From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

The third contestant's video clip was a song called "Young and Promising" (from Xiao Xin Can't Play Solo, you can search for the original song on Bilibili).

I dreamt of that day again—the promise to exchange the shield for the ring.

[Setting the flag~ You look at me and grin like an idiot~]

……

If I were younger and more capable, and could defeat Li Kui, and we met again in the finals, then in a best-of-five series, missing that would be a lifelong regret!

Now I'm middle-aged and without a team, still dwelling on the rights and wrongs of the past—the TI Aegis—which I brought back—YYF?

"LGD's boss is so generous, this is LGD's real boss," the male protagonist said in the download/ban interface, expressing his gratitude for the gift.

This is the scene that appears during the song's interlude.

……

[If I were young and capable, I could defeat Li Kui~ We'd meet again in the finals~ I'd take him away~ I'd bring back the Aegis of Champions and you!]

Now I'm middle-aged, my sword is dusty, and I still have to suffer in the livestream room watching 8 Kings cut off their fake legs... I miss my sword... I want to do it all again!

[One more time at TI10~ This time~ I'm in the observer position~]

As soon as the video appeared, several streamers on screen seemed to be from Bengbu, with Brother Diao even saying directly:

"It's over, it's over..."

The viewers in the live streams had mostly guessed the contestant's true identity, and the number of comments in the live streams surged.

The host waited until everyone had calmed down before speaking:

"Who is this player? You can try to guess. The song gives a pretty clear hint. He also participated in the TI10 commentary."

The last contestant's video clip showed a poor little animal being cornered by two children, with the children's voiceover playing:

"Aren't you being a bit too casual with those two eggs? Did Zeus even need to turn the first egg into one when he came back? And the second egg, what's the point of turning it into one when we were fighting the little dog? Can you please keep that egg for a moment?"

The tone was full of condemnation and questioning.

Another child then came over and fanned the flames:

"They held off a 3v5? They held off two consecutive 3v5 attacks?"

[Two waves] The tone rises, full of disbelief.

"This egg has become too far out of province!"

"This is a celebratory egg! Just crack it open and set off fireworks!"

Later, two more children arrived and also questioned the little animal. Finally, the first child couldn't take it anymore, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to fight.

The video ends with the host smiling.

"Alright, everyone, you can guess who the last player is. Now, I'll give you two minutes to think about it. Here's a hint: all four players are top-tier players in their respective positions. It's impossible to win them all. Please think carefully before making your bids."

As soon as the host finished speaking, all eight team captains began to think, glancing at notebooks or similar objects beside them. They needed to consider the remaining funds of their opponents and the players they had already picked to determine who their biggest competitors were, and then formulate strategies based on the opponents' financial strength.

Su Xiaoman's goal was very clear. She had already decided on the second, third, and fourth positions for her team, and none of them would be particularly valuable. Therefore, she needed a strong player for the first position. After reviewing the roster, she decided to go for XS. This player, who had reached the TI finals three times, was probably the player that everyone wanted to compete for in this competition, but at the same time, his transaction price would inevitably be high.

At this moment, the only teams still lacking a position 1 player are Maybe and ZSMJ, with 900,000 and 1,350,000 coins remaining respectively. The maximum coins they can use to bid for XS are 700,000 and 1,250,000 coins. Su Xiaoman has only spent 100,000 coins to bid for a position 4 player, Shikamaru, and still has 2,400,000 coins remaining.

The analysis is actually quite simple. To be on the safe side, offer 126 million. That leaves 114 million, which is more than enough to buy the remaining three teammates. Since Gu Ran hasn't appeared yet, it's not a good idea to spend more money to snatch Jiang An at this moment.

After thinking it over, Su Xiaoman wrote down 126 million in the cell corresponding to XS, leaving all the other cells empty, and then waited for the time to run out.

After all eight team leaders wrote down their prices, they raised their paddles together. Sure enough, ZSMJ only bid 125 million for the XS slot, which was then outbid by sora by 10,000. Infinite was won by YYF for a high price of 1.3 million, inflame was won by YYF for 550,000, and Jiang An was won by ZHOU for 600,000.

