From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Bilibili Livestream Room: [Living a Slower Pace After Retirement]

By 10:30 p.m., the number of viewers in the room had reached 20000, with over 700 captains, admirals, and governors combined, clearly indicating that this was a live stream from a major streamer.

However, the screen only showed the DOTA2 game footage, and the streamer's face was not even visible. The chat was also largely ignored, and the streamer's words could only be heard occasionally when there was a need for in-game communication.

Another MVP performance with outstanding stats carrying the entire game. Just as the streamer was about to click "Start Game" to queue for another ranked match, a message came from a friend in the game:

firefly: Yu-ge, there's an HG match coming up later, want to commentate together?

The mouse hovered over the screen for a few seconds, at which point the comments section started flooding with messages:

"Watch the game! Watch the game!"

"I want to see my brother's comments on Mao Ge's mid-lane gameplay!"

"I'm getting a bit tired of watching solo queue all the time, let's do some commentary for the guys."

Perhaps persuaded, a soft voice came from the other side of the screen:

"Alright, let's take a look."

I jumped into the team's YY chat and found that everyone was already there.

[Brother Yu is here!]

[So, are there clean streams available? If so, we'll watch the streams instead of the client to avoid spoilers.]

[Watching the stream, watching the stream, watching the stream.]

The brothers opened the clean stream provided by the platform and saw that the draft phase had ended and the match was about to begin.

This should be the last tournament before the Petroleum Cup. HG's performance this year hasn't been great, but luckily their opponent is Sprite, whose recent form has also been average.

Su Xiaoman is probably the team's biggest fan of watching matches. Even if HG gets crushed by other teams, she will still watch the whole thing. In her words, she wants to learn from the defeats.

"This time, Mao Ge actually picked the Musketeer. Is he getting serious?"

"Get a musket~ Lars will be scared out of his wits~ (from Mao Ge, Mao Ge)"

"41 muskets, Mao, charge!"

The viewers in the live chat noticed that Mao Ge had chosen the Musketeer and became very enthusiastic.

[This sniper is indeed quite good. He can take down a puck in the mid lane, and HG's lineup can also protect him. It's just that the sniper isn't very strong in this version. Let's see how Mao Ge performs.]

Lao Fang gave his comments on the draft picks and bans.

I also feel that Sprite hasn't been performing well this year. What do you guys think is the reason?

While the match was still in the laning phase, Gu Ran casually brought up a topic.

[I think it's related to the version we just discussed. Sprite has always been a team that emphasizes team fights, so many people think they're similar to our CN teams, liking to pick team fight compositions. But actually, they have one thing they do better than us, and that's vision control.]

Su Xiaoman, as expected of a competition expert, spoke fluently about the situation of various foreign teams:

[Actually, during TI10, some people liked to praise how amazing Crash's Magnus was, and others praised how great Ya Tou's tank carry was. But few people noticed that their position 5 player, Miposhka, had such excellent vision control. Why were they able to avoid fights so effectively in the early game when choosing a teamfight composition? Why could Crash always find someone to push back and kill when he used Smoke of Deceit? It was all because their position 5 player had excellent vision control. Of course, it was also related to the players being in good form and being able to switch screens in time to read this map information.]

[Now, Sprite has changed both his position 4 and position 5 players. Although mid laner Lar is also a TI champion, most people think that he was mainly carried by position 1 and 3 players that year. Their vision control isn't as good as it used to be. Also, YaTouRou and KaichuangGe aren't in good form either, so naturally their performance in matches is just average.]

After Su Xiaoman finished speaking, she realized that no one was responding. She then realized that there was someone in the group who had experienced the events firsthand. She had been so excited talking about Sprite that she had forgotten about this, and now she felt a little awkward.

[That makes sense, I think you're absolutely right. Vision is really important. The map is so big now, there are so many places to place wards. Knowing which wards might spot the enemy, and where the enemy might place wards, can create a huge advantage for the team if you can win vision battles.]

Lao Fang readily agreed with Xiao Man's point of view.

I feel that vision control needs to be in sync with the team's rhythm, and even requires some prediction of the team's next move. It's also related to the situation. If the situation is bad, it's actually very difficult for us supports to provide vision. If the enemy has a gem that can scan the map, our map might become completely dark. But when we have an advantage, we have many places to provide vision, and it's very difficult for the enemy to counter.

Jiang Xia also joined the discussion. Although he was not the main player for buying wards as the fourth position, he still needed to have a good understanding of vision control. It was impossible to rely solely on the fifth position to provide vision control.

[Could this be because people don't pay as much attention to vision control in ranked matches, and when flamed, they rarely criticize supports for poor vision control? But then again, the pace of ranked matches is very different from professional matches, and the vision control is different too...]

Lu Chen wanted to join the conversation, but as he talked, he realized that he seemed to be contradicting himself.

【Wait! Why is there a fight in mid lane? The enemy is diving the tower to kill my hero, help!】

The brothers then realized that they were commentating on the match between HG and Sprite, rather than collectively reviewing the game.

[Three against one, and Mao Ge turned the tables and killed one of them. Do they even know how to play?!]

[They're just targeting my brother Mao, they're so mean!]

In fact, HG's current rhythm is very similar to when Gu Ran and his team first formed. Basically, they rely on Mao Ge to carry in every game. They can handle teams that are a level below them domestically with ease, but once they go abroad to face strong foreign teams, Mao Ge is basically always targeted. And once Mao Ge is suppressed, HG has a hard time making a sound.

The same was true for this match. Although Sprite was already showing signs of weakness against strong teams, they were able to demonstrate their unparalleled team fight prowess against HG. Although they did not gain an advantage in the laning phase, they gradually snowballed their lead after several strategic maneuvers in the mid-game. HG struggled to cope and were constantly caught out at crucial moments, ultimately leading to a GG at 45 minutes.

"Hey, Brother Mao still can't do it?"

"He's once again fulfilling his filial duty to his father, Ral!"

"RNM, refund my money!"

"Keep going, keep going, there's one more!"

After losing the match, the chat was mostly filled with criticism of HG. Some people were directly criticizing them, some were sarcastic, and some were even pretending to be fans. In short, everyone had a lot of resentment that needed to be vented.

Actually, I feel that watching the game is sometimes like gambling. We bet our passion and expectations on our favorite team. If they win, it feels as good as if we won ourselves. But if they lose, it feels as bad as if we lost ourselves.

You can choose not to support anyone from the start and just enjoy the game, but that's like watching a horse race without betting; you won't experience the thrill of winning.

Gu Ran shared his thoughts. He had been watching competitions for many years and had once watched them in a relaxed, Buddhist-like manner, but later he felt that it was meaningless. However, he was afraid of losing when watching Chinese teams, so he stopped liking to watch international competitions and preferred to watch domestic community competitions, such as Pokémon or the Immortal Cup, where at least the Chinese team was the winner.