From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Everyone was in a good mood after winning the first round of the knockout stage. After reviewing the game, they all went to solo queue. Captain Su Xiaoman was responsible for watching the games and observing the opponents' draft picks and ward placements to prepare for the winners' bracket matches.

The next day, the Immortal Cup online knockout stage, first round of the winners' bracket, Sora vs. Chalice.

Today's commentary will still be provided by Feng Zhuiyi and YUNO.

"Hello everyone, welcome to the first round of the online playoffs in the Immortal Cup. This match is crucial because the winning team will directly qualify for the offline playoffs, meaning they will be able to come to the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in a week for the second round of the Immortal Cup playoffs."

The ban/pick phase begins. Our team is Radiant, banned last and picked last. Anti-Mage and Dire are banned first and picked last.

Our team banned four heroes: Druid, Ember Spirit, Stonescale Swordsman, and Tidehunter. The opposing team banned three heroes: Tiny, Puck, and Timbersaw, and immediately picked Alchemist.

[As expected, they picked Alchemist first. My team and I watched their practice videos, and their Alchemist build has a very high win rate, so we banned Pangolier right away.]

We'll proceed according to plan.

Lao Fang's voice was very calm and steady.

So the Radiant picked Doom to counter Alchemist, and then banned Rangor, while the Dire banned Storm Spirit and Squirrel.

We directly picked Queen of Pain to bypass the ban phase. Only a few heroes are strong with the Alchemist build and fast Aghanim's Scepter; without Queen of Pain, they can only pick second-tier heroes.

The Radiant chose Queen of Pain, while the Dire chose Phoenix and Purple Cat.

[Is the enemy picking Void Spirit? I thought they'd pick Ember Spirit. If it's Void Spirit, then we need to add some control. Let's pick Lion for position 4, and I'm planning to pick Warlock for position 5. I feel like the enemy's offlaner will most likely be an Orc, because they love picking Orcs when building an Alchemy build. They're very strong after leveling up Aghanim's Scepter. My Warlock can interrupt his Black King Bar and slow him down.]

So Radiant picked Warlock, a hero who is actually not good against the first few heroes on the opposing team, which puzzled the two commentators.

Eighteen hands, and the Nightshade, under the Warlock's pressure, chose the Beast.

[The enemy team is really going for a Warlock pick with Beasts. We can ban Rubick to prevent them from stealing our ultimates, and then ban Clockwerk.]

Radiant banned Clockwerk and Rubick, while Dire banned Ursa and Reinhardt. The Reinhardt ban was to counter Radiant's carry Doom and offlane Reinhardt, as the Reinhardt + Lion lane would be too strong. Ursa is a relatively good carry for fighting beasts.

As a last resort, Dire picked Techies to add some damage.

[Old Wang, what's your idea?]

Give me the Void Mask.

The lineup was thus finalized: Radiant's position 1 was Faceless Void, position 2 was Queen of Pain, position 3 was Doom, position 4 was Lion, and position 5 was Warlock.

The Dire's carry lineup is: Alchemist (position 1), Void Spirit (position 2), Beastmaster (position 3), Techies (position 4), and Phoenix (position 5).

"This game feels like the Radiant is invincible in the late game. With Void and Doom, once they get their items, the opponent can't fight them. The Dire needs to create more momentum in the early game. It's a pity that the mid laner is a Void Spirit, which isn't the best mid laner for the Alchemy system."

After the commentators analyzed the draft picks and bans, the match officially began.

In the bottom lane matchup, Void and Warlock faced off against Beast and Techies. Beast was having a tough time against two heroes who countered him, as Void had Time Walk and Warlock had Shadow Word. Killing Void was extremely difficult, and Beast would be slowly worn down. At 4 minutes and 14 seconds into the game, the growing disadvantage in lane put him in the kill zone, and he was eventually killed by Warlock.

In the top lane matchup, the Warlock and Doom faced off against the Alchemist and Phoenix. Lu Chen's Doom didn't learn any creep farming skills. At level three, he had two levels of Scorched Earth and one level of Yama's Blade. Combined with Lion's control, he was very strong. Although he didn't kill any enemy heroes in lane, he steadily suppressed the enemy's creeps. The opponent was relatively rational and didn't fight Doom head-on.

However, at 5 minutes and 20 seconds, after the Beast died, the Techies quietly teleported to the top lane, used Shadow Blast to control Doom, followed by Alchemist's Shake, and killed the aggressively positioned Doom.

