At 1:30, the mid waves met, and both mid laners began their duel in the center lane.
Lin Fan controlled Akali and stood behind the minion wave, while Rookie's Ryze pressed forward, looking for chances to poke with W–auto.
Under normal tempo, the timing for mids to hit level two is around 2:10.
But if you slow-push and control the wave, it can be delayed a bit.
To fully suppress Akali, Rookie deliberately slow-pushed. He wanted to time it so he could shove the wave as the Scuttle spawned, letting Karsa secure double Scuttle.
But that gave Tian a window to gank mid.
Especially because TES bot lane was playing extremely aggressive, creating the illusion that Tian was on the bottom side.
And in prior games, Hecarim had used Ghost for a level-two bot gank. After getting burned once, the "lickspittle" side was naturally terrified—Xayah backed up behind the minions, clearly ready to give the wave up.
If the jungler came bot, it'd be a pure waste of time.
After clearing red buff, Tian piloted Hecarim and wrapped around from the Baron pit side.
Mainly because he was worried V5 had a ward at raptors.
Hecarim's movement was instantly caught by 957.
Under normal clear tempo, Hecarim would definitely take W and farm raptors—he's basically a raptors landlord. With Q and W, the clear is just too smooth.
So this route, without a doubt, meant a gank was coming.
"Tian is ganking mid at level two? Rookie's Ryze is still level one."
"That's brutal. A level-two Hecarim gank mid is hard to imagine—but if he can kick Ryze back, plus blue buff, there's a chance. Even if not, he can chunk Rookie's HP."
Knight's eyes nearly popped out watching this.
Pain. Too much pain.
Rookie was pressuring, but he was also careful.
He planned to ward the top-side river entrance as the third wave arrived.
Normally, Hecarim would clear from bot to top and appear around that time.
But he didn't expect TES mid-jungle to be this inhuman.
Lin Fan pushed Akali forward. One Q slash—low damage, but it slowed Ryze.
Then he pulled back, trying to trigger his passive.
Rookie reacted instantly, walking forward with W and auto to proc Phase Rush, and to stop Akali from freely triggering passive.
In that trade, Ryze clearly profited.
But what made Rookie feel danger was this:
Akali didn't retreat—she advanced.
Something was wrong!
Akali's level-one Q costs a lot of energy. With 200 energy, to cast a second Q you need about six seconds of regen.
Add in spacing, it's still over three seconds…
During that window, Ryze had already created some distance with his speed-up. If Akali walked forward, even if she landed a Q, she'd still lose the trade.
Rookie glanced to the side—
Hecarim, with red buff, appeared behind him.
Rookie didn't dare hold his spells. If he hesitated, he'd either lose HP massively or give up first blood.
He immediately flashed backward.
But Tian was crafty.
He didn't turn on E while approaching.
He only activated Ghost after wrapping behind.
When he saw Ryze flash, he finally popped E, chased effortlessly, and kicked Ryze back.
Rookie's expression twisted instantly.
Akali's Q slow landed again. Combined with Hecarim's spinning damage, Ryze's HP melted.
Damn it.
Tian walked forward with clean Q–auto timing. Lin Fan understood immediately.
One auto attack—Ryze's remaining HP disappeared.
First blood.
First blood secured!
"Tian's gank is so smart. With the wave frozen here, Rookie is going to suffer!"
"And even worse—they gave the kill to Akali. V5's comp is actually afraid of an Akali."
Jayce and Xayah have no resistance against a massively fed Akali.
Once an assassin locks you, your HP bar just disappears.
With mid pressure relieved, V5's top and bot lanes would be the ones suffering.
Lin Fan quietly held the wave and began stacking it.
Rookie TP'd back. He didn't lose much experience, but with no flash, he didn't dare cross midline casually anymore.
And his plan of helping Karsa secure double Scuttle turned into a dream.
Karsa being able to take even one Scuttle next would count as good luck.
