From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

In this wave, Diao Ge's Luna was instantly melted as the primary target. The Lich next to him took advantage of the chaos to unleash a powerful ultimate and then teleported home from the shadows. However, Jiao Ge's Monkey King saw that the Timbersaw's health was low and had some inappropriate thoughts. He called Doom and Little Squirrel to squat on their own high ground, wanting to see if the Timbersaw would carelessly come up.

As a result, he overestimated his damage. His combination of positioning and ground slam had little effect on the Timbersaw, which had just been fully buffed with active armor. Moreover, the Witch Doctor behind him promptly applied a long shield to the Timbersaw. Rubick then lifted Monkey King from the high platform onto the river, and the Sniper followed up with damage, almost killing Monkey King outright. Fortunately, he managed to use his Mastery ability to move himself to a safe position.

The Timbersaw had just hooked the high ground below and, seeing that it was safe, continued to walk up the high ground. However, Monkey King was driven away, and then Doom appeared. Doom immediately attacked, and although it was eventually burned to death by Doom, the Doom that entered the fray was surrounded by Sniper, Rubick, and Lich and died near its own first tower. Squirrel was also found and taken down by Tiny. In the end, this wave resulted in a one-for-three trade, and the Dire gained a lot.

[Awesome guys, let's go solve a Rubik's Cube!]

Under Lao Fang's command, the Dire team moved to the bottom right corner of the map and took the Pain Cube, after which the economic difference between the two sides reached 6K.

Two minutes later, Jiao Ge's Monkey King saw Rubick ganking the Observer in the main jungle and immediately stunned him with a Ground Slam. Lich followed up with Frost Blast and Shadow Gaze, but Rubick used Telekinesis to throw Monkey King into Lich's face and then used Steal to steal Monkey King's Tree Jump and jump away. The Dire's support in this gank in the main jungle was also timely, and in the end, Monkey King escaped while Lich was killed.

"Wow, Rubick is amazing!"

"The main problem is that Sun Wukong just happened to plan his jump first, but Rubick managed to steal it by jumping over the tree."

The main stage replayed Rubick's amazing play.

After killing the Lich, the Dire side didn't stop. Sniper and Witch Doctor used Smoke of Deceit to reach the Radiant's main jungle in the bottom lane. They spotted a squirrel jungling in the jungle with the ward they had just left there. Tiny also activated Shadow Blade nearby and moved over. Rubick returned to the fountain to replenish his health and then TP'd to his own outpost before moving over.

Tiny found the squirrel first, and with a landslide throw followed by two big attacks, the squirrel died instantly. Just then, Old Eleven's Doom was nearby, and seeing this, he chased after Tiny with Scorched Earth. Brother Diao's Luna also came over to intercept Tiny, but was caught by the Sniper and Witch Doctor who came through the fog. Bouncing Ball stunned Luna, followed by the ultimate move and the Sniper's output, and Luna fell down.

Seeing this, Monkey King also teleported over. Doom activated Black King Bar and used his ultimate on Tiny. Monkey King jumped from a tree to the middle of the battlefield to set up a formation to cut off Sniper's damage. Doom escaped with low health, but was locked down and taken down by Gu Ran's final ultimate. Once Monkey King entered the fray, he naturally couldn't escape either, and was eventually finished off by Sniper.

[Firefly has become a killing machine! And he's even got a double kill!]

Having secured a double kill, Gu Ran returned to the river and spotted a speed rune. He activated Shadow Blade and quickly rushed to the top lane. At that moment, Jiang An's Lich was farming minions in front of the second tower. He had just teleported back to base and couldn't TP to support the battle, but since a team fight had just ended in the main jungle, it was safe for him to farm there.

...is it...?

Just as the Lich finished off the last minion, a destructive effect suddenly appeared on him—Gu Ran's musketeer had already activated his Greatsword, followed by a burst of invisibility and then a shrapnel attack. The Lich was in excruciating pain and could only barely erect an Ice Spike before dying and unleash his ultimate, hoping to at least take down some of the musketeer's health.

However, Gu Ran blasted himself into the triangle area with a magic crystal grenade. The Lich's ultimate skill bounced off him and was redirected to the nearby Ancient Wild. The Musketeer then created space and used his ultimate skill to finish off the Lich.

Firefly defeated Destiny and gained 457 gold coins.

Firefly is unstoppable!

"That solo kill on the Lich and he even dodged his ultimate was amazing!"

The main stage played a replay of this maneuver, and the musket's smooth and skillful handling received unanimous praise from the viewers.

After this wave, the Dire team's economy directly led the Radiant team by 10,000.

At the 27-minute mark, the Dire team gathered and scanned the Radiant main jungle to ensure there was no enemy vision before preparing to secure the Aegis. However, their complete disappearance from the map alerted the Radiant team, who then gathered at their second tower in their base and initiated a smoke gank towards the Roshan pit on the right.

After fighting Roshan for a while, the Dire realized there was no one left on the map and knew that the enemy must have used Smoke of Deceit to come over. So they walked out of the Roshan pit to prepare for a team fight.

Lu Chen's Timbersaw pushed forward, walked down the slope in the Radiant main jungle to the stairs in the small woods near the Radiant Tier 1 tower, broke through the fog and bumped into Luna and Lich. After Luna activated her ultimate, he immediately pushed her to activate her Black King Bar (BKB), then pushed her to the face to force out Luna's BKB before retreating.

