From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Beastmaster died at the portal on the bottom right. Seeing this, Kayn on the top lane quickly ate the last two catapults of the top lane minion wave, then activated his ultimate Raven Sands and stealthily ran towards his own triangle area.

Seeing Kai's location on the minimap, the Soul Stones were naturally unwilling to let him go. The Queen and Beasts rushed towards the triangle area, while Alchemist, Clockwork, and Dark Seer also followed via the portal.

Gu Ran's Queen was farming in her own jungle when she saw Kai and immediately used Blink to chase him. She spotted Kai near the Roshan pit on the left, and Kai could only use a single Grappling Hook to hook him into her own large jungle camp in the triangle area.

Lu Chen's Beastman used Blink Dagger to enter the fray, and was about to use his ultimate to lift Kai when he saw that Kai had been given the Lotus effect by Bristleback. So he could only activate Black King Bar and retreat. Kai activated Black King Bar to try to kill the out-of-place Beastman, and Bristleback followed. Squirrel set up a sniper rifle at the stairs in the triangle area.

However, Gu Ran directly used Blink to jump into the squirrel's face. The squirrel dared not continue charging up its ultimate and could only let go. Having been hit by the Queen's poison dart and suffering a painful scream, it knew it couldn't defeat this Queen and could only teleport to the spot.

At this point on the main battlefield, when Kayn had reduced the beast's health to about 1/4, the Lotus effect on him disappeared. The beast then used its Black King Bar (BKB) to stun him with a hammer. However, the hammer's control duration was short, and Kayn still had some BKB time remaining. After the hammer's effect wore off, he immediately hooked himself to a tree near his own Ancient Forest and then teleported home.

Although Kai has left, Bristleback on the Radiant side has already ventured deep into the center of the battlefield because he was trying to deal damage.

He didn't have skills as agile as Kai, so he became the next target of the Nightshade.

I've located the poisoned dog!

Although the team fight was chaotic, Jiang Xia's strategy was clear. He used the vision created by the missiles hitting the backline to spot the enemy Shadow Demon, a potential rescue point. So he launched a grappling hook and got close to the Venomancer. Seeing this, Gu Ran ignored the Bristleback who was already hit by the poison dart and immediately used Blink to get close to the Venomancer.

The poison dog was forced to surrender the Shattered Imprisonment to prolong its own death.

Once the Shattering Imprisonment ends, the Poison Dog is melted by the damage.

The remaining Bristleback, despite having the third ability, Bristleback, which reduces damage, had its passive broken when a low-health Bristleback jumped in and used its third ability. Without its third ability, Bristleback was as fragile as paper and was taken down by the Dire's three core damage dealers.

However, he still used his last bit of strength to pull the beast down with him and die together.

After Kai teleported back to base to replenish his health and mana, he came out to find his Bristleback being ganged up on by five people and about to die on the spot.

He tried to finish off a low-health Clockwerk, but the Clockwerk outplayed him with a Ghost Scepter.

Kayn, upon entering the fray, naturally became a target of the Dire. After Bristleback was killed, Alchemist stunned Kayn with a stun, followed by Queen of Pain's attacks. Kayn ultimately died under his own mid-lane high ground tower.

In this team fight, the Dire paid the price with Orcs dying after buying back, but the Radiant team lost all four members except for Squirrel. Since none of their three cores could buy back, the Dire team destroyed their mid and bottom lane inhibitors, widening the gold gap to 12000 in one fell swoop.

"After this wave, Radiant was basically finished. Even with the enemy having an easy time in the late game, they still lost two lanes."

The OB commentary team, with Feng Ge as a professional commentator, immediately made their judgment.

At 39 minutes into the game, the five members of the Zhenhunshi team grouped up and pushed towards the Radiant's second top lane tower.

[I have a shield charm, I'm going to go in and sell it!]

Gu Ran's Queen of Pain secured a shield rune and, with the blessing of her teammate's Lotus, Blinked into the Radiant's formation to provide vision for her teammates. Seeing a Queen of Pain with over a thousand shields jump in, the Radiant team hesitated to unleash all their damage on her, opting instead to have their Bristleback tank in front and use poke skills to whittle down her health.

Lu Chen's beast spotted the Bristleback on the other side and decisively leaped up to lift it, forcing out the opponent's Venomancer's Shattered Imprisonment.

