From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Chapter 93 The Little Skeleton Werewolf's Lane-Pushing Strategy

The main stage switched to the BP interface, and the camera focused on the two match rooms. On the Soul Stone side, Lao Fang was in charge of BP. He was wearing glasses and had a very calm expression.

Gu Ran and Jiang Xia sat beside him, each holding a stack of bound A4 papers, occasionally offering some suggestions to Lao Fang—these documents contained data on the heroes that the Navi team frequently used in recent matches.

They were on the Radiant side this game, and they had the first ban and pick, banning three champions very quickly – Storm Spirit, Puck, and Invoker.

This was a pre-arranged draft strategy. The opposing team relies heavily on their mid laner's performance, so we banned his signature heroes and then picked other heroes depending on the situation.

The opponent banned four heroes: Druid, Shadow Fiend, Tidehunter, and Stonescale Swordsman.

[Since they've all banned their core champions, it won't affect our plan, so I'll just first-pick Orianna.]

Gu Ran and Jiang Xia both nodded. The first hero they picked, Clockwerk, is a strong support hero in this version. Since the Energy Gear can be used like a bowling ball, this hero has three skills with control, making him a very strong initiator. At the same time, the Magic Crystal skill Jetpack can also provide vision, which is very useful when suppressing the opponent.

Navi first picked Windranger, a hero their carry often plays. However, Soul Stone was prepared, having already guessed that their opponents would likely pick Windranger first.

Without hesitation, Lao Fang banned Kayn and Treant Protector. The opposing mid laner had a signature mid lane eagle, so he continued to ban him. Treant Protector was a hero that the opposing position 5 player liked to pick, as it was good at protecting the lane.

Navi's drafter thought for a moment, banned Dark Ranger, XS's signature hero, and then picked Beastmaster, a hero that can theoretically be used in two or three rotations.

Old Fang directly paired up Keeper of the Light and Ember Spirit. Both heroes have magic damage output, which counters the opponent's Windranger. Furthermore, Keeper of the Light's chakra magic can give Ember Spirit a chance to use his first skill, Lightning Bolt, twice. They are two heroes that can cooperate.

[The opposing team seems to be a 1-5 combo of Windranger and Poison, and a 3-4 combo of Beastmaster and Rubick. It's unlikely we'll get Beastmaster against Ember Spirit, so let's pick Old Wang's hero. What do you think, Old Wang, is a good hero for us to perform well with?]

Old Fang asked for the opinion of his team's number one player.

I feel like—you could give me a little skull.

Little Skeleton? Gu Ran glanced at the four opponents again. They were indeed much squishier, and against Beastmaster, Little Skeleton could use his third skill, Death Pact, to eat Beastmaster's summoned porcupines, making him a counter to Beastmaster. Although not a popular pick in the current version, Little Skeleton's damage output was very high, and he could take down towers quickly, so he was definitely not a bottom-tier hero.

【Then let's go with the little skeleton!】

Old Fang also felt there was no problem, so he selected Clinkz in the Eighteenth Hand.

[Banning Gu Ran in the last two picks is annoying; the enemy team is probably still missing a mid-laner.]

After thinking for a moment and considering the opposing mid laner's champion pool, Gu Ran finally decided to ban Viper and Huskar, those two nasty champions, to ensure that he could secure a steady advantage in the mid lane.

Navi banned Bristleback and Brewmaster, two offlaners they felt were difficult to deal with.

【Then I feel like I can pick the werewolf. The enemy team has a bunch of squishy heroes who can't figure out how to play my werewolf, and Gu Ran has Boots of Travel so he can fly over my little werewolf.】

Old Fang accepted Lu Chen's suggestion. This Werewolf was indeed quite good. The enemy's two squishy supports were easy targets for the Werewolf, and the combination with the Skeleton King was also a good lane-pushing duo.

The opposing team thought for a long time before finally picking Captain. They hadn't seen their mid-laner play this hero much, suggesting they were running out of options. They were hesitant to pick a late-game hero for their mid-laner, as it could disrupt their early game rhythm. Anyway, Gu Ran's Ember Spirit wasn't too worried about Captain.

So the lineup was finalized: on the Radiant side with Soul Stone, the lineup was: position 1 Skeleton King, position 2 Ember Spirit, position 3 Lycan, position 4 Keeper of the Light, and position 5 Clockwerk.

Navi's lineup consists of Night Stalker, Windranger (position 1), Kunkka (position 2), Beastmaster (position 3), Rubick (position 4), and Venomancer (position 5).

"Mid-lane Ember Spirit, that's a popular mid-laner lately. How's your practice going? When are you going to carry us?"

After the draft phase ended, Lin Yiming asked his mid-laner, Awei.

"This hero is really overpowered. The poke damage from the Lightning Bolt and Cookie skills is too strong. It's like beating up a son when you take down three cats with one roll. But this time the opponent picked Gangplank. I haven't played this lane much. I'll learn how the pros play it later."

Ah Wei recently made a big score in solo queue using mid-lane Ember Spirit, and seeing that Soul Stone also picked mid-lane Ember Spirit, he became interested.

In this game, we can see that Team Soul Stone has picked a lane-pushing lineup that they are quite familiar with. They used to like to pick Lycan and Invoker, but Invoker was banned this game, so they chose the combination of Lycan and Skeleton King, both of whom are also good at lane pushing.

And once Ember Spirit gets Boots of Travel, he can provide support at any time. They used this lineup in the TI qualifiers, and now let's see if they can achieve the desired effect against foreign teams.

The streamer in the SDN live broadcast room also began analyzing the lineups of both sides.

[The Soul Stone pick on Clinkz is good for laning against Beastmaster, but this carry hero doesn't seem to be popular in this patch. Maybe XS wanted to play him and it counters Beastmaster, so they picked it for him. We can look forward to seeing how this unpopular hero performs this game. Navi chose mid-lane Kunkka against the patch's top pick, Ember Spirit. Let's see how it goes.]

Two minutes into the game, the camera switched to the mid lane. Navi's mid-laner, Gangplank, first used Water Blade to swipe at Gu Ran's Ember Spirit, then attempted a predicted Torrent—but missed.

[I feel like it might have been better to use that torrent attack to bait him out, but if he had used it, Firefly probably wouldn't have noticed the mana level didn't change, so he wouldn't have been able to fool him.]

After listening to this mid-lane skirmish, Awei discovered that he had learned a little something new. Before, he would just guess whether the captain had used Torrent based on his feeling when he saw the captain raise his hand, but now, after listening to the commentator, he suddenly realized that he could look at the changes in the mana bar.

Nothing particularly noteworthy happened during the laning phase; both sides had mirror matches, with the advantage lane slightly pressuring the disadvantage lane, and the mid lane was evenly matched.

However, ever since the laning phase ended and Keeper of the Light on the Spirit Stone side reached level six, the game has gradually shifted in favor of the Radiant.

With the Soul Stone, Keeper of the Light paired with Ember Spirit can use very cheap small skills to kill Navi's people. After the invisible skeletons and Lycan's invisible wolves can find the enemy's lone targets on the map, Ember Spirit can immediately use Boots of Travel to support. Keeper of the Light can use Solar Bind to apply a slow, and Ember Spirit can follow up with Quicksilver Shot and Dragonfire Cookie to kill a person.

If it's a tanky hero like the Captain, then you can use your ultimate to fire away with Ember Spirit and kill them, and that's how the economic gap between the two sides gradually widens.

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