From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Immortal Cup, fourth online training match, day four.

Today, Gu Ran's team is facing Diao Ge's team.

Old Fang sat in front of the computer screen, wearing dark headphones, staring at the screen with a serious expression. They had lost for two days in a row and desperately needed a victory to boost morale.

The first pick was Bane of the Bane for position 5, while the opponent picked Ember Spirit, a strong hero in this patch.

[This grandma is most likely a mid-laner. If we don't have Venomancer, how about we give you Zeus to carry the team?]

Gu Ran nodded. Grandma is a mid-lane dominant hero. If he were to force a hero with a three-cat-one-roll rhythm against Grandma, he would likely get crushed in lane again. Since he doesn't have enough skill yet, he can choose a hero that's easy to play and rely on his teammates to carry him.

So our position 2 pick was Zeus, while the opponent picked Rubick, a strong support in this patch. Both Zeus and Bane had decent skills this game. Later, our position 3 picked Axe to add control, paired with Senhai and Feixia in position 4.

On this side, Jiang An, the number five player, is in charge of drafting and banning.

[If we're going to fight Axe and Squirrel, I think we could build Undying, which would also synergize well with Drow Ranger.]

Sure, you can take it directly.

Team Diao's safe lane combination has been confirmed as Dark Ranger and Undying. This safe lane combination is very classic. Undying tanks in front, while Dark Ranger in the back row provides damage and slows. Most of the offlane combinations will suffer greatly when facing these two.

In the last two picks, the opposing team banned Tiny and Faceless Void, two of our carry XS's signature heroes, while we banned Reinhardt and Timbersaw and picked Alchemist, while the opposing team picked Brewmaster.

The lineup is finalized: Alchemist in position 1, Zeus in position 2, Axe in position 3, Senhai Feixia in position 4, and Bane in position 5.

The opponent's lineup consists of Drow Ranger in position 1, Ember Spirit in position 2, Brewmaster in position 3, Rubick in position 4, and Undying in position 5.

Inside Brother Feng's live stream:

"So, what's your pick for this match? Which team composition do you think is better?"

"I feel like this lineup is a bit easier for Diao Ge. Although Zeus in the mid lane is easy to play, I feel like Nyx is still stronger in terms of mid-game tempo. The bottom lane Drow Ranger and Undying are also very strong. On the Dire side, I feel like only the Alchemist lane is a bit easier to play, but I can't say that the advantage is that big."

In response to Brother Feng's question, Brother Jia offered his own understanding.

As the commentators said, at six minutes and fifty seconds into the game, Alchemist in the top lane had a 1000 gold lead over Brewmaster, Nyx Assassin in the mid lane had a 300 gold lead over Zeus, and Drow Ranger in the bottom lane had an 800 gold lead over Axe.

Although no kills occurred in the bottom lane, Axe and Squirrel's health was reduced to a low level. At this crucial moment, the seven-minute experience shrine respawned. Taking advantage of the Radiant creep wave entering the Dire bottom lane tower, Undying erected a tombstone, preparing to tower dive and kill Axe under the tower.

However, the Dire side was prepared for this. Jiang Xia's Senhai Feixia had already moved to the top lane, wanting to steal the opponent's experience shrine while the opponent was not paying attention. Meanwhile, Gu Ran's Zeus in the mid lane also came from the Dire triangle area to the vicinity of his own second tower to prepare for support.

"The Nightbringer has also teleported to the bottom lane. Two of our heroes are being surrounded by three! Dangerous!"

"Wait a minute! Grandma controlled an Arcane Rune and unleashed her ultimate, Lizard Kiss! It hit so accurately! Zeus is dead! Brother Diao immediately countered with an Ice Arrow at Bane, and the little zombies on Tombstone are also attacking him; Bane is going to die too!"

The situation was changed by the support of Ember Spirit. Axe, who was already low on health, had no choice but to retreat when he saw the cannon. The battle in the bottom lane ended with the Radiant team getting two kills and stealing the experience shrine. The squirrel in the top lane failed to steal the shrine and was also hit hard by Brewmaster and Rubick.

Losing the first experience shrine will lead to a level disadvantage for the support in the early game. If the enemy support reaches level six first and unlocks their ultimate, they can gank first, which is usually the first step in snowballing.

Rubick's ultimate, Arcane Flamebringer, had a very fast cooldown. A minute and a half later, the ultimate was off cooldown again. Rubick then used Smoke of Deceit to gank Zeus, who was farming in the Dire jungle.

