From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Chapter 95 Smash Blue Cat

After the first match ended, at Lin Yiming's home, the three brothers tacitly opened the post-match comment section of the Perfect World eSports APP together. This was an essential part of the game, as it was a must-do after the match to check out the comments from netizens.

[It seems like the opposing team didn't do enough research on us. They even revealed their signature split-pushing strategy, so it's no wonder we got speed-cleared. Their hero picks were also strange; none of them seemed to be popular picks in the current meta. Rubick is a pure stomp champion, strong against weak teams but weak against strong ones. Venomancer is an ancient relic from who-knows-when; I've never seen another team pick him. The result of a support diff was a collapsed early game, and they didn't have the resilience of strong teams, so they were pushed to a draw.]

Lin Yiming felt there was nothing wrong with it, and he also replied:

Indeed, Clockwerk is very strong in this version, and Keeper of the Light is also a viable team composition hero. However, these two on the opposing team seem to lack both initiation and counter-initiation capabilities. Rubick seems pointless to build alone unless the enemy team has heroes like Doom or Underlord, and Venomancer's purpose is even more unclear.

After replying, he turned on his computer and started slicing the video. The game was fast-paced, and the video was finished quickly. After finishing, he checked the comments section and found that his comments had received many likes and had gone viral. It felt great to be recognized for his understanding.

"Binbin, how come you also know how to play Clockwerk or Keeper of the Light?"

Ah Wei also saw that comment and started trying to persuade Binbin, who mainly plays positions 3 and 4, to practice new heroes.

The three brothers chatted for a while, and when they looked back at the game, they realized that the draft phase had already ended.

In the second round, the Soul Stone was Night Cube, with Lifestealer (Little Dog) in position 1, Ember Spirit in position 2, Langgo in position 3, Shadow Fang in position 4, and Clockwerk in position 5.

Navi is the Radiant team, with Terrorblade in position 1, Storm Spirit in position 2, Centaur Warrunner in position 3, Skywrath Mage in position 4, and Treant Protector in position 5.

In this match, Gu Ran and his team chose to let the enemy's Storm Spirit go first, and then used Ember Spirit and Shadow Fiend to counter it. Their double support's ability to proc mid is very strong. After gaining an advantage in the lane, they can chase down Storm Spirit in the mid-game. Lifestealer is also a counter to tank heroes like Centaur Warrunner. The only hero the enemy can perform well against is Terrorblade, but according to pre-match observations, the enemy's carry is not very strong.

We often say that the Soul Stone has a variety of playstyles, and you can see that in this BO02 match. In the first game, their lineup was good at split pushing and ganking without engaging in head-on fights, but in this game, they chose a very solid head-on lineup.

Langgo has healing abilities, and the little dog can also save lives, but the opposing Navi is also very strong in terms of frontline strength. They have Terrorblade's burst damage, Centaur Warrunner to tank the front, and Storm Spirit's control. Let's see how this game turns out when the two sides clash head-on.

After listening to SDN's introduction, Binbin frowned. "I feel that Navi's lineup selection is better than Soul Stone. I haven't seen their skeleton split push lineup in the first game, so I can't comment on it. But in this game, it seems that Lifestealer will have a hard time against Terrorblade, and Storm Spirit is stronger than Ember Spirit in the late game."

Ah Wei countered, "This Storm Spirit is really hard to play. The enemy team has an Ember Spirit, a Shadow Fiend, and a Clockwerk in the mid-game. If they manage to land a combo, Storm Spirit will be completely destroyed. I feel like Spirit Stone is easier to beat. How about we bet three games on support? Whoever loses has to play support for three games next time we play together?"

"Can"

Watching the game and having this kind of bet? Lin Yiming smiled. After watching so many games, he had some understanding of the game. Storm Spirit was indeed not good at playing this game, but Terrorblade was better at playing. If Navi's carry could play a diff against their opponent, they might have a real chance. But in terms of individual ability, he didn't think the opponent's carry would have a good chance.

The first blood of this game occurred in the bottom lane. Treant Protector's amazing laning skill, Living Tree Armor, was not very effective against Lango, who had a dispel ability. On the other hand, the combination of Lango and Shadow Fiend could pull the opponent into the flowers of the Thorn Maze. With the help of the Frog's powerful output, Treant Protector was first bound and then killed by the little frog.

