From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

"At this stage of the competition, it feels like we're entering uncharted territory for most viewers. So, I'd like to ask you two, which side do you think will have an easier time going into the later stages?"

Seeing that the match was still going strong, the commentator tried to start a conversation to avoid an awkward silence. Just as the other two commentators were about to speak, they were suddenly interrupted by another voice.

It's okay, we can keep dragging this out, I'm invincible.

It turned out the main stage had switched to the team voice chat for the Soul Stone, but what they said sounded a bit too arrogant. All eyes were on the person who said it—whose general dared to say such a thing when facing an enemy Tiny and Ancient Apparition who were so good at defending the high ground?

The camera pans to Gu Ran, and the audience sees his equipment: Blink Dagger, Shadow Blade, Black King Bar, Crystal Scepter, Refresher Orb, Serpent's Breath, a Tier 2 Boots of Travel in his backpack, and the neutral item is Enchanter's Box, 37/50. He also carries a huge sum of 11256 gold.

"I seem to recall a legend from the martial arts world—it's said that the Enchanter's Box, after being endlessly reforged, will grant the user heaven-defying power. Could it be that this Zeus is going to defy fate?"

The commentator, Lao Dang, noticed a key point: the neutral item on Zeus is one that can evolve infinitely in this version. Although it's a level 4 neutral item, it gets stronger as the game progresses, theoretically possessing power surpassing all level 5 items.

—Passive: Enchantment, increases the neutral enchantment bonus of an item by 10%, and increases by 40% each time the item is reforged.

As we all know, neutral items can be reforged every ten minutes after sixty minutes. Generally, you can choose to replace them or not, but the original neutral items can be selected indefinitely.

Therefore, if you choose the Enchanter's Box as your level 4 item, you can choose this item every time you reforge it, thus increasing the bonus to neutral enchantments.

So what enchantments are suitable for Zeus? Currently, he has Eternity enchantment, which grants +15% debuff reduction and +16% skill enhancement.

"This Zeus probably wants to endlessly reforge the Enchanter's Box, and eventually he'll be able to choose Zealot!"

Zealot – +15% cooldown reduction, +7% mana cost. Assuming the Enchanter's Box is reforged five times, that's a 210% increase, resulting in a +45% cooldown reduction!

So the main stage began to focus on Zeus's perspective, and the audience began to watch him frantically gather Ganoderma lucidum in the jungle. And it has to be said, with the agile Blink Dagger and the three-bar energy Divine Leap, Gu Ran's jungle clearing speed was incredibly efficient. Before long, he easily filled up 50 shards - and this time the reforging really unlocked the Zealous Enchanter's Box!

Gu Ran continued farming the jungle with ease while using the Alt key to check the cooldowns of his skills. At this moment, his ultimate, Thunderfury, had a cooldown of 56.8 seconds, and his Aghanim's Scepter skill, Thundercloud, had a cooldown of 20 seconds.

[I'm far from reaching my limit!]

[Enchanter's Box, Skill Point Allocation!]

As the match reached 90 minutes, the Demon Locking Tower team seemed to realize something was wrong and rushed through the triangular area of ​​the Soul Revitalizing Stones with a small first move, finding the Source of Pain and instantly killing it!

The moment Gu Ran saw the enemy appear in his own triangle area on the minimap, he pressed Thor's Wrath, instantly exposing all five enemy players to lightning. Then, he aimed at the enemy's squishy support and used Thundercloud! Refresh! Another Thor's Wrath! Another Thundercloud!

A wave of attacks caused the five members of the Demon Locking Tower to suffer terribly, but more importantly, the Soul Stone team was able to respond appropriately to the opponent's positioning and take down the opponent's key positions first.

The Radiant's attack was thwarted, leaving only two corpses behind as they retreated in disarray.

At 92 minutes, Roshan spawned again, and Gu Ran's equipment was complete: two magic-based Holy Swords, a Refresher Orb and a Blink Dagger, a Tier 2 Boots of Travel, his ultimate had 1100 pre-tax damage, and his Lightning Bolt had 570 pre-tax damage. More importantly, he could immediately craft another Enchanter's Box!

Lu Chen also used Grand Dominator to summon an Ancient Frost Golem to follow him. This monster has a Time Warp Aura, which can provide a 10% reduction in skill cooldown time.

The Roshan fight was evenly matched. The Radiant managed to control Roshan with two buybacks, but when pushing high ground, the Dire decisively used three buybacks to repel the attack. In a fierce team fight, only Gu Ran's Zeus did not use his buyback (because he was not in the front line at all), while everyone else's buybacks were on cooldown.

With everyone buying back their cooldowns, no one dared to risk a desperate gamble on the enemy's high ground. So Gu Ran continued to farm jungle camps happily. One hundred minutes later, he could enchant his ultimate again. Now, the cooldown of his ultimate was so short that he could use it as soon as it was available.

It's been 100 minutes already. Luckily, this is a best-of-five series, and the audience is prepared to watch a long match. They don't feel tired yet, and such long matches are rare. It's also very interesting to see how the heroes perform in the late game.

At 104 minutes, Gu Ran used his ultimate skill and spotted a lone squirrel. He immediately refreshed his ultimate skill and used two Thunderclouds, then used the Electromagnetic Railgun to kill it!

Firefly killed Mianmian and gained 1439 gold coins.

At this stage of the game, economy and other factors are no longer important. The only two important things are buyback and tower defense. Buyback determines the maximum number of players that can appear in the next team fight, while tower defense determines whether the base can be pushed down in one wave.

After solo killing the squirrel, you should naturally push high ground. Even if you can't end the game, you should try to force the squirrel to buy back. This is how you accumulate advantages in the late game.

【I have arcane magic this time, I'm very strong!】

Gu Ran consumed another Arcane Rune in the river. After consuming it, he saw that his ultimate skill's cooldown had been reduced to thirty seconds, and immediately commanded his teammates to push high ground.

"Is it finally happening? This wave of Soul Stones has reduced the enemy's numbers, Zeus also got an Arcane Rune, plus a cooldown reduction monster buff, his ultimate's cooldown is now only 31.3 seconds! Thundercloud's cooldown is 10.8 seconds!"

The commentators seemed to sense the game was coming to an end, and the audience's hearts were clenched. Could they really win this round?

The Soul Stone team used the fog of war to rush straight to the remaining high ground of the Demon Locking Tower, breaking the fog as they reached the main jungle area. Gu Ran immediately used his ultimate to provide vision, then chased after the enemy's squishiest hero, unleashing Thundercloud, which forced the squirrel to buy back and die.

The Bane of Pain used Linken's Sphere to pull a Windranger in the Radiant's main jungle. Vengeful Spirit's output was terrifying, killing Windranger in a few hits. Knowing they couldn't engage in team fights under their high ground, the remaining players retreated back to their high ground.

So, the Soul Stone team pressed their advantage, destroyed the last high ground, and the super minion was born.

The squirrel has already bought back and died, but Windranger is still counting down and unwilling to buy back. With Soul Stone, five against three, so naturally they don't want to leave. This wave should at least force Windranger to buy back.

VS immediately started dismantling the two defensive towers at the base entrance. Langgo built a Crimson Armor to delay the demolition progress, but the defensive towers were quickly destroyed in the face of VS's terrifying output. In the end, Windranger was forced to use her buyback. When Dire saw Windranger buyback, they immediately retreated without lingering in the fight and went back to secure the Aegis.

[Brothers, once you get Windranger's buyback, you can leave. Wait for my ultimate to cool down, grab the Aegis, and then finish them off!]

The audience members were a little suspicious when they heard Gu Ran's command, wondering if he just wanted to have some fun for a while longer, since his enchanter would soon be able to reforge again.

At 107 minutes, Team Soulstone secured the Roshan's Aegis again. Gu Ran casually used his ultimate while farming jungle camps, since he didn't need to save his ultimate for cooldowns anymore. He wanted to try his luck and see if he could get a kill, but he discovered that the enemy squirrel had already built a Heart of Tarrasque—without that Heart of Tarrasque, he would have been killed again.

At 110 minutes, the Soul Stone team pushed high ground with the shield. Gu Ran's Enchantress Box had been enchanted eight times. While farming, he walked towards the river to check the rune, and he actually saw a blue rune!

[I've taken the damage-boosting potion, I'm super strong this time!]

Gu Ran returned to the fountain to replenish his mana. He had three magic-based holy swords on him, buffed with damage-increasing runes, and he also had a pair of flying boots in his backpack ready to support the front line at any time. His electromagnetic railgun was ready to go!

With perfect timing, location, and support, the Soul Stone team launched a smoke gank on the high ground. After planting the battle flag, Gu Ran immediately used his ultimate to provide vision. VS found Tiny's position and killed him with three hits. Without Tiny's explosive damage from the Holy Sword, the Soul Stone team was almost safe from being instantly killed. Gu Ran's Zeus used Thundercloud to directly kill Ice Spirit.

The Radiant high ground was swarming with Dire super creeps. There were two battle banners and three thunderclouds. Once the team fight started, no one had time to attack the battle banners. The super creeps destroyed the base incredibly fast. Radiant tried their best but could only kill two of Vengeful Spirit's lives. However, Vengeful Spirit with the Aegis still had one soul even after dying twice. In the end, Radiant was overwhelmed by the Dire army, and the base exploded!