April 16th—the LPL Spring Split loser's bracket began.
"V5, let's go!"
…
"JDG, let's go!"
…
With cheers roaring from both sides, the two teams fought to the death for a spot in the next round!
In the loser's bracket, lose one series and you're eliminated.
Game one lasted 35 minutes. With Yagao's Viktor playing perfectly, JDG took the first win.
V5 adjusted quickly. Led by Rookie, they immediately took a game back.
Game three was match point—both teams were fully locked in.
It turned into a bladder match, but at every critical moment V5 had someone step up. Even when they were slightly down in gold, they never let JDG blow the lead wide open.
At 35 minutes, Karsa's Viego caught Hope's Jinx and created an opening.
They took Baron and flipped the game.
After that, V5 played step by step, giving no openings at all.
Finally, at 39 minutes, they pushed down JDG's Nexus and secured the crucial match point.
Maybe because of losing game three, JDG couldn't withstand V5's pressure in game four. They fell into a huge deficit early—down 8.7k gold at 20 minutes. With the comp disadvantage on top, a comeback was basically zero.
When V5 took Baron at 22 minutes, they immediately ran it down and ended JDG, advancing to the next round.
The kill score ended up 24–4.
That alone showed V5 didn't take much of a hit from getting reverse-swept 2–3 by TES, and their form was still excellent.
After the series, plenty of people backed V5—they looked very likely to take the title at their current level.
If TES was the number one favorite, V5 could easily be ranked second.
As for RNG, they had struggled to beat JDG earlier too.
Among the three teams left, they should be the weakest on paper.
But some people believed that "Spring Xiaohu" could still create miracles.
If they popped off, RNG absolutely had a chance to win it all.
Most importantly, during his break, Brother Infinite Borders even went and played a TFT tournament. Without training properly, he could only maintain that level for so long.
So his strength would only drop, not rise. In that case, TES's ceiling was easy to predict.
April 17th.
The winners' bracket match officially began.
TES only did a simple warm-up in the morning. After lunch in the cafeteria, everyone rested a bit, then boarded the bus to the venue.
Match time was 4:45 p.m.
At 3:30, TES arrived on site. At 4:00, Luo Sheng started calling players over to organize their gear and pack everything they needed for the stage.
Before the troops move, the supplies move first. If you prepare properly, nothing unexpected happens—and even if something does, you won't panic.
"Fan-ge—freshly poured. I warmed it up. You can drink it right away on stage." Tian smiled and handed Lin Fan his thermos.
"Okay, thanks."
"Forget it, Fan-ge, I'll carry it for you. Today we're relying on you to beat Xiaohu."
"Don't say that, you're putting pressure on me. I'll still need you to help a lot mid—come a few times and my pressure gets much smaller."
"Hahaha, Fan-ge, if you've got mid advantage, I can invade the jungle. Helping you is helping me."
Tian scratched his bowl-cut, a little embarrassed.
"Winning has never been one person's job—it's the team's effort. And losing isn't one person's blame either."
In the corner, Knight naturally saw the harmonious mid-jungle scene. He could only grit his teeth—there was nothing he could do. He was the sub this series. Whether he played or not depended entirely on the coach.
But when he heard Lin Fan say losing wasn't one person's fault, he nodded along furiously.
How could TES's previous losses all be pinned on him?
Didn't everyone have problems?
So why was he the one benched?
Especially Tian—he was the biggest problem. So why wasn't Tian the one stuck on the bench?
Thinking that, Knight felt dizzy.
Unfair. It was just too unfair.
While he was sulking by the water dispenser,
TES had already entered the arena under Auntie Yu Shuang's introductions.
And honestly, the fanbases were evenly matched.
After all—it was RNG, the "sword-pointing" team.
After ten years of operations, aside from management's reputation going rotten, the fanbase itself kept growing like crazy.
After both teams entered the prep rooms and tested equipment, the camera switched back to the caster desk.
Wawa, in a black shirt, said excitedly, "Today's series is a winners' bracket clash. On one side is TES, who beat V5. On the other is RNG, who defeated JDG."
Next to him, Tongxi said, "Both teams are in great form—especially TES. After completing the reverse sweep against V5, the entire team's spirit changed massively.
I feel like they're full of grit, and their resilience is almost unbelievable.
As for RNG, they're a classic powerhouse. Xiaohu returned to mid this season, and with Bin joining top, their paper strength looks even scarier.
So today's match is definitely a clash of dragons and tigers—maximum hype."
"Exactly." Maomao nodded.
"And honestly, I think TES being this strong has a lot to do with Brother Infinite Borders. Even though he switched to mid temporarily, his performance has been unexpectedly impressive."
"But today they face RNG. At the start of Spring Split, TES got swept. Can they take their revenge in playoffs?" As Wawa finished, the producer signaled him: it was time to enter the ban-pick.
"Alright, both teams are ready. Game one between TES and RNG is about to begin!"
As soon as he finished, the big screen switched from the caster desk to the ban-pick interface.
Tabe held a small notebook and paced behind his players.
"I think TES is kind of weird. You need to pay attention to their mid. Wei, play around mid this game. Ming, if you have chances, roam up too—give their mid pressure. I watched a lot of TES VODs. They win by playing around a mid-lane tempo engine.
Limiting mid is the best approach. So coordinate well and pin Dine down mid. Then we can rely on top lane's laning strength to expand the lead."
Bin—five-kill Fiora, explosive-damage Gangplank—had already cemented himself as the number one Chinese top laner.
As for Ale… only when he stops "only inting big tempo" will he have a chance to challenge Bin.
"No problem. As long as the matchup isn't too strong, I can hold the lane. When Wei comes, a 2v1 will definitely pin him down mid."
The words sounded a bit cowardly, but the tone wasn't timid at all.
"Mm, good." Tabe nodded. He also didn't plan to let strong laning champs through.
When you're at this stage, you still have to be careful.
After all, eighteen regular-season MVPs wasn't a joke.
"Then I'll ban Syndra and LeBlanc. The remaining mids aren't that strong in lane—he leans more toward scaling… By the way, do you think they'll pick Zed?" Tabe asked.
"Hard to say. I watched that video—his Zed is really strong. Even if it were me, I might not do better than Knight. But Zed's margin for error is low. He probably won't pick it. You can respect-ban it, but it's not necessary.
As for LeBlanc, I can take it. We're blue side—we can first pick." Xiaohu said.
"Alright. If you're that confident, we won't ban it."
"LeBlanc is definitely takeable. If we follow the tempo and build a lead, we can directly take over the game," Tabe said.
The key point was: once LeBlanc gets ahead, she can help her teammates very easily.
They were investing this much mid—so the advantage would be theirs.
With a good draft, the snowball would roll faster and faster.
"If Xiaohu's playing LeBlanc mid, I can pick Lee Sin jungle," Wei said.
"Okay." Tabe thought for a moment, then agreed.
On TES's side, they banned Zeri, Camille, and Viego.
Without Viego, Wei loses half his power.
Against RNG, just don't let Viego through—simple. His other junglers are average.
So the ban-pick ended quickly. Blue-side RNG immediately locked in LeBlanc.
"RNG first pick LeBlanc? Xiaohu is confident," Wawa said.
"Using pick-as-ban is fine. And Xiaohu's LeBlanc really is good. But against Brother Infinite Borders, I think there's still pressure," Tongxi said.
"A few days ago, the solo video between Brother Infinite Borders and Knight got a lot of traction online. Knight picked LeBlanc in one game… and got solo-killed by Twisted Fate at level two…"
"Right, I watched that too. It was wild—Twisted Fate solo-killing LeBlanc!"
"From that, it's not hard to see that Brother Infinite Borders understands LeBlanc so well that he can even solo-kill her with Twisted Fate."
"So I'm really looking forward to Brother Infinite Borders picking Twisted Fate today."
In the backstage lounge, every time Knight heard "Twisted Fate," his brows knit tighter and tighter, twisting into a grimace.
This was public execution.
Don't you casters have anything else to talk about?
Why do you keep bringing up me getting solo-killed?!
