$6 Million Echo Slam

The TI5 final: Evil Geniuses vs. CDEC Gaming

The International 2015 grand final took place on August 8, 2015, at KeyArena in Seattle. It pitted North America's Evil Geniuses against China's CDEC Gaming. EG won the series 3–1 and took home about $6.6 million, which is where the rounded “6 million” in the meme's name comes from.

The decisive moment came in game four, the last game of the final: that is where PC Gamer's report on the final day and Russian-language TI5 breakdowns place it.

The jump into the Roshan pit

CDEC killed SumaiL's Storm Spirit and decided to take Roshan. EG's four remaining players went in. Peter “ppd” Dager on Ancient Apparition launched Ice Blast right into the pit, and Sahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora on Earthshaker (Shaker) blinked in with Blink Dagger and hit Echo Slam.

The ultimate on tightly packed heroes netted four kills. EG took Roshan, then won the game and the whole tournament. Kotaku called it “the Dota 2 play that won $6 million.”

PC Gamer's report describes the play as an Ice Vortex, Ice Blast and Echo Slam combo that wrecked CDEC in seconds, and calls it the play of the series and the tournament.

It's a disaster! — the voice of the final

The final was cast on the English broadcast by TobiWan and Synderen. Russian-language breakdowns link the moment to TobiWan's signature line “It's a disastah!”, his drawn-out take on “It's a disaster!” English-language roundups also recall the shout but don't say which caster said it.

That is why roundups of the best TI moments often bring up the Echo Slam and that shout together.

The benchmark for a million-dollar play

After TI5, the “$6 Million Echo Slam” became the benchmark for a “million-dollar play”: moments where a single action decides a final get compared to it. The play appears in roundups of the best moments in The International history.

In those roundups it sits next to the “Million-Dollar Dream Coil,” Gustav “s4” Magnusson's Dream Coil at TI3. Both moments share one thing: a decisive action in a match with the grand prize on the line.

The meme's name is often shortened to “the six-million Echo Slam.” Echo Slam is Earthshaker's ultimate, and its damage grows with every hero nearby, which is why a jump into the tight crowd at Roshan had the biggest possible effect.

The ultimate-filled frame in the catalog

The catalog image is a broadcast frame from the game: heroes bunched together, flashes and fire from abilities in the middle, and the game UI at the top with the score and the CDEC logo.

The tight crowd of heroes and the bursts of abilities in the frame match the story of the play: Echo Slam hits harder when enemies stand close together.

Captions about Shaker with a blink

These examples are made up for illustration: “When the whole enemy team is standing on one spot and you're on Shaker with a blink”, “My pub Echo Slam is worth zero dollars but feels like six million”, “Enemies are at Roshan. UNiVeRsE already knows what to do.”

Captions like these fit any big hit on a crowd, in Dota and beyond, and any situation where everything comes down to one precise move at the right moment.

Another made-up variation swaps the amount: the “$5 Echo Slam” or the “25 MMR Echo Slam,” to highlight the gap between a TI final and an ordinary pub.