From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

"Oh, right from the start, the Radiant Lich targeted one of the enemy's chickens. It was probably meant to feed the Pangolier a Tango. The Lich wanted to kill the chicken to pay his teammates, but he was slowed down by the Pangolier's Bluff after just one attack."

As soon as the laning phase began, the broadcast switched the camera to the bottom lane.

"But the lich still wanted to kill the chicken. What he didn't expect was that a bomber in the woods would take off with an explosion, stun him, and then unleash a bloody grenade. That's it, killing a chicken has killed him!"

First blood!

[Shikamaru kills Y, gaining 308 gold + 40 gold for a hero]

After watching the broadcast of the bot lane, let's switch the focus to the top lane. After the Earthshaker revived, he used his super high attack power to beat the Beast back to his own tower. Looking at his CS, he only had 1-0, while Luna's CS was already 4-2.

"Is this top lane situation just as I predicted? The Earthshaker can take on two opponents at once, and the Beastmaster has no chance at all."

SDN boasted about its understanding of laning.

At 1 minute and 55 seconds, the director switched the camera back to the middle lane. At this moment, Gu Ran's Puck moved to the right side of the Holy Water Rune, and then the Illusion Orb was thrown to the left. Mao Ge's Purple Cat could not outrun the ball. When Puck was only a few steps away from the Holy Water Rune on the left, he passed the ball over. At this moment, he was only slightly ahead of Purple Cat.

"The purple cat used a Shadow Step to block Puck's path, thankfully Puck couldn't control the rune now... but Puck still managed to destroy the Holy Water rune!"

"Oh dear, Mao is in a bit of a mess this time. Puck controlled the Elixir Rune but didn't get it. He had an early advantage in last-hitting, but missing the rune might affect his laning phase later on. It seems like Radiant is at a slight disadvantage in all three lanes."

Charles's voice carried a hint of smugness as he commented, noting that the Dire were now leading the Radiant by 1K.

Six minutes into the rune control, the top laner who had already cleared the top lane came to help in the mid lane. Just then, a speed rune spawned in the top lane. As soon as Mao Ge showed his face, he was locked down by Gu Ran's Puck with a Dream Entangle. The top laner followed up with a punch, and Puck followed up with a Crescent Moon Silence. The Purple Cat was killed by the two of them while silenced.

OldFang killed XM and received 228 gold coins + 55 gold coins and 1 hero.

"The situation on the Radiant side is getting worse and worse. At the seven-minute experience shrine, Puck used a haste rune and came right up, holding off both Beast and Windranger by himself. Earthshaker used the experience shrine and came over. Beast sensed something was wrong and tried to dash away, but Luna interrupted him with a Moonslash and he died under the tower. It's over! It feels like Radiant is doomed!"

XS kills bage, earning 208 gold + 86 gold split between two heroes.

At this point, the economic gap between the two sides had widened to over 2000.

Nine minutes later, Da Niu went to the Dire Triangle and clicked on the Observer. When he went down the stairs, he was intercepted by the Purple Cat. Gu Ran's Puck wanted to come over to help, but when he came over, Da Niu was hit by a Windranger's Binding Shot, and the two of them were stunned.

The beast, having come from the upper tower, saw this opportunity and naturally charged up to charge forward. However, Windranger's Binding Strike was not at a high level. After the Great Earthshaker woke up, he released Spirit Beast and followed up with an Echoing Stomp, stunning the beast in the river.

[I have my ultimate, we can fight this wave!]

XS's voice came through the team voice chat. After receiving the message, Gu Ran, along with the three brothers Da Niu and Ziggs, worked together to kill the Purple Cat first. Luna came over and used her ultimate to take down the beast. Then, Lich arrived late and used Frost Burst to take down Da Niu. In the end, this wave resulted in the Dire's support being traded for the Radiant's two core heroes.

"The Radiant team only has one Alchemist with a healthy economy right now, and he is the hope of the entire team. From now on, the Radiant team must survive every Alchemist kill and farm like crazy. If they can drag the game out until they get their first Aghanim's Scepter, they might be able to put up a fight with the opponent. It's similar to the last game, but the difference is that their disadvantage is greater than the opponent's disadvantage in the last game."

Seeing the Radiant's huge disadvantage, SDN started to help them find a solution. At this moment, the Alchemist did indeed have the highest economy in the game, with a full 5440, but in contrast, their Purple Cat and Beastmaster ranked fifth and sixth in economy, both with less than 3000.

[We'll just focus on mid lane and keep Mao down; this Radiance build isn't fast either.]

Gu Ran started directing the two support heroes to come to the mid lane. The enemy's Alchemist was farming in the bottom lane, and Beast was laning in the top lane. Purple Cat was too weak to jungle, so he could only come to the mid lane to farm. Then he was ganked by the three brothers on this side as soon as he came to the lane. He died once at eleven minutes and died again at twelve minutes while controlling the rune.

When they were trying to take the experience shrine at 14 minutes, Purple Cat's economy was already 2500 points ahead of Puck's, so he didn't dare to come over to defend. As a result, Soul Stone controlled both experience shrines again.

"Holy crap, this Luna is building Power Treads and Sacrifice! We haven't seen a Sacrifice Luna in ages. His next pre-order items are Manta Style and Aghanim's Scepter. It looks like he's going for a fast-paced push and isn't going to drag the game into the late game with Radiant at all."

SDN noticed Luna's equipment build, which completely ignores late-game capabilities and only focuses on stacking mid-game strength and pushing tempo. The advantage is that she is very strong in the mid-game, but the disadvantage is that if she loses a team fight, the enemy's equipment may catch up and she may collapse.

"It's 16 minutes and 30 seconds! The Alchemist has finally crafted his first Aghanim's Scepter, and the raptor went to the Mysterious Shop to buy the last Spirit Orb, but it looks like the enemy team just used Smoke of Deceit to gank him! Oh no, the Alchemist's down, but the raptor needs some control! The raptor is the hope of the whole village, he can't die!"

SDN provided commentary as if he were also a member of HG, explaining that if the bird died, HG would lose more than 6000 economic combat power within two minutes.

"You can see that the alchemist's bird circled around all the way back from near the Dire's Tier 1 tower. Thank goodness, if that bird had died, the first game would have dragged on for another two minutes, and they can't afford that!"

After many twists and turns, the Alchemist's first Aghanim's Scepter was finally given to the Purple Cat. At this point, it was already seventeen minutes into the game. However, the moment Mao Ge got the Aghanim's Scepter, he ran into Gu Ran's Puck in the main jungle. He didn't even have any Mage Counters, and he and Puck only exchanged a few skills.

[Purple Cat has been taken down; they might try to attack us. Be careful.]

While running away, Gu Ran reported the information about the Purple Cat Aghanim's Scepter to his teammates.

A minute later, HG did not initiate a smoke gank to find the Soul Stone, seemingly aware that they were at a significant disadvantage and could not win a team fight now.

We'll use fog of war to sweep through the main jungle!

If the enemy doesn't take the initiative, then go after their people. Gu Ran directed his four teammates to use Smoke of Deceit to sweep through the Radiant main jungle, while Luna stayed on the top lane alone, using the illusion of her Manta Style to push the lane and avoid alerting the enemy.

We didn't find anyone from the enemy jungle, but there was an Alchemist clearing the front line under the enemy's bottom lane second tower.

"The Dire failed to catch anyone with their smoke gank, and they spotted a Alchemist farming in front of the second tower. Should they really engage on Alchemist? This position doesn't seem very good, does it?"

Commentator Charles spotted the Dire's movements—Puck, Earthshaker, and Techies were standing on the river above the bottom lane's second turret, looking down at Alchemist, while Pangolier circled around from the main jungle to behind the second turret, ready to cut off their retreat. It seemed they were really going to kill Alchemist from the enemy's bottom lane second turret, a place where they could provide support at any time. However, this Alchemist's equipment was indeed very meager: Radiance, Phase Boots, and Soul Ring, with no items that would increase his tankiness.