After stacking a cannon wave, Lin Fan finally started pushing—slowly, but with no Ryze interference, it was easy.
Then Akali disappeared from V5's vision.
In this situation, it looked like:
Took first blood, farmed three waves, now going to recall and buy.
After all, he had around 900 gold on him.
But the timing was ambiguous—it also looked like he might be helping his jungler secure double Scuttle.
Rookie could only ping Karsa on the top side.
From the spectator view, you could instantly see TES mid-jungle's move:
Level-three bot dive!
"I'm about to go big."
"Good. Lock them down. Don't give Rich a chance to TP down."
"Don't worry. Absolutely won't happen!" Zoom stared at Jayce. This 4v2 dive had a real shot. If it worked, TES would take off.
Even trading one would still be worth.
In fact, after turret damage got buffed, Mark was already prepared to sacrifice himself.
Mid-jungle arrived, and bot lane's cannon wave just crashed into tower.
Normally, that was still pretty safe for V5.
Farm under tower, stabilize, wait for Jarvan to clear and come bot.
But when Akali and Hecarim appeared behind them, V5's duo felt their scalps go numb—pure horror.
It was clearly a tower dive.
They spammed for help in comms.
But Karsa was top side, Rookie had no teleport, and Rich was pinned by Mega Gnar.
Meaning: no one could help bot.
And earlier, V5 bot had been forced back a bit, so their HP wasn't full—about three-quarters. The kind of HP where you could potion, but didn't have to.
To save pots, they didn't heal.
TES's four players were full health.
That made V5 bot lane's pressure enormous.
Especially because they didn't know who would start…
But no matter what, they couldn't have guessed the first engager would be Akali.
Akali Q slashed down to slow, drew turret aggro, then E'd out, turned back and cut once to proc Electrocute.
Xayah's HP plunged below half.
Mark piloted Rakan and W'd up.
Photic reacted fast—he flashed to dodge the knock-up.
But Hecarim immediately kicked in afterward.
JackeyLove followed with damage.
V5's bot turret retargeted onto Rakan.
Lin Fan dropped W—gaining 80 energy—then his second Q clipped both V5 players. He pulled back and sliced passive.
Even though Xayah got healed a bit, she couldn't hold. The kill went to Akali.
PPGod wasn't useless that fight—he did throw his E toward Akali. But Tian was already positioned behind, so PPGod got pulled away.
When he realized his AD was being surrounded, he hurried back, but it barely mattered.
After tanking two turret shots, Mark flashed out.
TES reset their focus and turned on the Leona who had no W.
Tian tanked to the limit and stepped out, then JackeyLove took turret aggro and flashed out.
This kill also went to Lin Fan.
Double kill!
Akali double kill!
"Beautiful! A textbook tower dive—no wasted actions, crystal clear targets."
"And the most important part: TES fed Akali two kills. They're obviously funneling him, speeding up his item spikes."
At 3:40, three kills meant 1,100 gold. Add CS and passive gold, Akali's total was already 1,600.
He's here to eat people!
But Akali only took one turret shot. Lin Fan didn't recall.
He returned mid instead, perfectly timing it to catch the wave Ryze pushed in.
From this, it looked like he was saving up for a bigger recall.
Chat exploded.
"Yare—swap one mid and you instantly see results. Who had the problem? I don't even need to say it."
"That's why we said it earlier: fucking White Moon. If he put Brother Infinite Borders in earlier, this would already be over."
"This is real League. This is TES's true tempo. Those first two games were 'Timid Hand.' Thank god Brother Infinite Borders is in!"
"Did Timid Hand learn?"
"Watch and learn!"
"Reverse sweep! Reverse sweep!"
…
At 4:00, after resetting, Tian left the first blue buff low and handed it to Lin Fan.
With levels plus blue buff energy regen, even without items, Akali could flip the lane and start suppressing Ryze.
Karsa seized the moment and came mid, trying to relieve Rookie's pressure.