"We've seen some interesting bidding for XS. Captain Sora's bid was only 1 more than the second-highest bidder, Captain ZSMJ. Captain Sora, was this within your expectations?"

The host noticed that only the XS model saw such close bids in this round.

"Yes, that's to be expected. I feel like Brother Jia will spend all the remaining money on player XS, so I'll just bid 10,000 more than his maximum available money."

The host looked as if he had just realized something.

"I see. Captain Sora's bidding strategy this time was a top-notch battle of wits."

The chat was flooded with "awesome!" while Jia Ge's livestream was filled with "jgsb".

In the second round of unannounced shooting, instead of a video, the team captains were informed directly of the four players' IDs and photos: firefly, Huaqiang, TK, and kaka.

Sora observed the situation and found that the teams still lacking the second position were Xie Bin's DD team and DY team. Xie Bin's DD team only had 100,000 yuan left, which was not a concern. DY team had 700,000 yuan left, and the maximum disposable money was 600,000 yuan. Therefore, the offer to Gu Ran would need to be 610,000 yuan.

The teams that still need a third player are ZSMJ and DY, but there are a few former professional players who might not be willing to bid for Lu Chen. So I just need to offer a price that matches his 15100 MMR or slightly higher to secure him.

One minute later, all the team captains raised their paddles—Sora won Firefly for 61, Huaqiang for 33, Diaoge won TK for 45, and Maybe won Kaka for 42.

The four players in the next round of blind auction were: JT, OP, qyqx, and tzy. In this round, only Sora, who was in position 5, could bid. She only had 200,000 left, so she just went ahead and bid until she got it. As a result, JT was won by ZSMJ for 800,000, OP was won by DY for 200,000, tzy was won by Xie Bin DD for 370,000, and qyqx was won by Maybe for 380,000.

In the final round, LaNm and oldfang, both position 5 players, and Baqi, one position 1 player, were up. Sora had 20,000 more points than Chalice, so he bid 200,000 for oldfang, a position 5 player with a MMR of 13000+. Chalice bid 180,000 for LaNm, who had previously served as his coach on the same team. zsmj bid 450,000 for Baqi.

Only two players failed to sell their tickets, so they naturally ended up in the two teams that were still short of players.

The final team composition is as follows:

1. Sora Team: Position 1 XS (126 million), Position 2 firefly (610,000), Position 3 Huaqiang (330,000), Position 4 Shikamaru (100,000), Position 5 oldfang (200,000)

2. Maybe Team: Position 1 Sylar (100,000), Position 2 Maybe (800,000), Position 3 Yang (800,000), Position 4 kaka (420,000), Position 5 qyqx (380,000)

3. Chalice Team: Position 1 oldchicken (320,000), Position 2 setsu (600,000), Position 3 Chalice (600,000), Position 4 FY (800,000), Position 5 LaNm (180,000)

4. Team DY: Position 1 Lou (880,000), Position 2 Bai Xuejia (500,000), Position 3 OP (200,000), Position 4 XinQ (720,000), Position 5 DY (200,000)

5. YYF Team: Position 1 hao (100,000), Position 2 Refuse (1,200,000), Position 3 inflame (550,000), Position 4 Mianmian (300,000), Position 5 redpanda (350,000)

6. Team ZHOU: Position 1 ZHOU (150,000), Position 2 ori (600,000), Position 3 old eleven (700,000), Position 4 TK (450,000), Position 5 Jiang An (600,000)

7. Xie Bin DD Team: Position 1 Monet (128 million), Position 2 Jump Jump (100,000), Position 3 tzy (370,000), Position 4 boboka (650,000), Position 5 Xie Bin DD (100,000)

8.ZSMJ队：一号位霸气（45万），二号位7E（50万）。三号位JT（80万），四号位pyw（65万），五号位ZSMJ（10万）