From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Gu Ran's Huskar stood on the mid-lane high ground. At this moment, all three lanes of creeps had already pushed into the Dire's half of the map. He was equipped with Black King Bar, Manta Style, Armlet of the Iron Solari, Aghanim's Scepter, Hurricane's Halberd, and Guardian of the Immortal. He also had Power Treads and a Lotus Orb in his backpack.

"firefly's Huskar went up to take the tower with the Aegis. His build feels... a bit unique, especially that Manta Style. I see Huskar usually builds items like Double Blades and Satanic, but he chose Manta Style and Hurricane Pike. Is there any reason for that?"

The cake presenter raised a question.

"Uh... these are indeed two rather uncommon pieces of equipment. Perhaps the Manta Style was chosen to counter the Poison Dragon's buff? And the Force Staff to increase maneuverability?"

Commentator AA didn't quite understand the logic behind this build either, but he couldn't just say it was a complete mess, since Huskar had performed exceptionally well so far.

"All I can say is, learn it, guys. Just learn it and that's it."

While the commentators were talking, the Dire couldn't just stand by and watch Huskar attack the tower. Keeper of the Light came over and used Radiant Light and Solar Bind, while Venomancer stood next to his own ranged barracks and unleashed a Viper Slash on Gu Ran.

Splitter Axe!

In overclocked mode, Gu Ran used his clone axe to dodge the Poison Dragon's ultimate attack just as the Viper's phlegm was about to touch him.

"Haskar's Shadow Clone Axe dodged the Poison Dragon's ultimate!"

This move naturally didn't escape the commentators' notice, and the chat was flooded with "666!"

At the same time, Lu Chen activated his Lumberjack's Shiva and used the Lumberjack Chain Saw to hook the Poison Dragon, intending to trigger its Black King Bar (BKB).

Viper was unwilling to give up his Black King Bar (BKB) easily, Timbersaw activated his Revitalizing Armor, and Jiangxia's Lion immediately jumped in and stund Viper. Tiny entered from the top lane with Blink Dagger and used Avalanche, also targeting Viper. Gu Ran was a Clockwerk who sacrificed himself to charge into the backline. This robot had a Force Staff on him, so we couldn't let him save Viper.

Aghanim's Scepter Sacrifice has a taunt effect. Clockwerk was stabbed to death by Gu Ran's Fire Spear and couldn't activate anything. At the same time, Venomancer was also focused down and killed by Tiny and Timbersaw. Death Prophet activated his ultimate and green souls flew everywhere, but they didn't do much damage to Tiny and Timbersaw.

[hao (Underworld Dragon) has been bought back!]

[Sword Comes (Dawn Star) has bought back!]

[Redpanda (Clockwork Technician) has been successfully bought back!]

Knowing that their base would be destroyed if they didn't buy back, the Nightshade had no choice but to buy back all at once. Meanwhile, the Soul Stone team retreated after seeing that all three of their opponents had bought back. Gu Ran took the opportunity to deactivate the overclock and used Hurricane Halberd on the pursuing Hammer before gracefully walking off the high ground.

"This Huskar play was really impressive. I think I can understand the reasoning behind those two items. He used Manta Style to dodge Venomancer's ultimate and Hurricane Spear for mobility. They are useful for both initiating attacks and escaping because their lineup requires him to carry the Aegis and attack towers, so he needs these items that allow him to kite on high ground."

The commentator finally seemed to understand Gu Ran's thinking. Although using the Splinter Axe to dodge the Poison Dragon's ultimate sounded strange, could anyone really equip this item and reliably dodge the Poison Dragon's ultimate?

However, the audience didn't have time to think about this. On the battlefield, Death Prophet kept attacking Tiny, and the relentless attacks finally brought Tiny to low health, forcing XS to activate Black King Bar.

"The Soul Stone play was very methodical. Huskar would sacrifice himself first, Timbersaw and Tiny would look for opportunities to engage, and then Huskar would cut off the enemy's rescue point. Once the enemy had used their buybacks and our own skills were on cooldown, we would retreat. Anyway, they had Chen and team utility items, so their sustain was quite good."