Unfortunately, the moment Ryze stepped up, Lin Fan sensed it.
He E'd backward to create distance, and Jarvan's EQ combo was cleanly avoided with the shroud.
V5's mid-jungle got toyed with and had no choice.
Karsa had to slink away from mid.
At 5:00, after eating the ninth wave, Lin Fan finally recalled.
His gold total was already 2,370!
Hextech Rocketbelt + Fiendish Codex.
Boots, plus a control ward.
Rookie saw the items and backed off immediately.
Once Akali tagged you, full combo meant an execute.
Against an itemized Akali, Ryze simply couldn't "talk."
But all of this was TES's chain—one link after another—no counters.
With mid "big brother" back, Tian immediately invaded V5's jungle.
In the current mid-jungle collision, V5 couldn't fight at all.
After Akali hit six, Rookie became even more cautious and stayed under turret.
He felt like if he lost even a bit of HP, TES would tower dive him.
But when the wave crashed, he had to walk up.
So he stood far back…
Especially whenever Akali stepped forward.
Rookie didn't even last-hit—he retreated immediately.
He knew Akali's level-six execute line was ridiculous. Ryze's 1,000+ HP wasn't enough.
And with items like that? Forget it.
But sometimes, you can't dodge just because you want to.
Hecarim came in from the side and kicked Ryze straight into Akali's face.
Rookie expected a dive because of the huge wave, but he didn't expect Hecarim to be that direct.
Rookie tried to struggle for a window.
But Akali's damage was absurd.
QR to start, one auto to proc Electrocute, and Ryze's HP dropped below half.
Then shroud, then a refreshed Q, then R2 to execute.
With two components, Akali's damage already made no sense.
He didn't even need to use E.
Ryze died under tower again.
Meanwhile, Hecarim had taken two turret shots and was still perfectly safe—he disengaged easily and vanished into the jungle.
Akali took a layer of turret plates. Once the wave was cleared, she drifted toward bot side.
Karsa came mid to catch the big wave, then pinged bot.
Even though Akali had no ultimate, her lead and items made her threat still massive—just proccing passive was lethal.
V5's bot duo immediately backed off.
No choice. TES was too unreasonable.
It might not even be just Akali—Hecarim could come too.
If another 4v2 dive happened, bot lane could get fired from the game.
They chose to hard-lose and abandon the entire wave.
Not just bot.
Even top lane Rich hid in the "self-isolation brush."
Akali's pressure was too huge.
No Akali on vision, and the other lanes didn't dare farm.
Compare that to TES's side lanes:
JackeyLove was eating well, even solo-taking turret plates. He told Mark to roam away.
Zoom also secretly chipped a plate.
That was another 300+ gold difference.
And the Akali everyone feared?
He was taking dragon with Tian.
They originally wanted another bot dive, but V5 ran too fast.
Since they'd moved anyway, they had to get something.
Especially because the first dragon was Ocean Drake—perfect for snowballing lane advantages.
As the dragon let out its death cry, V5's hearts sank, straight into the abyss.
In V5's backstage lounge, the coaching staff's faces twisted.
The coach was ecstatic in the first ten minutes—now he was in pain.
How could he treat this like a free win?
Brother Infinite Borders was ridiculous.
How does he sub in and suddenly TES looks like a different team?
A clean 3–0 now felt impossible.
But at that moment, the tempo still wasn't done.
Hecarim finished dragon, took a Scuttle, hit level six—
then immediately ran back mid.
This time he didn't even pretend.
He ulted straight into Ryze.
Fear!
Then kicked Ryze out again.
Akali landed E—Shuriken Flip—marking Ryze, then reactivated to slash in, auto'd to proc passive and Electrocute.
Full-health Ryze instantly hit the floor.
Akali Q executed, then shroud came out, he repositioned, procced passive, and finished the cleanup.
"My god—Ryze is dead again!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup