From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

The scene shifts to the top lane, where Naga Siren is also having a tough time. It's already difficult to play against Necrophos, and now her own Phoenix has been teleported to the mid lane. Moreover, Phoenix TP'd and died. Now Lu Chen's Plague Mage is really showing his true colors – Phoenix TP'd and died, which means that for the next thirty seconds, Naga Siren will basically only be able to fight two opponents at once.

There's nothing LOU can do; Naga Siren can only turtle in the jungle, or she'll die as soon as she goes online.

Switching the perspective back to the mid lane, Kasper felt there weren't many opportunities in the bottom lane, so he stayed in the mid lane. However, Puck's output at this point was too low. On the other hand, Lao Fang saw that Rubick was unwilling to leave, so he also hid in the mid lane. When Kasper finally couldn't resist coming up to attack Night Stalker, he used a Bouncing Ball to control him and followed up with a curse.

OldFang killed Kaka and gained 184 gold coins + 43 gold coins and 1 hero.

OldFang has gone on a killing spree!

"Oh, Kakashi, his death was rather natural. Their double support's mid-lane ability is too weak, they can't compare to the Radiant double support."

The commentators understood Kaspersky's predicament: he couldn't win in lane and couldn't roam effectively.

The scene shifts back to the top lane, where Naga Siren is struggling against Necrophos. Her illusions are instantly cleared, and the support Phoenix has to sacrifice herself to bait the enemy so her carry can get last hits. At five minutes, she's finally caught by Lion and taken down. The game isn't even six minutes in, yet Radiant already has a 3,000 gold lead.

[Time to farm runes, guys. If you come to this Puck, you're going to die.]

Gu Ran also took the initiative to call on the two support heroes to control the rune. Their Lion Witch Doctor was of a high level and had strong early-game combat ability, so Xiong Ge's Puck could only turt under the tower. Gu Ran successfully controlled an Arcane Rune.

[Arcane Rune is great! I'll just unleash my ultimate and kill this Puck!]

The Night Stalker, now wielding Arcane Power, immediately unleashed his ultimate. Flying into the air, the Night Stalker, like a hunter in the night, fixed its gaze on Puck, the little insect. Activating Crippling Fear, it closed in and finished him off in three basic attacks. Nearby, a level 2 Rubick, played by Kaka, could only tremble and watch helplessly as Puck was slowly torn to pieces.

Firefly killed Setsu, earning 202 gold + 74 gold, which was split between the two heroes.

【Ownage!】

Radiant has killed five people without any casualties, triggering the Ownage sound effect.

After killing Puck, Gu Ran pushed down the enemy's mid-lane tower. At the same time, good news came from the top lane: the enemy Phoenix, who was looting experience under the tower, was controlled by Lion and then directly took a Death Scythe from the Plague Mage.

Just as a kill broke out in the top lane, another situation arose in the bottom lane. Timbersaw and Rubick, seeing that Witch Doctor was no longer around, tried to take down Drow Ranger, but they chased too far and were directly teleported down by Gu Ran. The Dreadlord, who moved at high speed at night, quickly caught up with the fleeing Kaka and secured the kill.

After Gu Ran finished off the bottom lane, he returned to the mid lane and, with the help of the Witch Doctor, controlled the river rune for another eight minutes. Xiong Ge's Puck came over for a quick look and was immediately caught by Night Stalker, who then silenced him and took him down.

Firefly has dominated the game!

At 9:30, the Dire in the bottom lane finally caught an opportunity. The two supports teamed up and, along with Timbersaw, killed Witch Doctor. However, the price was that Night Stalker, who teleported down to support, took the lives of the two supports.

Firefly has become a monster, committing massacres!

"Oh dear, Brothers are getting absolutely crushed, it's a complete disaster. They really need to improve their draft picks. It's probably mainly because their champion pool is too shallow; it feels like the opponents have figured them out!"

The commentators felt that the game was nearing its end and started helping Brothers with their draft picks and bans for the next round.

As the commentators predicted, Gu Ran's Night Stalker became godlike in just sixteen minutes and continued to hunt down enemies throughout the game. The opposing team had few opportunities, and the first match ended with a kill score of 35-8.

The second game was similar to the first, with Brothers being quickly defeated again after their draft picks were figured out.

"Congratulations to Team Soulstone for advancing to the TI qualifier finals! They will be waiting in comfort for the winner of the lower bracket to challenge them around 5 pm tomorrow."

The players of Zhenhunshi appeared relaxed in the live broadcast, seemingly unsurprised by their victories in both matches.

After the match, everyone had dinner and then gathered in the training room to open the meeting software. Su Xiaoman was already online and waiting for them.

[Tomorrow is the grand final, and barring any surprises, we'll be facing HG again. Although they were snowballed to defeat by Brothers in both games of the upper bracket semifinals, they should have made some adjustments after watching our draft picks today. After all, Brothers lacks experience and has a limited hero pool. We'll use HG as our hypothetical opponent for our draft pick practice.]

Su Xiaoman spoke first. In fact, they had already conducted a rehearsal with HG once, and this time they reviewed it again to be on the safe side, and also summarized HG's performance in the loser's bracket.

First of all, their carry player, to be honest, only has Windranger and Tiny as decent champions. There's something off about him when he plays hard carries. This might be related to the fact that their mid laner was particularly responsible in their previous team. They've gotten used to relying on their mid laner to win, and this hasn't changed much since Mao joined.

In the previous version, he still had the signature hero, Corki, but in this version, Corki has been nerfed and is harder to build. The same goes for Maxi; they won for a while by relying on Maxi's fast-paced pressure as a carry, but Maxi is no longer suitable for carry play in this version.

So unless he gets Tiny or Windranger, he'll probably be a second-tier carry.

After Su Xiaoman finished her summary, the team members all expressed their approval.

Since Mao joined HG, he has often been called "God of Responsibility". Some netizens even jokingly say that "God of Responsibility is a position", which also reflects the team's over-reliance on the mid laner and the fact that Yi San often disappears.

[Everyone is familiar with Mao, the mid-laner. He used to be strong with heroes like Viper and Sniper, but recently he's also mastered more conventional mid-lane heroes like Three Cats and One Roll, and even showed off a mid-lane Slark. My advice is not to target Mao's hero pool, but to target his playstyle.]

Su Xiaoman cleared her throat and continued.

HG's tempo largely depends on Mao Ge, so we can consider picking a support with strong mid-game burst damage to shut down Mao Ge early on. If Mao Ge can't step up, their team is basically doomed.

Everyone nodded in agreement. In fact, anyone who had followed HG's matches would have noticed this issue to some extent.

Their offlaner is fairly average, nothing particularly outstanding, but also not a major problem. Their position 4 player tends to be a star player, building items greedily and aiming for a carry role in the late game, but this compromises their early-game fighting power. Their position 5 player is sometimes a bit clueless, so this 1-5 combination is a good point of attack.

In general, they currently have two playstyles: either they choose a mid-laner that allows Mao Ge to perform well and then continuously support him to snowball the victory, or they choose a late-game composition to hold back and win through team fights in the late game.

We can watch their final loser's bracket match tomorrow afternoon. We'll discuss anything else then.

Gu Ran's feelings were somewhat complicated. They were very familiar with this HG team, and even knew their weaknesses well. These were things they had analyzed from their defeats in international competitions this year. Watching the matches back then was very painful, but now it had become crucial information to help their team enter TI...

He shook his head, clearing all of these thoughts from his mind.

We're definitely going to get this TI ticket!