At eleven minutes, a Vladimir with five kills—without question, for BLG, this was already a horror game.
If mid lane could at least go even in farm, they might still have been able to keep playing. But that play was Vladimir forcibly diving and taking a double kill.
It felt like under the turret, Viktor alone didn't "deserve" Vladimir's attention—only after Trundle came and Vladimir saw two heads on offer did he decide to go for it.
As everyone marveled, the broadcast rolled the replay.
From the moment the wave crashed into turret, Vladimir immediately dropped his ultimate.
It looked abrupt, but it was completely reasonable.
Mainly because Brother Infinite Borders' development was simply too good.
On his first recall, he'd already built most of a major item.
His damage was completely maxed.
In this situation, choosing to peacefully farm with Viktor was already abnormal.
By his usual tempo, the moment he shoved the wave in, he'd dive and kill.
You could only say: since Trundle hadn't shown yet, Brother Infinite Borders felt it was a loss to spend an ultimate for only one kill. So he deliberately waited for the jungler to come help push, then struck.
FoFo died, and that massive wave under turret became unfarmable.
Double blow—his head felt like it was splitting.
At eleven minutes, the match wasn't over, but laning was already over.
Then Vladimir took a turret plate and immediately headed bot.
FoFo instantly spam-pinged.
Having already learned the lesson from getting caught once, BLG's bot duo immediately abandoned the huge wave under turret and retreated.
Bot lane lost another wave, then dropped another plate…
And on top of that, Tian seized the chance to secure the Dragon.
The only "good news" was that it was an Ocean Drake.
An Ocean Drake at ten-plus minutes didn't add much laning pressure anyway, because laning phase was about to end soon.
On the big screen, the kill score reached 6–1, and TES's gold lead climbed to 4500.
But considering team comps, TES's advantage was far more than just 4500 gold.
On this recall, Lin Fan completed Hextech Rocketbelt, and even had extra gold to buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity.
His fighting power came online even harder.
At this stage, any teamfight involving Vladimir would inevitably tilt in TES's favor.
Back in lane, FoFo didn't dare show his face. He stayed back, carefully last-hitting.
Lin Fan didn't care at all.
Rocketbelt plus E waveclear—instantly delete the wave—then dive into the jungle and vacuum up raptors.
Tian wasn't idle either.
Using mid priority, at twelve minutes he secured Rift Herald with zero pressure.
Then it was the usual routine: shove mid, then mid-jungle goes bot.
Using Rift Herald pressure, they planned to help JackeyLove end bot lane's laning phase.
It was completely telegraphed.
Even if BLG saw it, there was nothing they could do.
They could only abandon the bot wave again and run.
If you can't win lane, and your teammates can't help, what else can you do?
They were desperate.
If the mid-lane roles could swap, they believed bot lane would be the one with the advantage…
At fourteen minutes, Viktor was chunked again. FoFo decisively walked all the way back to his inhibitor turret to recall.
Hecarim was wandering nearby. If one ultimate came in and punted him to death, where would he even complain?
He was already miserable enough. He couldn't afford to give people more ammo.
Weiwei looked at the tragedy in mid, and then at the BLG bot duo rotating toward mid because bot tower was gone.
Maybe the two of them still couldn't win a fight—but with bot duo support, they might have a chance.
But at that moment, Vladimir became even more shameless.
He proactively detonated E, then auto'd and drained once—movement speed spiked, and he easily stepped out of turret range.
Trundle's health was still high, but he hadn't built any magic resist at all.
One exchange dropped him by nearly half. He didn't dare to fight at all.
He immediately pinged off the "go in" call.
The target was too thorny…
BLG didn't dare move—but Lin Fan wasn't idle.
He looped into raptors and started eating them right under Weiwei's nose.
"…"
As a jungler, watching the enemy mid laner be this arrogant made Weiwei's anger shoot straight into his skull.
An uncle can endure it, but an aunt cannot!
But then Hecarim's silhouette appeared again, and he cooled off once more.
When you're the losing side, you have to think it through.
