From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Five minutes and forty seconds into the game, in the middle of the river.

DstoneS killed Firefly and gained 353 gold coins.

Gu Ran sighed in frustration. His disadvantage in the early laning phase meant he reached level six later than the enemy mid laner, Electrifying Hand, and the enemy seized that opportunity.

"In this version, Ember Spirit is still too strong in the mid lane. He's a monster in lane. Firefly was already at a level disadvantage, and he was killed by a single ultimate after being level six ahead. However, he had already secured two kills with Skyfire before that, so his economy wasn't too bad. Also, Ember Spirit used his ultimate, which reduced the pressure on the side lanes."

Brother Diao analyzed the situation.

"Actually, Kael's economy wasn't high to begin with, so it's okay that he took this ultimate. But if Windranger, who has the highest economy on this side, gets ganked, then the Dire will be in real danger."

Feng's words came true. At 10 minutes and 30 seconds, Ember Spirit roamed the top lane. Mars used Arena of Valor to trap Windranger and the two supports. Ember Spirit unleashed a barrage of fire, killing all three members of the Dire team. Before dying, he managed to take down one of the Rangos.

"One for three, the Dire are in trouble. They're down 2,000 gold."

Xie BinDD looked serious. Before the match, he thought the Nightmare side would be easier to beat.

At this moment, the comments in several live streams were generally pessimistic about Dire, believing that Dire was basically finished.

[It's okay, we're just in a weak period right now. The enemy has too many skills to use in the early game. We should try to play defensively and avoid team fights before Windranger gets her Black King Bar.]

Jiang Xia spoke calmly. After receiving the order to avoid battle, the Nightshade team tried to stay in their positions and avoid large-scale team fights with the enemy. At most, they would engage in low-intensity ganks in certain areas.

After Gu Ran finished building his Invoker's Meteor Hammer and Boots of Travel, he added a Magic Crystal to enhance Ghost Walk, focusing on farming and avoiding team fights. Windranger also prioritized building Maelstrom and then Black King Bar as her second item. Supports stayed close to the carries to help break the fog of war and prevent being caught, only occasionally catching one person when Brewmaster had his ultimate.

At the 20-minute mark, the Pain Cube respawned, but the Dire remained unmoved, showing no intention of contesting it. The Radiant successfully secured the cube, widening the economic gap between the two sides to 4,000.

The situation remained deadlocked for a while, and the streamers began to feel that something was wrong.

"Why does it feel like things have stalled a bit? Although Tianhui has an advantage, it's not that big. They only gained a 4,000 gold difference after taking a magic crystal. It might not be easy to win in the future."

After ordering his milk tea, Feng glanced at the economic gap between the two sides and then at the current match time: twenty-three minutes.

At this point, the Radiant team started organizing their attack on the Aegis. They also felt the need to pick up the pace, so they collectively moved towards the Roshan pit. It was relatively fast for five people to attack Roshan together, and with Lang's healing abilities, they didn't lose much health.

However, when they were halfway through fighting Roshan, two small fire spirits summoned by Kael suddenly entered, and then Windranger's powerful slam also came from outside to interfere. In this situation, they could not fight the Aegis head-on, otherwise the enemy would easily come in and take them down along with the Aegis. So the Radiant team had to retreat as a group and then use Smoke of Deceit to prepare for a team fight.

"There's something going on here. I checked and Windranger is getting her Black King Bar and Invoker is getting his Aghanim's Scepter. With those two key items, Dire might not be afraid of the enemy in a team fight. If Radiant doesn't realize that the enemy's power spike is coming, things could get messed up."

Just before the team fight was about to break out, Brother Diao observed the equipment on both sides.

"On the Dire side, Brewmaster went first, he switched to a Green Fist and was sacrificing himself, and then the Radiant really did initiate on Brewmaster's move. Tiny's Avalanche, followed by Mars's Spear, then Ember Spirit followed by Cannon Barrage, but after only two hits, Brewmaster went back to attack the Dire backline? The Radiant Lich quickly followed up with Shadow Gaze, but the damage output wasn't enough. Brewmaster's health was almost gone, but he managed to unleash his ultimate at the last second!"

When Brewmaster had only 120 health left, he managed to use Elemental Split at the last second, which signaled that the balance of the team fight was beginning to tilt towards the Dire side.