Chat was rolling too.
The "hahaha" spam didn't stop for a second.
In just this short time, everyone got swept up in it.
Even if you weren't on stage, the caster desk still had your jokes.
TES locked their first two picks, and only then did the caster desk shift the topic back to the comps.
"TES first-two picks: Nami and Lucian."
"RNG takes Lee Sin and Fiora. RNG's draft is so aggressive—looks like they're not testing the waters at all. They're going straight to the ultimate and putting pressure on TES."
"Yeah. Now let's see TES's third pick. Jungle or mid? Into LeBlanc, a lot of champs can play it—and many of them are champs Brother Infinite Borders is good at… Lissandra? TES locked it in!"
Lissandra wasn't unable to lane into LeBlanc. Even before the Aftershock era, she could come out and fight. After Aftershock, mid-lane trading became even more comfortable.
It was a decent counterpick.
But the issue was—Lissandra was too "middle of the road."
Xiaohu picking her wouldn't surprise anyone, but Brother Infinite Borders picking her felt a bit odd.
Chat spammed one line after another.
Simple message: White Moon is at it again—inhuman.
Brother Infinite Borders is so strong mid. Why pick Lissandra?
Someone even adapted a famous jungler's quote: "Am I weaker than him? Why do we keep drafting weak mids?"
But in reality, Lin Fan asked for this champ himself.
Mainly because of RNG's draft.
Lee Sin plus LeBlanc—this was clearly about smashing mid.
He could still pick something else and fight it out, sure, but it would obviously be harder to play.
So he simply chose not to "play mid."
Even if LeBlanc threw two spells at Lissandra early, she still couldn't out-push.
Lissandra was all AoE, after all.
Push the wave and roam—RNG had no answer.
And this game JackeyLove was on Lucian. He could carry.
To match Lissandra mid, TES even picked Volibear jungle—mid-jungle dive threat was maxed out.
Of course, this comp had huge early pressure. The tempo had to be maxed.
Top lane picked Jax mainly to limit Fiora.
Drafts were locked in.
Blue-side RNG: Fiora top, Lee Sin jungle, LeBlanc mid, Varus + Karma bot.
Red-side TES: Jax top, Volibear jungle, Lissandra mid, Lucian + Nami bot.
As expected, Lissandra took Aftershock.
Even though it was nerfed, Aftershock was still perfect into LeBlanc—especially with Bone Plating.
It could block an entire burst, preventing LeBlanc from getting full damage out.
Stabilize into teamfights, and you counter LeBlanc cleanly.
But it required reaction speed.
And at this stage, what pro player's reactions could compare to Lin Fan's?
Both sides wanted this win.
Win and you advance straight to finals.
Lose and you have to play V5.
That was annoying, so both sides were cautious early.
Level one, they took positions, dancing across the river at each other.
At 1:30, the minions reached mid lane.
Lin Fan immediately controlled Lissandra forward, pressuring up.
Of course, he still stood toward the side—LeBlanc's waveclear was terrible.
This position forced Xiaohu to choose:
Do you walk up to trade HP, or do you push and race level two?
But no matter how hard LeBlanc raced, she couldn't beat Lissandra to level two.
Still, you had to be careful at level one.
If LeBlanc chose to chunk HP, it would be annoying.
Because Lissandra can't learn W level one. In that case, Aftershock is useless, and you'd take a huge loss into Electrocute.
Xiaohu looked at Lissandra and wanted to walk up for poke, lowering her HP bar.
But the opponent gave no opening to "push and poke."
LeBlanc does have an advantage into Aftershock Lissandra at level one.
Because Lissandra can't take W at level one—she can't proc Aftershock. Even if the other side has Bone Plating, Electrocute trades are still profitable.
So staring at Lissandra standing to the side, Xiaohu weighed the trade-offs.
If he wanted to maximize value, it was best to auto to break Bone Plating, then find an opening to Distortion in and proc Electrocute.
"Hah!"
Lin Fan didn't care about that—once Xiaohu stepped into range, he raised his hand and fired Q for splash damage!
——
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup