From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

When the screen returns to the match drafting interface, both teams' lineups have been completed.

Team Soulstone is Radiant, with Tiny in position 1, Huskar in position 2, Timbersaw in position 3, Lion in position 4, and Chen in position 5.

The Night Elf Demon-Locking Tower team consists of Night Elf in position 1 (Viper), position 2 (Death Prophet), position 3 (Dawnbreaker), position 4 (Keep of Light), and position 5 (Clockwork Technician).

"The reason why the Immortal Sword Demon Locking Tower chose to let Poison Dragon play the number one position is probably because they saw the wonderful performance of the Timber in the previous game on the Soul Stone side, and they didn't want him to have too much of an easy time, so they let Poison Dragon play against Timber."

They're letting Death Prophet handle the mid lane; originally, they were planning to have Viper counter Huskar in the first few picks. So, what's the strategy behind Huskar vs. Death Prophet in this laning phase?

Commentator AA speculated on the Dire team's thoughts.

"The reason why the team in the Immortal Sword Demon Tower picked DP (Death Prophet) against Huskar is mainly because it's easier to deal with him in the mid-game. In reality, DP is not good against Huskar in the laning phase, but after all, it's Refuser playing the hero, and the opponent's Firefly's MMR is definitely lower than Refuser's. They should have taken that into account when they picked DP to deal with Huskar. I trust Refuser's laning ability."

The old party member also offered his analysis.

The commentator had just finished speaking when the camera switched to the main stage, where the host once again invited Su Xiaoman to give a pre-match interview.

"Hello Captain Sora, you've surprised us once again on the finals stage. I remember you didn't use Huskar and Chen even once. Is this your secret weapon for the finals? Also, our commentators just commented that your lineup is very similar to the style of a certain well-known team?"

Chi Xiaotu raised many questions that viewers had in mind.

"You could say that. A lot of our team players love playing Huskar, so we picked him as our first pick for the flex pick, paired with Chen for a push-oriented playstyle. This lineup is similar to Falcons; we learned from them and incorporated some of our own strategies. We hope to bring you a great match!"

The audience responded with enthusiastic applause.

The screen returns to the game interface:

Gu Ran's starting items consisted of a Magic Wand, Fairy Flame, two Branches, a Power Glove, and he pre-ordered a Tango and a Boots of Speed—these boots were crucial for Huskar against Death Prophet, because Death Prophet usually builds a Bottle first, which would slow down the boots purchase. With a movement speed advantage, he could easily interrupt Death Prophet's Soul Drain spell, making him both offensive and defensive.

The Death Prophet of the Rejector starts with three branches, one Fairy Flame, one Tango, a Magic Bottle in the pre-order slot, Boots, and a Soul Ring, which is a fairly standard item build.

The mid-lane minion wave was evenly matched. Gu Ran's Huskar immediately started stabbing DP with several Flame Spears as soon as he came online. After changing his status, he went back to last-hit minions. After last-hitting the first wave of minions and leveling up to level 2, he got the Bloodlust item and had an attack speed advantage. Being faster made it easier to last-hit minions.

With only level 1 Soul Drain, a level 2 Death Prophet is not very strong in a head-on confrontation. Refuser is also temporarily suppressed. At two minutes, Huskar has a 9-4 score in last hits, while Death Prophet has a 7-1 score.

At this moment, Death Prophet reached level three and immediately cast Soul Drain on Huskar, but Gu Ran calmly retreated—Gu Ran already had Straw Sandals, so Death Prophet couldn't catch up with Huskar. When the chain broke, Huskar still had 141 health, five Magic Wand points, and Fairy Flame, so he wasn't panicked at all.

After pushing the minion wave to the foot of the Radiant high ground, Death Prophet went to control the river rune. On the way back, Huskar immediately started attacking. With Bloodlust and Tango, he had 371 health left. Death Prophet couldn't force Huskar back without using her skills, so she had to use another Soul Drain. Gu Ran wanted to force him to use Soul Drain again, so after seeing Death Prophet use Soul Drain, she immediately retreated and broke the tube.

As soon as the chain broke, Gu Ran continued to push forward, relentlessly stabbing Junbao with his Fire Spear. Death Prophet had no choice but to retreat to his own high ground. After forcing DP back and preventing him from last-hitting, Gu Ran calmly returned to his own high ground to last-hit and deny.

"In the mid lane, Huskar is 14-5, Death Prophet is only 9-1, and Soul Drain is out of energy points. This feels a bit explosive."

The commentator switched to the mid lane and saw the laning situation.

"Actually, Death Prophet is not a good matchup in this lane. It can only be said that this situation should be in Radiant's plan. At the same time, we can also see that Viper in the top lane is 13-5 and Timbersaw is 4-0, which is also being poisoned to the point of being unable to take care of himself. Since Dire has chosen to target Timbersaw, then Huskar in the mid lane will have a good time."

At 3 minutes and 17 seconds into the game, Gu Ran secured a tower kill. Junbao's Death Prophet realized he could no longer lane normally, so he stood on the right side of the Radiant high ground and used a Crypt Fiend swarm to draw aggro from a wave of creeps, attempting to distract them and disrupt the creep wave to escape the laning phase.

However, Gu Ran decisively ignored the next wave of minions entering the tower and instead chased after DP. He saw that DP didn't have boots yet, and if he tried to hook minions without boots, he had to be severely punished!

"Wait a minute, something seems to have happened in the mid lane. When did this Huskar get a booty pad? It seems DP didn't notice and was trying to hook the minion, now he looks like he's stuck and can't escape!"

When DP escaped to the river, he was already hit by seven layers of fire spear. Knowing that he was going to die, he could only turn back and use Soul Absorption to try to fight head-on. However, Gu Ran held the magic wand and the fairy herb. He kept an eye on his health and calculated the damage of a swarm of worms. Because DP's health was already low, he could only use the swarm of worms as soon as the cooldown was over. Gu Ran healed him with a magic wand and then mercilessly killed DP.

First blood!

[firefly gets 390 gold coins for every kill]

"Solo kill!"

"middiff!"

The live chat was flooded with comments, and the audience cheered enthusiastically. Taking the first blood on the final stage, and with a single kill at that, was a huge morale booster.

【pretty!】

Teammates also offered timely encouragement.

The main stage cut directly to Gu Ran's expression, where he simply smiled calmly, as if everything was under control.

After a strong start in the mid lane, good news also came from the bottom lane. At 4 minutes and 16 seconds, Lion saw that the enemy Reinhardt was moving very aggressively, so he used vision control to quietly teleport to the bottom lane and, together with Tiny and Chen, killed Reinhardt once.

XS defeated Jianlai and received 205 gold coins + 96 gold coins, which were split between the two heroes.

After killing the Reinhardt, Keeper of the Light was too afraid to look at the creep wave alone. At this time, Death Prophet in the mid lane had already started jungling. He only dared to farm the tower creeps when they reached the tower. Jiangxia's Lion went straight to the mid lane to try and harass Death Prophet's jungling. Keeper of the Light was also preparing to go to the mid lane to help his own mid laner, but he was spotted by Radiant's vision near the river rune.

[We can kill this Light Mage!]

Old Fang, accompanied by a dog-headed artificial head (Red Wine Glass) and a hill troll priest, came over. Jiangxia's Lion also turned around to meet the Keeper of the Light. When the Keeper of the Light saw Lion, he could only run towards his own triangle area, but with the speed boost from Red Wine Glass, he was finally caught up by the two Radiant players and two jungle monsters and was beaten to death.

[Shikamaru kills Mianmian, gaining 193 gold coins + 52 gold coins and 1 hero.]

At the same time, Gu Ran also found a Death Prophet in the Dire jungle. At 5 minutes and 16 seconds, Huskar had reached level 6, while Death Prophet was only level 4. He was directly attacked by a Sacrifice, and Death Prophet could only teleport on the spot. However, when he returned to the fountain, he had nine stacks of Fire Spear debuff. He ate herbal elixirs and drank mana potions, but he could not withstand the continuous damage and finally died in the fountain.

[firefly kills Infinite and gains 264 gold coins]

"Awesome!"

"Soul-revitalizing stone! Soul-revitalizing stone! Soul-revitalizing stone!"

With a 4-0 lead and a 1k gold advantage at the start, the audience was already popping champagne.