"Although Zeus can hold off his opponent's lane during the laning phase, his ability to control the tempo in the mid-game is still not as good as Ember Spirit."

As Jia Ge predicted, the chat was flooded with "jgnb" (a vulgar expression of disbelief).

With Zeus's head in hand, the Lightning Bolt's economy reached 4,500, and the Shoes of Flight reel had already begun shipping.

Two minutes later, Ember Spirit, with his ultimate ability ready, pushed the top lane Dire tier 1 tower with his support. A long-range blast combined with the vision provided by Undying's Tombstone's small zombies instantly killed Bane, who was hiding behind the tower. Twelve minutes later, Granny, who had secured the Haste rune in the mid lane, used Boots of Travel to the bottom lane and killed the enemy Axe.

[The rhythm of this Ember Spirit's ultimate move is so satisfying]

[It's middiff now.]

The screen was flooded with comments.

"But there's a problem. The Dire's Alchemist hasn't been caught yet. Although the Radiant team has a kill lead, the Dire's Alchemist is too fed. The Dire team actually has a gold lead. This Alchemist is going to get Radiance in 14 minutes. He's too fed, bro."

EyeBro discovered a hidden crisis beneath Radiant's seemingly smooth situation: the greedy alchemist with the Alchemist's gold farming speed was unreasonable, and he was about to get the Radiance, which would take his gold farming speed to another level. If Radiant let this go unchecked, this Alchemist could very well lead the team to a comeback.

It wasn't that the Radiant didn't want to gank; the teammate had already warned his Alchemist that he had never been caught. However, from a god's-eye view, every time the Radiant used Smoke of Deceit to search for someone, Alchemist seemed to hear an alarm and would automatically move away from dangerous areas or have his support help break the smoke. Moreover, he never touched dangerous lanes, basically letting the economically disadvantaged Zeus take the hits, minimizing the loss if he got caught.

Seventeen minutes into the game, Gu Ran's Zeus teleported to his mid-lane second tower to clear a wave of minions. Lao Fang's Bane, playing position 5, ambushed him from the trees on the left. After clearing the minions, Gu Ran saw the support ambushing him and continued forward to clear another wave. Bane followed him from the left rune spot to the enemy's first tower high ground to set up vision.

Just as Gu Ran was about to retreat, the effect of Atos's Staff hit him in the face.

"Holy crap, Grandma's in trouble! Help!"

Gu Ran was trapped and couldn't jump out even with his third skill, so he could only shout for help.

However, the first to reach him was the opposing team's Electro-Flame Hand—he walked up to Zeus and threw a cookie, followed by a spray gun. The damage output of the Magic Crystal Cookie was terrifying, and Zeus's health was immediately reduced to zero.

When the source of pain walked over from the opposite high platform, he saw that the enemy Rubick was also coming over. He had no choice but to use Nightmare to put Rubick to sleep, but his ultimate was on cooldown. This was the only skill he could use to save someone. After cutting off Rubick, he could only watch helplessly as Zeus was killed by Ember Spirit's Thunder Hand.

"In the first wave of the 'Electric Flame' attack on Athos, Zeus got caught in the crossfire. Poor Zeus!"

Feng Ge silently mourned for Zeus for a few seconds. There was nothing he could do about being killed by the enemy's newly acquired equipment. He could only tell his teammates, "Grandma Atos is dead," to show that his death had some purpose.

"No, no, Alchemist used Blink Dagger! Alchemist Blinked over and used a 'Shake It Up' to blast Ember Spirit over here, then activated Acid Spray and his ultimate to go all out. Rubick came over to interrupt him, but it was useless. Grandma can't outrun Alchemist, she got stuck and killed!"

"Axe has also used Blink Dagger! Rubick got slammed down, and Undying came over to try and save him, but Soul Eater's healing is limited. Without Tombstone, Undying can't save this Ember Spirit. It's over, Undying is dead too."

XS kills Ori, gaining 557 gold + 252 gold, which is split among the three heroes.

Ori's unstoppable dominance has come to an end.

XS kills Tianming and receives 267 gold coins + 140 gold coins, which are split equally among the three heroes.

[Double kill!]

"The enemy Alchemist used Blink Dagger in the first wave, and Axe also used Blink Dagger."

There was only one weak message in the team's voice chat channel.

"Oh no, this Alchemist has 12,000 gold after this wave of attacks. He has Blink Dagger, Radiance, Phase Boots, Soul Ring, Magic Wand, and Bracers. He'll have half the gold for his next Black King Bar."

The commentators all wailed for Diao Ge, as if they could see the end of Diao Ge's team.