Near the Roshan pit, Monkey King leaped from a tree onto Rubick's face, activated Black King Bar, and used his ultimate ability. XS's Tiny, knowing he couldn't fight head-on, harpooned to a tree to the right and escaped. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Roshan pit, Timbersaw provided cover for Witch Doctor and Sniper to push to the back of the pit. Rubick was instantly killed and had to buy back.

Old Eleven's Doom tried to chase but was hit by Lich's Bouncing Ball and Curse. Then, Sniper was dealing damage from the back row. Feeling that he couldn't chase hard, he immediately ordered a retreat. So in the first wave of the fight, Radiant used two Black King Bars and two ultimates to trade for Dire's Rubick and Timbersaw's Black King Bars.

The Radiant team retreated to their own main jungle, and the Dire team didn't chase. They continued to fight for the Roshan and see if the Radiant team dared to come over. However, the opposing team was also cautious. Despite being at a disadvantage in terms of skills and Black King Bar, they did not charge into the Roshan pit. In the end, the Aegis was taken by Gu Ran's Sniper.

After the musketeer was equipped with a shield, he led the team to clear the map, destroying all of Radiant's outer towers before pushing down the middle lane. At this point, Radiant had a 15,000 gold lead.

Gu Ran's musketeer stood outside the tower's range to deal damage, while his teammates stood behind him, ready to initiate a team fight at any moment. Gu Ran could sense that the enemy was likely to make the first move against him.

Overclocking enabled.

Gu Ran fired shot after shot at the enemy's high ground tower, feeling like he was playing an FPS game. Just when the high ground tower had less than a quarter of its health left, he suddenly felt a push, and then he moved forward a distance uncontrollably!

He reflexively activated Black King Bar (BKB), golden light swirling around him, and he felt power filling his entire body. Then he saw a small tree appear in front of him, and a net came towards him from the nearby woods. However, the net dissipated immediately upon touching him, who was immune to debuffs.

It turns out that the Dire player, Senhai Feixia, secretly used the Forest Run to sneak into the grove below their own high ground, used a Force Staff to push Gu Ran forward, and then planted a tree to bind him. This initiation was very imaginative; if successful, it could kill Gu Ran with the Musketeer in front of the tower, making it easy for him to be camped and killed for a second life.

But now that the squirrel has failed to get the first move, it's the Dire's turn. XS's Tiny immediately used Blink Dagger to get close to the squirrel. Gu Ran watched as the squirrel was stunned by a bunch of rolling stones, then thrown into the air, and finally killed by the giant tree in the giant rock's hand.

Suddenly, a monkey jumped from a tree to the back of his house. He set up a monkey formation to kill Rubick, but Rubick jumped away with his Blink Dagger.

Gu Ran immediately turned his gun around and aimed at the monkey that had entered his own formation. With a combination of small physical damage and the witch doctor's ultimate skill, he killed the Great Sage inside the monkey formation.

After killing Monkey King, he turned around and saw that his own Timbersaw had already used Black King Bar to hook onto the high ground. Luna and Doom could not get past Timbersaw and could only retreat. Doom couldn't take it anymore and gave Doom to Timbersaw. Lich also used his ultimate.

So Gu Ran turned his gun around again and started attacking the Lich. Because he was equipped with the Serpent's Breath, he could sometimes fire several bullets at once from his gun barrel, just like a shotgun. Under his violent output, the opponent's health dropped quickly. Moreover, he had a shield on his body, so he didn't retreat an inch and stood still to fight, giving him a feeling of dominating the battlefield and laughing at DOTA.

Tiny also found an opportunity to use his Blink Dagger to enter the fray and eliminate Luna. After their two cores fell, Radiant had no chance to fight back and were pushed down in one wave, destroying all three of their high ground towers before finally calling GG.

After the match, Gu Ran won the MVP award with his perfect individual stats: KDA of 10-1-15 and 45256 damage output, ranking first in the entire game. His scene of standing in the center of the battlefield and dominating the final team fight was included in the compilation of highlights from the first day of the Immortal Cup knockout stage by various video editors. Many viewers got to know this mid-laner who had never heard of him before for the first time through these video clips.

Commentator and host YUNO was not surprised to see the MVP was the Musketeer:

"Our MVP for this match goes to the Musketeer, our player firefly. Many viewers probably didn't know him before the match, and he didn't perform well in the round-robin stage. However, his Musketeer's perfect stats in this match were outstanding, and his quick activation of BKB in the final team fight to neutralize the opponent's initiation was also a brilliant play. I think he deserves this MVP award."

Another commentator, Feng Zhuiyi, chimed in:

"Actually, I've seen this player in a clip from a Pokémon streamer tournament. He had a few memorable moments in that tournament, like Puck dodging a bomb without vision and Storm Spirit rolling over Roshan to steal the Aegis. I feel like this player has very fast reflexes."

In the early stages of this Immortal Cup, his skill level was noticeably weaker than the mid laners of the other teams, but he still managed to make some impact. In today's knockout stage, his Sniper was practically a death sentence for the opposing mid laner, dominating the lane first and then delivering a flawless performance afterwards.

YUNO nodded:

"Yes, this player seems to be only 25 years old, which is considered young for a mid-laner in our CN region. Hopefully, he can perform better and better in our Immortal Cup and show his talent!"

After receiving praise from the two hosts, Gu Ran's live stream became incredibly popular, attracting many viewers eager to see his next move. However, Gu Ran had the delay turned on and couldn't see what was happening in the live stream, as they were seriously discussing the draft picks for the next match.