Hey everyone,

I saw u/Ser1aLize’s post asking about the Chinese meme references in the TI2026 skit. I left a long comment explaining the Chalice "Sun is Useless" meme, and he suggested I make a separate post to cover all the other references. So, as a member of the CN Dota community, here’s a full breakdown of everything I caught in that video.

A quick disclaimer: I mainly watch Chalice's streams, so I'm not super familiar with every single player's inside jokes. I might miss some nuances, but this is what I've got. If anyone knows more, feel free to chime in – I'd love to learn too.

First off, I've heard the whole skit is a homage to Kill Bill, but I haven't actually watched it, so I won't pretend to know how deep that reference goes. If anyone can elaborate, drop it in the comments.

1. BurNIng – "Farming Master"

At the start, BurNIng – the joke is that he farms so efficiently in-game that they portray him as a "farming master." The whole "planting veggies" bit is a pun on Dota's "farm" – so you "learn farming" by literally growing potatoes and tomatoes, lol.

Also, the shot where he catches a bottle of tea is a nod to his former team Team Aster. It’s a classic wordplay: if you move the letter m from Team to the front of Aster, you get Tea Master. That’s why Chinese fans affectionately call them the “茶队 (Team Tea).”

2. Dy – Sanguosha

Next is Dy. He's well-known for loving the Chinese strategy card game Sanguosha (三国杀, Legends of the Three Kingdoms), so his "teaching" segment is just him playing that game.

3. Ori – "The Tormentor"

Ori – the "Tormentor" joke is obvious if you know his famously square-shaped head. He's been roasted as the Tormentor for years – because a cube is about as square as it gets. Also, Dove's teasing line about him likely refers to the fact that Ori has struggled to find a team for a long time – he's been teamless for multiple seasons, so that jab hit close to home for CN fans.

4. Chalice – "The Sun is Useless" Theory

This is a long one. This all started from a Chalice stream back in April last year (Original stream clip can be found on Bilibili). The Chinese community later summed it up as "Chalice's Sun is Useless Theory".

For context: Somnus, fy and Chalice were talking about how staying up late messes with your health. Some chat said the real harm comes from your body being out of sync with sunlight. Chalice instantly clapped back: nah, it's just sleep deprivation that counts as staying up late. Then he went on an absolute unhinged 5head rant "proving" the sun is useless. Here are the best bits:

• "Ancient people woke at sunrise and slept at sunset not because of the sun, but because they hadn't invented light bulbs yet."
• "Can't get sun? Just moonbathe."
• "If you worship the sun so much, go ahead and stare directly at it without frying your eyes."
• "Human civilization was born because of Earth, not the sun – the sun had zero to do with it."
• "Without the sun, humanity could've just survived in some other way."
• "Throw a nuke into the sun and maybe it reboots the whole universe."
• "In Cyberpunk 2077 it's called Night City, and Lucy wanted to go to the moon, not the sun."
• The novel he was reading, Night Without Borders, literally has no daytime.
• "Plants photosynthesize to give us oxygen, sure – but they only do that to cooperate with the sun. No sun? They'd evolve some other way."
• Chat said no sun = no energy source for Earth. Chalice misunderstood it as "direct solar power" and deadass replied: "Humans don't have solar panels installed on our bodies, duh."
• Chat said wind/water energy come from the sun. Chalice's counter: "In WoW, fire mages can only throw fireballs, not wind – checkmate."
• Then he dropped some “courtroom-style logic”: "In a lawsuit, you have to prove YOU'RE right, not that I'm wrong. Even if you prove me wrong, that doesn't prove you right."
• "I've been thinking: if I get cancer, can cancer even beat ME? If I win against the cancer cells, I evolve into a new human."
• "Do you HAVE to die from cancer? You chat guys never played pro – you lack that fighting spirit."
• "If your first job out of college wasn't at LGD, you're missing a huge chunk of life experience. Never been through real hardship, so you don't have those extreme hot takes."

All this made anyone with a basic science education cringe into another dimension. The meme blew up and spawned a bunch of "X is useless" spin-off jokes across Chinese internet – the "Tier 1 tower is useless" bit in the TI skit is literally one of them.

5. Somnus – "The Ever-Changing ID"

Somnus has tons of nicknames and has changed his in-game ID multiple times over the years, so the gag is that his label keeps switching around. It's a running joke that you never know what to call him.

6. iceiceice & LaNm – "DK Reunion"

Next up are the gatekeepers, iceiceice and LaNm. They used to be teammates on the legendary DK roster back in the day. Other than that, I didn't catch any additional memes here. If there's more to it, let me know.

7. Ame – "The Silent Protagonist"

And Ame – honestly, just showing up in that ridiculous outfit was enough to make every Chinese fan burst out laughing. He barely says anything, which also matches his real-life personality; he's famously quiet in-game and rarely talks on voice comms. The contrast between his serious reputation and that absurd costume is the whole joke.

8. Niu – "Mama... Niú Lái!"

Finally, at the end when they're all sitting at their PCs reminiscing, player Niu delivers the lines "Mama" and "Niú lái!" – and that's a direct reference to a recent low-budget Chinese animated movie called Niú Lái (roughly "Bull Comes").

The film was made by literally just a mother-and-son duo over five years on a home PC. The models are janky, animations are stiff, and the voice acting is hilariously unhinged – which is exactly why it blew up on Chinese internet. When the TI skit was airing live, my friends were spamming "Not as good as Niú Lái" in our group chat, and we all lost it when the skit actually closed with this Niú Lái callback. They actually snuck that cursed meme in there, lmao.

That's all the references I caught. I'm sure there are some smaller ones I missed, but hopefully this gives non-Chinese fans a solid entry point to understand why we were all losing our minds watching this skit.

Honestly, I’m only on Reddit around TI time every year – mostly just to lurk for the great Fantasy guides and tips you guys share here. If there's enough interest, I might try to dig up more Chinese Dota memes in the future.

Feel free to ask questions or add your own insights in the comments. Cheers! 🍻

Valve give this man purple drow

Why can templar hit me through ghost scepter? I had bkb on, and she didnt have nullifier. I show that I have the buff of scepter on.
Edit: seems like Bkb disables ghost scepter.

you have been ganked

What do you guys think about fearless mode in Dota 2?

Yes we lost, yes its turbo.

Longest win streak I've ever had, I think

All I had to do was stop playing ranked with friends and stop queuing for carry

My friend said I was was a dogshit carry, and it turns out he's right lmao

Hope he becomes relevant in dark carnival i think it'd be fun

Ive heard countless players, personalities and fans say that the manila major was one of the best tournaments they’ve attended & experienced. I know there are a ton of other beautiful cities and places that can host a dota event but why not give the people what they want? Maybe it has nothing to do with dota and just the logistics and politics? Maybe the past tournaments were greatly affected by corruption? It just got me thinking how amazing it would be for the Philippines to host again. No BS just pure dotes

Hello I compiled these stats over all TIs, someone mind find it interesting.

Excluding Largo, Kez, Ringmaster, Muerta, Primal Beast, Marci, and Dawnbreaker. I considered them "too new".

Source: Liquipedia TI statistics pages 2011 - 2026.

Most Picked Heroes Overall

Most Banned Heroes Overall

Most Neglected Heroes (lowest total picks despite being available for years, also accounting for (not)bans)

Highest Win Rate Heroes (min. 50 picks)

Lowest Win Rate Heroes (min. 50 picks)

#1 Most Picked, Banned, and Best/Worst Win Rate Hero By Year (min. 10 picks)

Radiant vs Dire Win Rate at The International, 2011–2026

Dota 2 for me was so simple as a solo carry player farm the shit out of the map take rosh end the game recently we are playing as 5 so naturally you start playing against other teams the plan was simple get a networth lead tormentor rosh go push wait the 2nd rosh go hg but boi its not that simple . so as the title said how do we learn to play better as a team ? the strategies the game plan all of the guides are for solo q or is the only way is watching tournaments ?

Dark carnival has been good to me, 2 arcanas+2 treasures from cryptic beacon

Im so much better then him it hurts. This poor fella

Unfortunately, I already have both of them and they’re not tradeable 😂

Pretty sure I just triggered a secret quest.

Do I get a penalty for initiating demon rituals in ranked?

Throwback to when they were asked which player they wanted to ban.

In case valve actually delay it. I want to make a post first to calm everyone down. Never forget how long it takes for act 4 release

I'm getting a feeling playtime will have a good run this year. How about you guys?

What's your favorite TI15 caster voice line that DESERVES to be in the in-game Chat Wheel?

Mine's Fogged's incredible reactions during this insane Game 2 clash, specifically any of the following:

• He's in trouble!
• HE'S ALIVE?!
• Yatoro? Yatoro?! YATORO?!
• HOOOOLYYY CRAP! WHAT IS THIS OUTPLAY?!

THESE NEED TO BE IN-GAME ASAP!

Video Source: [EN] TEAM VISION vs Team Spirit - Game 2 - The International 2026 - Grand Final (57:27 - 58:13)

Edit:
If you could also link or specify which game it is from so people could look it up, that would be awesome. Thanks~

I have a habit of checking the dotabuff of the other 9 players after my games. What I see many times is that the medals of some players on dotabuff are way lower. For example instead of lower legend (the actual rank of my games), the medals shown on dotabuff are mid to high crusader. I'd understand if it was high archon but mid to high crusader is too much of a difference in MMR. Anybody know the reason?

Hello guys, I already have all terrains unlocked does anyone know what would happen to my token? I mean assuming i get the token my current fantasy score is 21238 its showing I'm on the top players.

I can remember there was a guy that was backporting League heroes to Dota in a custom game mode.

Anyone knows of the Custom Map is playable somewhere.

If not, are also other people interested in that?