After seeing the Poison Dog's Shattered Imprisonment attack, XS's Alchemist silently began shaking Unstable Compound. Suddenly, he used Blink Dagger to close in on Beastmaster from the shadows of the forest, activated Black King Bar, and used a Stun Hammer to break Beastmaster's Linken's Sphere, then fed him a fully shaken Shake-Shake, followed by Acid Spray and Chemical Frenzy.

With his low armor, the Beastmaster couldn't withstand the Alchemist's attacks at all. Gu Ran also took the hit with an Sonic Shockwave, and the Beastmaster was instantly killed.

"Brother Mao is down!"

Radiant was already at an economic disadvantage, and having their core units instantly killed only made things worse. Bristleback and Kayn, positioned in the front line, were hit by Dark Seer's Soul Bind combo. Unable to move, they were then focused down and eliminated.

The moment their three cores were instantly killed, HG typed "GG".

Congratulations to Team Zhenhunshi for defeating Team HG 1-0!

The chat rooms across the live streams were filled with cheers. Although the Soul Stone team was a team that many viewers had never even heard of, people preferred this kind of team and felt like they were supporting a dark horse.

Of course, another reason is that many viewers who have been following HG's matches this year have given up hope on them. They feel that even if they make it to TI, they will only reach the quarterfinals at best. It would be better to give the spot to this new team, who might be able to create a miracle.

After the first match ended, the intermission was short. At this time, many viewers went to the Perfect World eSports APP to start posting comments. Lin Yiming was no exception. His team had won, so it was time to go to the comment section to have some fun and see how the hot-tempered guys were criticizing HG.

Opening the comments section, wow, the finals have only just started, and there are already over 1000 comments. After all, it involves TI slots, so the number of viewers is quite large.

HG is not suited to this kind of mid-game push lineup! The early laning phase was okay, but during the Beastmaster's power spike in the mid-game, they only managed to push down three of the opponent's first towers before the game ended, and then they started wandering around aimlessly, a typical mid-game lapse.

In contrast, with Soul Stone, the enemy knows to avoid fights in the mid-game, waiting for double Attack Damage and Black King Bar before engaging. They also know to initiate Roshan fights directly in their own half of the map. If their offlaner dies, they can buy it. If they don't win that Roshan fight, they can basically die.

This viewer understands the game and his analysis is reasonable and well-founded. Lin Yiming gave him a thumbs up.

[Is this carry even human? He only killed one Dark Seer in the Roshan fight, then focused his damage on a Chessmaster with Black King Bar and his ultimate active, only to get stunned and killed by Clockwerk. So bad!]

[Does the offlaner really understand Bristleback? Is the coach just using his feet in the draft?]

What items did the position 4 squirrel build? Serpent's Breath Crystal Sword? Seriously? Didn't they know to build Linken's Sphere to buff Beastmaster? What a toxic position 4!

[This is what big stars are like]

Next came the reckoning. Some of the arguments made sense, but it's hard to say that losing a game is solely due to one person's fault. Building damage items for the position 4 player is just a choice and a style, but there's no way around it. In esports, winning or losing is everything. If you win, you can say it's skill or responsibility; if you lose, you're labeled a cancer.

Lin Yiming was engrossed in reading the comments section. After finishing, he returned to the live broadcast room, where the draft picks for the second game of the finals had already been completed.

In the second game of the BO5 series, HG played as Radiant, with Alchemist as position 1, Void Spirit as position 2, Orc as position 3, Windranger as position 4, and Lich as position 5.

The Soul Stone is for the Dire, with Luna in position 1, Puck in position 2, Stonescale Swordsman in position 3, Engineer in position 4, and Ancient Apparition in position 5.

"Oh, this game is a bit interesting. HG just got crushed by the opponent's alchemy system, and this time they stole the opponent's lineup. To be fair, they are indeed more suited to this kind of late-game lineup."

SDN is currently providing commentary on both teams' lineups.

"But their last pick was a third-position beast to coordinate with the alchemist, and then the Soul Stone side picked a Great Earthshaker as their last pick. Doesn't that Great Earthshaker seem capable of taking on two opponents at once against the Windranger and beast lane? It feels like their oflane is going to be completely crushed, don't you think?"

"Moreover, this Soul Stone lineup is quite strong in the early and mid-game. If you can't hold on in the early and mid-game, it feels like you'll be pushed to the ground. Luna's demolition speed is no joke. Their Luna team is all about pushing in the early and mid-game, so they definitely won't drag it out. This lineup is reversed, let's see how the two sides fight."