First blood!

[Shikamaru kills Riddys, gaining 331 gold + 55 gold and 1 hero.]

"Navi made the first move in this wave. They played a bit aggressively, but in reality, they couldn't out-compete the opponent. They should have just let Terrorblade use Metamorphosis to finish off the enemy instead of trying to fight them with Metamorphosis. They might not even be able to win."

Unfortunately, Navi couldn't hear the commentators' advice. With five minutes left in the game, Terrorblade's Metamorphosis was off cooldown. He instinctively took two steps forward, trying to pressure Langgo's positioning, but Soul Stone's team wasn't intimidated at all, and Shadow Fiend went straight for Terrorblade.

On the retreat route, Lu Chen placed a Thorn Maze, and then placed a Frog Force at TB's feet before slamming it into TB's face.

After activating Demonic Transformation, Terrorblade became even more fragile, and since he already had low health, he could only switch targets to Shadow Spirit when he couldn't kill Lango. However, Shadow Spirit had Shadow Realm, which left Terrorblade dumbfounded, and he was eventually killed by Lu Chen.

Huaqiang killed gotthejuice and received 240 gold + 83 gold split with one hero.

"Hey, I told Navi to stop messing around and showing off, but he wouldn't listen. See, he got 'given away' now?"

Despite the two consecutive deaths in the bottom lane, Navi's economy was actually ahead because their Centaur suppressed the Lifestealer during the laning phase, and their Storm Spirit also slightly outpaced Ember Spirit in the mid lane.

However, once the laning phase is over, every two minutes when the mid laner needs to contest runes, the two supports from the Spirit Stone side will come to the mid lane, and Storm Spirit won't be able to control a single rune.

In the eight-minute wave, the opposing mid laner finally couldn't resist the temptation to check the rune, but as soon as he showed his face, he was bound by Jiang Xia's Evil Shadow Fangling with Thorn Maze. Lao Fang's Orianna came over and flicked the gears a few times. Finally, Gu Ran used Shadowless Fist to take down the enemy with Blazing Sun Lock.

"See, I told you Storm Spirit is unplayable. He's okay against Ember Spirit in lane, but when it comes to contesting runes, he's easy to die if the enemy's two supports come. Storm Spirit is really unplayable if you can't control the runes."

Ah Wei plays mid lane, so he naturally understands how difficult it is for Storm Spirit to perform well in the mid lane.

"Do you understand the pain of a Storm Spirit at 8:30 when they see a level 6 Fangling standing in the enemy mid lane?"

Lin Yiming and Binbin said they didn't quite understand your mid laner, but they could see that the focus of the early game offense for Soul Stone was this Storm Spirit, and they did achieve the desired effect. At twelve minutes, the Storm Spirit's economy was the lowest among the six cores, only around 4000.

[In this game, Skywrath Mage could also silence Ember Spirit, but the bottom lane duo of Rangora and Illusionary Spirit gained an advantage. Illusionary Spirit reached level six too early, making it difficult for Storm Spirit to play.]

SDN, the commentator, analyzed the reasons why Blue Cat suffered such a terrible defeat in this game.

Unlike the previous game's rapid suppression and push, this time Soul Reaver's Lifestealer needed to farm and couldn't support team fights much in the early game. So, although Gu Ran led the team to fight fiercely in the early game and killed Storm Spirit several times, the enemy Terrorblade and Centaur were both farming, and the economic gap between the two sides couldn't be widened. After the Cube was controlled by Soul Reaver at 20 minutes, they were only 1000 gold ahead of Navi.

"Something feels off about this game. Ember Spirit has killed so many people, but the economy between the two sides is still not far apart."

Ah Wei also noticed that something was wrong.

"It feels like the enemy Storm Spirit, even though he was already very poor, still took the responsibility to push the dangerous lane. He was just a dead man anyway, so he sacrificed himself to ensure the safe farming of the offlaner and the mid laner. Terrorblade farms very fast, so even though Storm Spirit's economy collapsed, the economic gap between the two sides didn't widen."

Lin Yiming noticed that Navi's Terrorblade was ranked first on the economic leaderboard.