From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

The deep darkness of night seeped into the room through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the shimmering waters of Lake Washington in the distance rippled like silver foil under the moonlight. This was Su Xiaoman's house in Bellevue—a three-story house with a swimming pool and a basement media room.

Su Xiaoman's room is even bigger than her father's laboratory. A 2.4-meter-long smart height-adjustable desk sits in the center, with a tabletop made of a single piece of carbon fiber—custom-made by Su Qiming's colleagues at the MIT Materials Lab. It weighs only one-third of aluminum alloy, but can bear twice the weight.

The table legs are embedded with linear motors that can remember four height settings: standing, sitting, reclining, and a slightly tilted angle for "being so sleepy at 3 a.m. but still needing to review the day." There is a hidden wireless charging area in the lower right corner of the desktop; your phone will automatically attach to it when placed on it.

The monitor is embedded in the wall behind the desk. It is a prototype that Su Qiming brought back from Samsung's display lab last year. It is a 43-inch Micro-LED panel with 8K resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, and 0.03 millisecond response time.

The engineering number was still affixed to the back of the device. Su Qiming had signed a confidentiality agreement, but after signing, he immediately installed it in his daughter's room. When his wife, Lin Zhiyao, asked him if this was compliant with regulations, Su Qiming replied matter-of-factly, "Even prototypes need test data for home use scenarios. I'm doing research for Samsung."

The chair is an engineering prototype—an adaptive spinal support system—jointly developed by Su Chi-ming's lab and the MIT Biomechanics Group. Six flexible pressure sensors are embedded in the backrest, adjusting the support curvature in real time based on her posture. The seat cushion is a composite structure of memory foam and a graphene thermally conductive layer, ensuring it's neither cold in winter nor stuffy in summer. A touch panel on the armrest allows adjustment of height, depth, tilt angle, and reclining resistance.

At this moment, Su Xiaoman sat cross-legged on the table, wearing pink cat-shaped headphones. A glass of iced cola, her favorite drink while watching the game, sat on the table. She spoke into the microphone and asked:

"This is HG vs. Pvision, what do you think their chances of winning are?"

"I think the chances of winning are around 20%... Pvision's fast-paced, aggressive style is too strong, and HG probably won't be able to stop it. Plus, PV just won a Tier 1 tournament and they're in great form."

Gu Ran felt that 20% was too much, but he didn't want to appear too discouraged before the match, especially since he really disliked the opposing team and genuinely hoped that the Chinese team could win.

"Damn, fuck the PV!"

"Can't this stupid team that blames the enemy's callouts for losing just die already?"

"HG, step up your game!"

As the comments scrolled by, it became clear that PV was a notorious team. 9class, a member of the team, was known for his nasty antics on the ranked ladder. In 2025, he was once slapped in the face by a resentful player after a match, and later refused to shake hands with Heroic in a match against them.

Another player with the ID Dukalis blamed the audience for calling out his scores when he lost a few years ago when he came to China to participate in the Snow Ruyi Invitational Tournament, which aroused extreme dissatisfaction among domestic audiences.

Unfortunately, PV is currently very strong, and the chances of winning against them are very low.

The match began, and both sides entered the ban/pick phase. PV, the Radiant side, banned first, while HG, the Dire side, picked second.

"HG must ban Io. PV has been playing a lot of healing push strategies lately, and Io is the core. In the finals of the last T1-level tournament, Aurora didn't believe it and let Io through twice, and lost both games."

Su Xiaoman's commentary was very professional, and her familiarity with recent international competitions was evident from the very first sentence.

However, HG only banned Birdman, Pangolier, and Druid, while PV banned Drow Ranger, Clockwerk, Puck, and Storm Spirit, and directly picked Io.

"Are you planning to use Doomsday? Maybe use its ultimate ability to disable healing to counter the healer-push strategy?"

As soon as Gu Ran finished speaking, HG's hero appeared—Lightbringer.

Lightbringer is also an important character in the healing push system, and he has recently become a popular position 4 hero, which can be paired with many powerful position 3 and position 2 heroes.

Next, HG banned Beastmaster, PV banned Tiny, HG banned Bane, and picked Ember Spirit.

"This 'Grandma' (a nickname for Ember Spirit) should be in position 2. Grandma is very popular in the mid lane recently. She can suppress the standard three-cat and one-roll strategy in the early game, and she is also very strong in the late game. The opponent might be going to build Venomancer with this pick. The recent PV strategy is to use Venomancer against Grandma."

Su Xiaoman continued to explain to the audience.

When it was PV's turn to click, they indeed chose the heroes Venomancer and Treant Protector.

"Your draft reading ability is really strong. Is the enemy team preparing to send Viper mid to disgust Granny? Viper, as a lane bully, can indeed suppress Ember Spirit, and his poor mobility can be compensated for to some extent by Io."

Gu Ran praised his teammates while analyzing the situation.

Both sides continued to build their lineups. HG selected Earthshaker and Mars to strengthen their team fights, while PV picked Tidehunter to form a strong position 3/4 combination of Io and Tidehunter.

"PV got their best hero, Tidehunter. HG might have Prophet, but SP in position 1 doesn't play Prophet much. I feel like they might end up with a late-game carry like a healer. The opponent might have Juggernaut, and having a healing item fits their push strategy."

As expected, PV picked Sword Saint, while HG picked Qiong Ying Bi Ling (nicknamed Milk Green).

"666"

"I feel like you could be a coach at HG."

"HG coach is really not as good as you, what kind of garbage lineups do you pick every day?"

In Su Xiaoman's live stream, similar comments flooded the chat. She knew that many viewers were easily dissatisfied with the coach, especially after a loss, since there was always something wrong with the team composition. Moreover, reading the draft picks was just the most basic step; she definitely couldn't be a real coach, she was just a figurehead for the viewers to vent their frustrations about.

Often, team composition selection requires considering the players' current form and their champion pool. Sometimes it's not that a particular champion is bad, but rather that the players on the field aren't confident in it. Her ability to read the draft doesn't necessarily mean she has a better understanding than the HG coach.

But it still feels great to be recognized!

As the match began, HG was repeatedly breached during the laning phase. First, their mid-lane Ember Spirit was solo-killed by the opposing Venomancer. Then, their safe lane duo of Healer and Earthshaker misjudged the strength of the opposing Io and Tidehunter duo and were both killed. However, their offlane duo of Mars and Keeper of the Light managed to hold their own.

However, PV's lineup was originally a push-healer composition. Once they gained an advantage in lane, they were relentless and quickly destroyed three of HG's towers. They then started ganking everywhere. Whenever they found someone, Io could bring a carry to kill them. Although Mars managed to kill a few PV players in the mid-game, it was just a drop in the ocean. By 14 minutes, they had an 8,000 gold deficit, by 20 minutes, a 12,000 gold deficit, and by 28 minutes, one of their high ground towers had been destroyed. They called GG at 31 minutes.

After GG, each member of HG received a tip from the opposing team. Although no one typed in the public chat, the taunting tone was very obvious.

"How dare you let the opponent use their Pokémon team?"

"Let's put the classics out there and see how they perform."

"This is too bad, don't watch it."

The live chat was full of people criticizing HG, and the number of VIPs was dropping rapidly. That's how cruel esports competitions are; if you lose, you get flamed, there's no other option.

Gu Ran and Su Xiaoman were able to provide some commentary in the early stages, but as the situation worsened, it became increasingly difficult for them to speak. In the end, they could only silently switch to another match between two foreign teams.

"Brothers, calm down. Actually, I talked to you guys a little before the match. PV just won a championship and is in great form. HG was only at the quarterfinals level in the last competition, so it's normal that we can't beat them."

Gu Ran didn't know if he was comforting the audience or himself.

It's common knowledge that Chinese Dota is declining; there are fewer new players and fewer professional teams. Previously, international tournaments featured at least two or three Chinese teams, but these days, even one is considered good. Before, people would criticize a team if it didn't win a championship; now, they lower their expectations and celebrate just making it to the knockout stage.

"It feels like the game is already won if the streamer steps in."

"Streamers should go pro and save CNDOTA!"

Although most of the comments were in a teasing tone, Gu Ran had to admit that he was a little tempted. Who didn't dream of TI when they were young? He used to be self-aware that he wasn't good enough, but now with this strange first-person perspective, maybe he really would have a chance to go to the world's highest DOTA stage and compete with the top players.

If that day ever comes, I'll definitely give that PV team a good beating!