As the commentators said, with the team healing from Mekansm and Hand of God, the Radiant five were back to their former glory, and Gu Ran continued to stand on the Dire top lane high ground.

The Poison Dragon stood between the two barracks on the top lane, and Gu Ran directly sacrificed himself to rush in. The Demon Wizard seized the opportunity and used a Leap Attack to stun both the Poison Dragon and the Clockwerk. However, this time the Reinhardt used Aura of the Gods, and the Soul Stone team did not try to kill the Poison Dragon by enduring the Reinhardt's ultimate, but chose to retreat again.

"The Demon-Sealing Tower has too few crowd control abilities. The enemy can attack and retreat at will. If this continues, we'll be worn down!"

Redpanda was getting impatient with the Soul Stone's pull, so he hooked the enemy Lion and shouted.

I hooked Ryan, let's fight! Let's fight!

"Oh, Clockwerk wanted to be a hero! He found the enemy's Shadow Demon's position and hooked him directly! But who can keep up with the damage from that distance? Instead, Huskar used Sacrifice to ride over, and Clockwerk paid the price for his reckless behavior with his life."

The live chat was flooded with comments like, "Fake news! More fake news!"

On the Soul Stone side, they seized the opportunity when the opponent made a random first move. Lu Chen's Lumberjack directly entered the field with his Lumberjack Chain Saw and found the Light Mage. With the help of Tiny's output, they melted the old man on horseback and then defeated him one by one. The Immortal Sword Demon Locking Tower side was defeated.

"We can't kill any of them, we can't kill any of the Nightshade, and the Soul Stones are endlessly kiting and killing us. We've run out of options. After the Demon Locking Tower used a round of buybacks, we finally had a buyback death, and then they fell one after another."

【GG】

Congratulations to Team Soulstone for winning the first match!

The final high ground team fight nearly wiped out the Dire team with a buyback and then died again, and the cheers from the audience grew louder and louder, finally reaching their climax when the word "Victory" appeared.

The five players from Zhenhun Stone emerged from the battle room amidst cheers and went backstage to prepare for the next match.

[Amazing! Gu Ran played Huskar very responsibly this time, achieving the effect we wanted. He's starting to show some of Marin's flair.]

Back in the lounge, Su Xiaoman immediately showered them with praise, saying that their lineup was modeled after Falcon, and the results they achieved today were almost identical to those of Falcon.

The other brothers nodded in agreement. Gu Ran's Huskar had given his all in the first game, and he was named MVP by the main stage just now based on the data scores.

[They probably won't be able to get Huskar next game, but that's okay, they can't ban all our signature heroes!]

After calming down and accepting the captain's encouragement, the five brothers returned to the battle room to prepare for the second match.

The main stage was invaded by a sponsor's "Refreshing" Iced Green Tea GG. After GG returned, the drafting phase had entered its final stage. For the Immortal Sword Demon Tower team, position 1 was Shadow Fiend, position 2 was Ember Spirit, position 3 was Centaur Warrunner, position 4 was King of the Hundred Plays, and position 5 was Bane. For the Soul Stone team, position 2 was Puck, position 3 was Dark Seer, position 4 was Clockwerk, and position 5 was Lich.

"Which carry will XS get picked this game? Terrorblade will definitely be banned, otherwise Luna would be a good option."

The commentators began speculating about what the final Soul Stone would be for position one.

"It seems like the initial damage output on the Soul Stone side is relatively low; we need a high-damage carry as our primary damage dealer."

"SVEN! The Spirit Stone team actually picked Sven, which isn't a strong hero in this patch. Although Sven can deal significant damage to Hecarim, it feels like Spirit Stone's damage output in the mid-game is almost entirely focused on Sven alone. This places extremely high demands on the player's positioning, and if he makes a mistake, team fights will be very difficult. I wonder if XS's Sven can still be as formidable as he was back in the day."

Unlike the commentators' concerns, the chat was overwhelmingly positive about the hero.

[Taro! Invincible!]

[Sven, just trust him and you'll be fine!]