From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

At one in the morning, the smoky aroma of barbecue still seemed to cling to the collars of the six men. The owner of that hole-in-the-wall restaurant had probably never seen such a boisterous crowd so late in his life—after all, the excitement of winning the finals was more intoxicating than three bottles of beer, and everyone was vying to pay the bill. In the end, Su Xiaoman insisted on settling the bill under the pretext of "I'm the captain, so I make the decisions."

Stepping out of the barbecue restaurant, the night breeze felt cool and refreshing on my face.

The traffic on the road has thinned out, and the skyscrapers are flashing with colorful neon lights.

Gu Ran, with a toothpick dangling from his mouth, suddenly stopped and looked up at the neon sign of a KTV not far away: "How about... Pure K? I think I just won a discount coupon recently."

Lu Chen chuckled first: "You're really energetic—I remember you'd usually be asleep by now, right?"

"I'm still really excited, and..." Gu Ran shrugged, "I don't want to end tonight so soon."

He spoke softly, but everyone present understood. It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep; it was just that there was this inexplicable feeling tonight that he didn't want to let it just dissipate in the wind.

They looked at each other, and no one objected.

At Pure K, everyone sang a song in turn. When it was Gu Ran's turn in the second round, he paused, then stood up, cleared his throat with a serious expression, and projected a fan-made song from the Dota 2 community—"I Want Summer."

This is a song written by fans for the AR team after they won a ticket to TI12.

[You said you'd form a team and play one more time with me, but we're short a position 4 player. Who do you think we could pick? Is he skilled enough?]

You said it was an A-level team before anyway.

That year, Sen Ge was relegated to an A-level team, and that year, Chunyu chose to temporarily retire after his defeat at TI11. It was also from that year that CNDOTA's performance in non-TI major tournaments got worse and worse.

……

[Let's go, let's go, let's get bleed first!]

[GOGOGOGO~ Water Spirit is dead!]

[Brother Sen is awesome~ I can't believe you in just one round!]

The MV shows Bleed's Morphling being melted by a mine planted by Sen when he gets near the portal, which was a famous scene back then.

Jiang Xia and Lu Chen also picked up the microphone and joined the chorus. As they sang, they recalled the fairy tale of the Blue Ray from back then. It was as if they could hear Chao Ge's words from that time again.

"Hey, Sen-ge!"

"What's wrong?"

"Let me think about what I'm saying. How about the three of us brothers form an online team and play in a tournament?"

As she listened, tears welled up in Su Xiaoman's eyes.

……

Go! Go! Go! Go! Go, bro!

【go~go~go~go~not too young】

Don't cry, silly fish! We've taken back the Seattle championship!

Seattle Champion!

Reclaiming the Seattle championship is a dream for every Dota player, more than a decade since their TI6 victory.

It's been over a decade. We've not been without merit during this time; we've won championships in various Tier 1 tournaments. But for all players and viewers, TI is ultimately different.

The International, a globally renowned DOTA tournament with the highest prize money and the greatest viewership, is a stage where every player dreams of making a name for themselves. It's a stage where every player wants to have their ID engraved on the Aegis of Champions.

As the song ended, Gu Ran slowly put down the microphone. Then he turned to look at Wang Chunyu beside him.

Hey Lao Wang, how about we try our luck in the TI qualifiers together?

A hint of surprise flashed across Wang Chunyu's face as he glanced at Lao Fang beside him.

Old face with a smile:

We're one short; we need a strong player to carry us.

Clearly, this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision; the group had secretly planned it all along.

……

People always want to hear the legends of those who achieve fame at a young age, but there will always be someone who plays the final chapter of the story of the undying old soldier.

Wang Chunyu lowered her head and thought for a moment, then raised her head with a smile:

【sure.】

【YES!】

After receiving a response, Lu Chen and Jiang Xia gave each other a high five, no longer pretending.

Su Xiaoman immediately announced excitedly:

Actually, I've already found venues for everyone. My best friend's family owns many party venues in the suburbs of Shanghai, some of which specialize in e-sports projects.

I've already discussed it with her, and we can borrow one of the venues to use as a training base.

Of course, this is only temporary.

If we can actually make it to TI, then we'll be a real professional team. I can ask my grandfather for sponsorship and get us a proper training facility. We could even go to Europe, rent Team Liquid's facility, and train with them.

She was clearly a little too excited. She hadn't even played in the preliminary rounds yet, and she was already thinking about how to train if she could actually get into TI.

At this point, Lao Fang stepped forward and said, "Let's not think about what happens after we make it to TI. If we're going to play in TI this year, it seems like we'll be facing Mao's HG team."

HG's performance this year has been far from ideal. It is said that they barely made it into the TI qualifiers and had to return to China to compete in the qualifiers. This is undoubtedly very disheartening news for many domestic teams - there was only one spot to begin with, and now another team has returned, making their chances of qualifying extremely pessimistic.

HG team? Gu Ran thought to himself. They were indeed a formidable opponent. But after winning the Immortal Cup, he felt that beating HG team wasn't impossible, even though they were a professional team that had been competing all year.

Moreover, as a passionate viewer, he has watched countless HG team matches this season and has a clear understanding of the team's weaknesses and problems. In addition, with Su Xiaoman, a master of esports, on their team, he believes that there will soon be many draft strategies targeting HG team in her tactical book.

Having a training base would be great. I think we really need an offline base where we can solo queue together during the day, and then play scrims with the other two teams that have already qualified for TI in the afternoon and evening. Or we could scrim with teams that are also preparing to form teams for the open qualifiers.

[HG seems to be scrimming with some second-tier teams in Europe. They probably won't return to China until the qualifiers are about to start, so it's unlikely they'll be able to scrim with them.]

Old Fang rested his chin on his hand, speaking while deep in thought; he was quite familiar with training.

"Well, if the guys are all okay, we can start training in a few days, since the preliminary rounds are only two weeks away."

Su Xiaoman continued to actively advance the topic.

In fact, the other four brothers besides Chunyu already knew about this, and they had each made their own arrangements. Now it depends on Wang Chunyu's arrangements, since he may have contracts related to live streaming.

【no problem】

After receiving a positive reply, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the matter was settled. Only then did they realize that they hadn't requested a song in a long time.

Lu Chen stood up, intending to liven things up by performing a well-known Dota 2 song:

If we're going to compete in the qualifiers, we'll have to face Mao Zedong head-on. Let me sing a song to give everyone a heads-up.

After saying that, he immediately projected Jiao Ge's masterpiece – "Brother Mao, Brother Mao" – onto the screen.

[Brother Mao—Brother Mao—you're amazing!]

[Marinasha can't control you, so a musketeer pops out!]

……

[Get a musket~ Lal is scared out of his wits~]

[Showing off a Blackbird move~ Nisha's got no brains~]

……

[The white-haired brothers will always be together~ Slapping the black-faced man until he's swollen!]

The private room was once again filled with a joyful atmosphere.