From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Day 3 of the Pokémon competition, Junior Mentor Group.

Because there are many streamers participating in the Pokémon Challenger section, and the scores of Pokémon mentors vary greatly, mentors are generally divided into advanced mentor groups and low-level mentor groups. Advanced mentors typically have a ranked score of over 13,000, while low-level mentors have an average ranked score of around 11,000.

This year's junior mentors include: YYF, Xie Bin DD, ZSMJ, Sakata, Danbing, OK Linzai, Hao, and Xiao Liu.

Gu Ran was snatched by Xie Bin DD, who was in the first position. His outstanding performance in the past two days made him the most sought-after Pokémon in this competition. Basically, all the mentors would grab him in the first position. In this situation, his other teammates are usually weaker and it is difficult for them to win the championship. This is also a dynamic balance mechanism of Pokémon.

Xie Bin DD is also a veteran in the Dota 2 community. Although his best achievement in his professional career was only third place at TI2, he attracted many fans after transitioning to streaming with his humorous and witty streaming style. He is currently one of the top Dota 2 streamers. His advantage is that he is not arrogant and can be said to be the most easy to talk to among the top streamers.

In the first round of the low-level competition, Xie Bin's DD team faced off against YYF team. This was a match between two top streamers in the Dota 2 community, and also an internal battle within ob (old boys, a live commentary group composed of a group of well-known retired Dota 2 players). Streamers who were not playing matches basically went to the spectator seats to watch this match.

Inside Brother Diao's live stream.

"In the first game, I watched Feng Ge (YYF's nickname) play against Xie Bin. I felt that Feng Ge had the advantage in this game. Xie Bin, with his Kai, forcibly took the mid lane. As long as Feng Ge plays steadily in the mid lane, he should be fine. Feng Ge's side should have the advantage in the side lanes."

Brother Diao analyzed the situation.

"Xie Bin pees his pants when he meets Feng Ge, go Feng Ge! Kill Xie Bin! I don't want to hear any disgusting 'oh ishii' (Xie Bin's famous saying, the Chinese expression for the Japanese word 'oishii,' mainly used when he's in a good mood. To hear the original audio, you can search '分有什么用啊' on Bilibili)!"

Yanzi (ID: Sylar, who was a teammate of Xie Bin during his professional career, the last carry of the golden age of Dota, and also a big streamer) and Xie Bin DD bickered every day during their live streams, but now they are cheering for Feng Ge with all their might.

The match started, and Xie Bin DD asked a question in the YY chat.

"Do we have a draft picker/banner for later? If not, I'll take over."

BP, or ban/pick, is the phase at the start of a match where the enemy's heroes are banned and suitable heroes are selected for your team. This phase is the most exciting and strategic in MOBA matches.

Gu Ran has been watching match clips on Bilibili in his spare time lately, so he has learned a bit about the other players. He noticed that one of his teammates, a player with the ID "sora," hosted the draft phase in one of yesterday's matches and did a great job. It's as if she has a database of all the players' hero pools in this competition.

"Brother Nai (Xie Bin DD's nickname), how about letting Sora do it? I saw that she did a great job with the draft in yesterday's match."

Gu Ran directly recommended a particular one.

"Oh, are there any drafting experts here? Why don't you give it a try?"

"good!"

A cheerful female voice came through the audio.

"In this game, we should have NaiGe playing position 1, RanGe playing position 2, ZhaMaoZhang playing position 3, SunGe playing position 4, and me playing position 5, right? Let's ban a few strong heroes that we don't play first, and then pick SunGe's support first. I guess they'll ban your signature heroes first."

As expected, the opposing team immediately banned Bane, Shadow Shaman, and other signature champions of Sun Ge.

Sora seemed to be able to predict the heroes the opponent would pick every time, making it difficult for them with each hero pick. Moreover, she also considered the hero pool of each player on our team, choosing heroes that we were more familiar with.

The draft is over. Our lineup is: Clockwerk (position 5), Keeper of the Light (position 4), Underlord (position 3), Storm Spirit (position 2), and Alchemist (position 1).

The opposing team's lineup consists of Lich in position 5, Rubick in position 4, Axe in position 3, Ember Spirit in position 2, and Luna in position 1.

Inside Brother Diao's live stream.

"Why does it feel like Xie Bin is completely dominating Feng Ge? His big butt has a counter-relationship with Luna, and he also has good synergy with Keeper of the Light. In the mid lane, Storm Spirit has a slight advantage against Ember Spirit, and Keeper of the Light can also restore mana for Storm Spirit in the mid-game. Underlord's Frame also counters Ember Spirit, and Alchemist and Clockwerk can easily kill Rubick. It feels like they have an advantage in all three lanes."

Brother Diao's tone was serious.

"I listened to Feng's voice chat the whole time. They were a bunch of players with no hero pools, still thinking about how to swing their weapons. In the end, they just kept swinging their weapons until they got dizzy. They lost the game. It was disgusting to hear them say 'oh dear'."

Yanzi jumped back from Feng Ge's team's YY channel to the main stage and reported the situation.

"I listened to the voice chat on Milk Bro's side. The whole time, it was Sora who was doing the draft. She knew the champion pool of every single person on the other side. It was terrifying."

Brother Jia (ID: ZSMJ) jumped back from the other side of YY.

As the streamers predicted, Xie Bin DD's side had an advantage in all three lanes during the laning phase. If the Lich made a positioning mistake, he would be trapped in the Abyss of Resentment and drenched in a rain of fire. When he tried to escape, the Keeper of the Light would use a Blinding Light to bounce him back, and then he would be trapped in the Abyss of Resentment and entangled again, easily giving up the first blood.

Rubick is trapped in Clockwerk's Energy Gear on the lane with an advantage, and with Alchemist's Acid Mist armor reduction and Unstable Compound as a second-hand control, he is easily killed.

In the mid lane, Storm Spirit (short for Storm Spirit) faced Ember Spirit (short for Ember Spirit). Since Storm Spirit is ranged and has a longer reach, he still had the advantage at the same skill level. Although YYF played very steadily and prevented Gu Ran from finding a chance to get a solo kill, he still steadily suppressed Gu Ran's creep score.

Generally speaking, what Storm Spirit fears most is being ganked by the enemy support before reaching level six, because Storm Spirit's ultimate ability after reaching level six is ​​crucial:

Ball Lightning - R key

Transform into an unstable current of electricity, dashing at high speed towards the target point, during which you are invincible. You can freely use skills and items, but mana consumption will increase dramatically with the flight time.

Initial cost: 25 + 7.5% of total mana

Path cost: 10 + 0.65% of total mana for every 100 units of distance traveled.

Damage type: Deals damage for every 100 units of distance traveled.

Flight speed: 1400/1850/2300

Damage radius: 200

Cooldown: 0 seconds (no cooldown)

Once Storm Spirit reaches level six, he becomes incredibly agile. His ultimate ability transforms him into lightning, making him difficult to kill if your crowd control isn't strong enough. In this game, because Gu Ran's team had advantages in both side lanes, the enemy support didn't dare roam to the mid lane, as doing so could potentially result in their carry being killed. Storm Spirit reached level six smoothly.

By the end of the seven-minute laning phase, Gu Ran's team had a 3,000 gold lead over the opponent. After successfully securing the rune at the eight-minute mark, Blue Cat ganked the side lane and killed the opponent's forward-positioned Axe King. From then on, the team's momentum took off, and by the twenty-minute mark, their team's gold had exceeded that of the opponent by 8,000.