psionic Trap and immediately returned to the battlefield! He picked up Divine Rapier and killed Lifestealer in two hits!"

The commentator's voice suddenly grew louder, and the audience's hearts were in their throats. They thought the team fight was about to be won, but the enemy Templar Assassin was able to buy back and instantly arrive at the battlefield. Obviously, Soul Stone hadn't expected this, as no one had picked up the Divine Sword!

After buying back, the puppy needed time to get back to the battlefield, so his teammates had to retreat as a group. VP took advantage of the situation and killed the Hundred Plays King, who had just made a deep mistake to save the puppy. The Hundred Plays King was the first to buy back and die.

I can stir up trouble!

In pursuit of VP, all four members arrived near the Radiant's second lower tower. Bane, in the backline, was spotted by Clockwerk's Flare and hooked by his ultimate. Gu Ran followed up with damage, severely damaging Bane. VP's Keeper of the Light returned and used Eul's Scepter on Bane, but Lifestealer and Reinhardt also returned to the battlefield. After Eul's Scepter ended, Bane was immediately melted.

While the Soul Stone was dealing damage to the Source of Chaos, the Templar Assassin chose to attack Reinhardt first. Reinhardt had also bought back, but he was not afraid of TA's output at all. He stunned TA with a big stun and was about to burst TA down. Earth Spirit and Tidehunter also came over to follow up with the output. Reinhardt was no match for the three and finally fell.

"Reinhardt bought back and died! Two people bought back and died with Soul Stone! Where are the dog and Puck? They're nowhere to be seen!"

VP was also puzzled. When TA couldn't see anyone, he could only hide in place. Tidehunter moved forward to try and leave a clockwork, but Gu Ran's Puck jumped onto TA's face. Then, the little dog crawled out from Gu Ran's body, activated Berserk, and used a stun hammer to control TA. In just a few bites, he killed the Templar Assassin whose Refraction had just been broken!

It turns out that the puppy felt it would be easy to be kited if it charged directly at TA's face, so it quietly crawled into Gu Ran's body. Gu Ran also watched as the hammer was surrounded and beaten by the three opponents, and endured until the puppy's stun hammer cooldown and his own Blink Dagger cooldown were ready, and finally killed TA who bought back!

TA fell, and the fully healed Little Dog started to roam. He first chased down Tidehunter and killed him. Tidehunter immediately bought back. Then he chased Earth Spirit. Earth Spirit activated Black King Bar and Magnetize. His health was like a roller coaster. On the contrary, Puck and Clockwerk, who were affected by Magnetize, were taken down, but they also immediately bought back.

The puppy couldn't catch up with anyone without help, so with half health, it chose to go back to retrieve the Divine Rapier. Just as it took two steps back, the Tidehunter arrived on the battlefield, used Blink Dagger to get right in front of the puppy, placed a Magic Crystal on it to tether it, and then activated its Green Staff to prevent the puppy from attacking it.

"How dare they go up against this tide? The little dog will bite him to death!"

From a top-down perspective, VP simply didn't have enough damage output to kill the enemy carry, but Tidehunter might still want to give it a try.

It's also possible that they're just here to stall for time.

But the puppy wasn't flustered at all. He first activated Berserk and took down the heavy anchor, then directly burrowed into Tidehunter's body. He was worried about not being able to hit the other side, but Tidehunter insisted on showing off in his face, so he definitely couldn't let him get away with it!

Look at the stray cat!

Of the remaining three opponents, only Earth Cat still had some damage output, so the two remaining members of the Soul Stone team were actually keeping an eye on Ten Cat's position. Once Ten Cat was killed, the opponents would have no more damage output.

The remaining two VP players were watching Tidehunter, and then Clockwerk's ultimate cooldown was ready again. He hooked Earth Spirit, and Gu Ran followed up with Dream Coil. Lifestealer emerged from Tidehunter's body at full health and charged at Earth Spirit, unleashing a barrage of attacks. Keeper of the Light used Eul's Scepter to save Earth Spirit, but Earth Spirit was hit by a stun hammer as soon as he landed. He tried to roll away but Gu Ran blocked his roll, and in the end, he was scratched to death!

With Earth Spirit down, Tidehunter had to retreat. Clockwerk left Keeper of the Light behind, and Keeper of the Light used buyback after he died.

In the end, all ten players bought back in this team fight. With the Soul Stone, only three players survived: Lifestealer, Puck, and Clockwerk. VP was left with only Tidehunter and Keeper of the Light.

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