When Doom died, the game time was five minutes and forty seconds. Ziggs and Lion were both moving towards the mid lane to help the mid laner steal the rune. Because Lion had lost a lot of health in the previous fight, when he encountered Ziggs at the top lane river rune spot, Ziggs treated him like an easy target. He threw a sticky bomb at him and then applied Active Shock to himself, which looked like a solo kill.

Ryan could only use Earthshatter to stun the Bomber and then run towards his own triangle area. Just as the Bomber was about to chase Ryan to death, Gu Ran's Queen suddenly appeared, flashed onto the Bomber's face, and finished him off with a painful scream and an ultrasonic shockwave.

However, the enemy's Purple Cat also found Ryan with two strikes (Path of the Void) and finished him off with a Resonance Pulse.

Because Purple Cat chased Lion into the triangle area to kill him, and the six-minute rune happened to spawn in the top lane river, it was naturally controlled by Gu Ran Mei Mei, and it was an Arcane rune. This clumsy move by Lion actually helped Queen of Pain, who was at a disadvantage in controlling runes, to get her first rune.

The laning phase was almost over, and the broadcast showed the economy panel: Void 3000, Queen of Pain 2880, Alchemist 2862, Doom 2565, Puck 2317, Beastmaster 1800, and Radiant had a two-lane advantage.

Gaining an advantage in the laning phase naturally requires pressuring the opponent. At 6 minutes and 50 seconds, Queen of Pain led Lion to the opponent's experience shrine location, while Doom went to defend his own experience shrine. At this point, Purple Cat's TP cooldown was on, and Beastmaster and Techies couldn't defeat the four opponents, so they had to concede the experience shrine. Having both experience runes controlled by the opponent in the early game meant that both supports were at a level disadvantage, making it difficult for Purple Cat to find opportunities to carry the supports to kill.

The match lasted eight minutes and twenty-five seconds.

Isn't this beast being a bit too arrogant, cutting off creeps right in front of our second tower? He's doing terribly in lane with almost no basic items, is it even possible to take him down?

While asking the question, Wang Chunyu teleported to his own second tower, having just fully healed himself.

I can keep him!

Jiangxia's Lion was in his own jungle. He went down the river and used Earthshaker to launch Lion into the air. The enemy Techies arrived just in time. Lion tried to kill Lion by using his Stomp and then Techies' Explosive Shot. Lion was left with very low health.

At this moment, XS's Void Mask burst out of the shadows with a time travel, enveloping the three of them in a time barrier. Gu Ran, who had already received the news, also arrived in time and unleashed an ultrasonic shockwave on the two enemies frozen inside the barrier. Together with Void Mask's output, they took down the Beast and the Bomber.

One minute later, Doom, the top laner, used Scorched Earth and Phase Boots to boost movement speed and outplay Alchemist. After Alchemist self-destructed, Doom rushed in and used Yama's Blade and Doom to slam him in. Gu Ran's Queen of Pain also teleported in time to support, chasing after him and using Poison Darts and Scream of Pain to keep attacking. Although Alchemist had his ultimate active, he was unable to heal under the Doom effect and was killed on the spot.

The early game went very well. Void Spirit completed Battle Fury at 12 minutes and 50 seconds, and half a minute later, he and Queen of Pain caught the opponent's Beast and Techies in the bottom lane. After receiving this information, the opponent's Alchemist and Phoenix attacked Doom in the top lane. However, Doom had Phase Boots and Scorched Earth, making him incredibly fast and impossible for the opponent to catch up with.

Even when he has an advantage, Doom doesn't hold back at all. When he sees a Phoenix in the top lane after the opponents have spread out, he immediately uses Doom to take them down.

Nineteen minutes into the game, Radiant had a 7,000 gold lead. Dire's Void Spirit was farming under its own mid-lane second tower, thinking it was safe, but it was hit by a Leon King's Leap and Polymorph followed by a Warlock's ultimate, and Queen of Pain's Leap and Roar. Void Spirit was left with a sliver of health and activated Mutation. As soon as Mutation ended, it used two Voidwalkers to escape.

However, Gu Ran's queen refused to allow it. After activating the Speed ​​Rune, she continued the pursuit and finally killed the purple cat with a scream on the Nightmare Highlands.

"So cool!"

"They've already stormed the high ground without even breaching the second tower, Queen Haki?"

The emotions of the viewers in the live chat were ignited by this move. The feeling of killing your family members from your high ground and being powerless to do anything about it is incredibly satisfying.