Windranger immediately activated her ultimate and Black King Bar and charged in, locking onto Tiny with her ultimate. Taking advantage of the chaos, Invoker activated his Aghanim's Scepter and used Devastate—summoning two Sunbursts under the feet of all enemy heroes. Since the Radiant team was focused on eliminating Brewmaster, they were mostly standing together, making it difficult to dodge these two Sunbursts by moving around, and they were also likely to walk into the enemy's Sunburst. In addition, the Dire team had Earthshaker's Stone Golem and Windranger's Bind, among other crowd control abilities.

"Holy crap, that Heavenly Fire attack is insanely powerful!"

Brother Jia passionately commented that this team fight actually ended in victory for the Dire side. Tiny, seeing the situation was not good, wanted to use Black King Bar and Teleport, but he was headshot by Windranger and couldn't withstand the damage at all. He was shot to death before he could teleport back to base.

Mars was stunned by the Brewmaster's clone, the Wind Panda, and took a lot of damage from the Great Fireball. He was then constantly attacked by the Brewmaster and eventually died. Langgo also died from an unknown AoE attack. Only Pyroblast and Lich, who were positioned at the back, survived by sheer luck.

"Something's not right after this fight. The economic gap has been completely wiped out, and Windranger even got the Aegis. Radiant, you're in danger!"

Yanzi summarized the situation after this shield team fight.

"This wave was made possible by Brewmaster's Green Fist. The level 4 Green Fist grants 20% magic resistance and 9 armor. This Brewmaster is very tanky. He came up to sacrifice himself, but the Radiant team felt they were very strong and went straight for Brewmaster. If they had known that the opponent already had key items and was fully capable of fighting back, they probably wouldn't have been so reckless in attacking a Brewmaster who was obviously just coming up to sacrifice himself."

As a skilled player specializing in the Brewmaster class, Feng Ge accurately analyzed the most likely reasons why the Radiant team lost this team fight.

Two minutes later, the Dire gathered four players to push the enemy's bottom lane second tower. When they reached the jungle next to the Radiant's first tower, Brewmaster was about to go up the slope when he was ambushed by the enemy Lich and Mars. Lich immediately used Shadow Gaze followed by his ultimate, Chain Frost, and then placed an Ice Spike next to Brewmaster. Chain Frost bounced endlessly on the pillar and on Brewmaster, causing Brewmaster's health to plummet. Mars used Spear of the Goddess just as the control effect was about to end, and Brewmaster couldn't withstand the attack and died instantly.

When Jiang Xia's Rubick lifted Mars with his telekinetic ability, Brewmaster had already fallen. Windranger rushed over from the side and, knowing that Mars and Lich's abilities were on cooldown, immediately used her ultimate to focus fire on Mars. Mars could only raise his shield and retreat. Lich also applied a Frost Shield to him, so his health didn't drop too quickly.

The opposing Ember Spirit was also nearby. He walked over and fed himself a Lava Cake to try and stop Windranger, but Windranger used her Black King Bar (BKB) to become immune to control effects and continued to chase and shoot Mars.

"This damage is clearly insufficient. If Windranger continues chasing, she'll be caught and killed once her Black King Bar expires, right?"

Xie Bin DD was a little confused.

"A hidden tree is already approaching! It unleashes a powerful ultimate, growing wildly and entangling four enemies! The tree ignores debuff immunity, and even Mars with Black King Bar is entangled. At this moment, Invoker's Heavenly Strike deals maximum damage, and Mars is already at zero health!"

With his sharp eyes, Brother Diao spotted the almost transparent Treant Protector first. As soon as Mars activated his Black King Bar, he used his ultimate to trap Mars, Ember Spirit, and Tiny, who was waiting for an opportunity to engage with Shadow Blade. Gu Ran's devastating attack perfectly complemented Treant Protector's control, instantly killing the low-health Ember Spirit. Mars also escaped with almost no health.

"Windrunner, Power Shot! Hit!"

Unable to catch Mars, Windranger could only rely on instinct to unleash Power Slam, which happened to hit the fleeing Mars, triggering the Power Slam's finishing effect.

Windranger (the delicious maggot) has taken over the game!

[The delicious maggots destroy the city wall, earning 389 gold coins + 408 gold coins split equally among 3 heroes]