Otherwise, everything you do becomes a tool to speed up the opponent.
With BLG's bot duo arriving mid, BLG's already-weak mid tier-one finally fell at fifteen minutes.
At this point, Vladimir's CS had reached 177—completely ahead of the timeline.
Look at Viktor.
Even as a scaling farm champion, under that lane pressure he only had 107 CS.
A full seventy-CS gap… and the enemy was Vladimir, of all things.
Countless people gleefully suggested BLG "investigate" FoFo.
If his bank account wasn't suspicious, maybe it was divine punishment.
At 16:30, after updating his items again, Vladimir didn't go bot.
He went straight top.
Duke's Jayce and Breath's Graves were still brawling.
And as Graves' items came online, Jayce's pressure really was heavy.
He couldn't win the 1v1.
But Duke had teammates.
Vladimir and Hecarim were watching behind him. The moment BLG made a move, they came in from the side.
Breath tried to struggle, but how does Graves struggle against three grown men?
In the end, one sip from Lin Fan—explosive damage—and Graves' HP was wiped out.
BLG, relying on the double-mom super speed-ups, seemed to find an opening.
Trundle and Viktor intercepted from the side.
Seeing this, Mark didn't hesitate—he popped speed and ran.
He left JackeyLove alone, standing there in the wind.
---
"Your mom's ass!"
JackeyLove shouted, fired a rocket, and then… there was nothing after that.
Jinx was swallowed by four people at once, and the kill went to Viktor.
BLG even shoved down TES's mid turret.
Everything started to look like it was trending in a better direction.
"BLG found that opening beautifully. With Sivir and Karma's double speed-up, they caught the chance perfectly and clawed back a lot… If they can keep dragging it out, there's still hope."
The moment Guan Zeyuan finished speaking, a Vladimir with Ghost active burst out from the side.
"A river of blood!"
A fully charged E detonated in the middle of the crowd.
In that same instant, the ultimate exploded across the group.
Vladimir drained Karma once to trigger Phase Rush—movement speed surged—then used Rocketbelt to touch Sivir.
In that moment, Big Dog reacted and tried to create distance.
But Vladimir's speed, like he'd hopped into an AE86, was no longer something Sivir could run from.
Once he closed the gap, Sivir still had half HP—until Vladimir raised a hand and drained.
Empowered Q flashed with explosive damage!
Big Dog didn't even have time to react—his health was gone.
Where'd my HP bar go?
Doggo's eyes went wide. At this pace, he wouldn't be able to protect his own mom.
The arena and the caster desk both lost control and shouted.
"Wow! This Vladimir damage? It's kind of insane."
"Instant HP bar deletion—one-shot!"
"He drained Sivir's artery! Same spot—this reminds me of TheShy's Vladimir, one sip for 1000 damage to delete Xayah!"
But the match kept going.
Even though Vladimir instantly deleted Sivir, his position was now surrounded by the other three.
They seized the moment, trying to brute-force him down with raw damage.
Vladimir's HP plummeted.
But in the very next second, the second wave of the ultimate returned—his lost health was lifted right back up.
And as mid's protector, Tian wasn't going to just watch his mid laner get beaten up.
He ulted in, feared two people, and disrupted BLG's follow-up damage.
He even took down the low-health Karma.
Then Vladimir's E came back up. He charged and detonated—blowing up the immobilized Viktor.
One moment, BLG still had four people.
The next moment, only Trundle stood there in mid, dumbfounded.
Where are my teammates?
Where are my teammates?
Before he even understood what happened on the battlefield, his teammates fell one after another.
Vladimir kept drinking blood. After all that struggle, they'd only shaved off a little HP—yet it was already back.
And then you look at his items…
It felt like everything they did was useless.
Even the "god's-eye view" felt like it was starting to tilt.
BLG went from wanting to beat their opponent… to believing they simply couldn't.
How could this guy take over the game this early on Vladimir?
The last survivor, Weiwei, struggled a bit—but he couldn't escape his fate.
After cleaning up the extras, TES immediately pushed mid tier-two, then inhibitor, full tempo!
"I truly don't understand Brother Infinite Borders' Vladimir. Somehow, he's invincible again."
"This farm speed and this itemization—BLG really can't stop it now. Mejai's is already at 25 stacks, and he even has Shadowflame."
957 shook his head.
Even with ten more minutes of farming, you might not finish this build.
Yet it was already online before twenty minutes. Of course it would look like this.
The livestream chat also scrolled like crazy.
"Watching Brother Infinite Borders' Vladimir, I finally understand what a vampire is. What we played before were just mosquitoes."
"One Q can drain an entire HP bar? That's not a vampire—that's a blood pump! Even a blood pump can't suck like that!"
"Whatever. Today is about enforcing justice. No matter how high the damage is, it's normal."
"Playoffs are when pros truly start trying. Brother Infinite Borders didn't really try in the regular season—now in playoffs he's finally showing his real strength!"
"I remember when the match started, people said he was playing other games? That playoffs would be a collapse? I just want to ask—does your face hurt?"
"You can't ban him out. Ban Vladimir and he has Syndra. Ban Syndra and he has Vladimir. The one true mid god!"
"Vladimir is just a dumb champion. With items, he's invincible. Now he's item-diffing—of course he's this strong."
"Wait, BLG still has fans defending them? Isn't BLG basically all haters now?"
"Honestly, when TES flashed Vayne in draft, I already felt it was satisfying. This kind of black-hearted club deserves to be roasted over fire."
…
After BLG's mid inhibitor fell, Graves respawned and rushed over to defend.
But he didn't dare step up to deal damage. He could only stand there and watch.
Up top, Duke also took down the tier-two.
After this sequence, the gold lead had fully widened to 9500.
"Hurry up and end. They're starting to play dirty. If they can't find a comeback point, they're just all-inning me."
JackeyLove had just gotten horror-gamed once. And honestly, seeing a bunch of people charging at him was stressful.
"Let's do Baron and end in one push."
"Yeah, it's about time."
With this kind of growth—and with Jayce and Jinx—the Baron speed was very solid.
Clear vision and start it. There was no pressure.
---
BLG originally wanted Weiwei's Trundle to come and try for a steal.
But Trundle was just… a pure idiot champion.
When you're ahead, you can charge around and fear nobody.
When you're behind, you're a toy.
He walked in, looked at Baron, then went back to fountain to take a bath.
There was no choice. The damage was too high.
One empowered Q from Vladimir would take half his HP, not to mention teammates adding damage.
TES had no pressure and easily secured Baron.
At that moment, BLG had zero comeback points left.
Their only chance had been Trundle stealing Baron with Smite, dragging the game another five or six minutes.
But now, all they could do was wait in base for the end.
At 23:33, TES's army marched in.
Vladimir charged around with Ghost, unstoppable.
Rocketbelt in, ultimate, E detonation—horrific AOE damage, with an even more exaggerated visual effect.
BLG's front three health bars just kept dropping.
Karma, in theory, actually counters Vladimir.
Vladimir's damage is sustained over multiple ticks. With shields, you can endure longer and stand longer.
That's why support Karma was BLG's "counter idea."
But in the current situation, multi-tick damage had become burst damage.
Karma's shield was so fragile it shattered on contact.
Vladimir got up, didn't retreat—he advanced—chasing BLG's three players down.
The crowd roared with excitement.
Beautiful. This is how you play. Killing feels good!
From the backline, JackeyLove's rockets were guided with pinpoint accuracy—one kill, Jinx passive triggered!
He started sprinting forward and mowing them down.
BLG, in absolute disadvantage, couldn't even resist.
One after another, they fell under Vladimir's drains and Jinx's gunfire.
Vladimir secured a double kill. Jinx cut down a triple kill.
The two carries were unstoppable.
Ace!
24:37.
BLG's exposed Nexus turrets had no one to protect them.
In just a few seconds, they were flattened.
Then the base exploded.
In Game 1 of playoffs, under Lin Fan's Vladimir, TES easily crushed BLG and took the lead.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup