With mid outer turret down, RNG lost a huge chunk of vision. Their jungle got invaded nonstop, and Wei couldn't even find a place to farm.
As for helping lanes—top, mid, and bot outer turrets were all gone. Laning phase ended early, and as a jungler he couldn't do anything.
By 17 minutes, with Lissandra constantly rotating, TES had quietly taken down all of RNG's outer towers.
The kill score was a massive 14–3 lead for TES.
RNG's map was pitch-black. They had no idea where someone might suddenly appear—what should've been a normal game turned into a horror game.
With a lead, TES didn't rush. This was exactly the kind of game they were best at playing.
For the next three minutes, they played around Baron.
When Baron spawned, all five TES players vanished from mid.
RNG had no choice but to group and move toward the Baron pit.
For them, losing Baron was basically the same as losing the game.
With all outer towers down, TES's next step was Baron into high ground.
The moment RNG lit up vision, they saw Lucian hitting Scuttle Crab—and his E was already used!
The other TES members were unseen, but for RNG, this was a perfect opportunity.
If they could delete Lucian, TES at least wouldn't start Baron.
And with one less DPS, RNG might even have a shot at a comeback.
After all, Aftershock Lissandra was a utility setup—how much damage could she really have?
Xiaohu instantly Distortion'd in on Lucian with LeBlanc, and everyone else hurried to follow up.
But at that moment—an icy claw reached out from the wall!
It shot straight into the middle of RNG's remaining four players.
W, Ring of Frost—activated!
The four players stepping forward froze in place as ice erupted from the ground and locked them down!
"Freeze~~!"
On the big screen, Lissandra lifted her hand and cast her ultimate on Varus.
The instant it connected, Varus—still around two-thirds HP—dropped to under one-third.
One Q finished the remaining damage and wiped Varus's HP bar clean.
GALA hadn't even processed it when his screen turned black.
It's over.
When a Lissandra can one-shot people, the game is already finished.
At the same time, a giant Volibear descended from the sky, slamming down with huge AoE.
As Varus fell, Lissandra's passive triggered—she enslaved the corpse and detonated it at the center of the fight!
Even though Ming had shielded, with Volibear's extra damage plus the splash from Lissandra earlier,
his HP got blasted straight to zero!
Double kill!
The same script repeated—Karma got enslaved, then exploded in the middle of the group.
Lee Sin hurriedly kicked Volibear away, trying to work with Fiora to deal with Lissandra.
But Lin Fan popped Stopwatch, avoiding that round of damage.
Xiaohu was chunked to a sliver and immediately snapped back with W's return.
But the moment he returned, Lin Fan—coming out of stasis—finished him with Q.
Triple kill!
Lissandra's passive appeared again.
And on top of that, Jax and Lucian had already arrived.
Their goal was simple: don't let anyone leave.
In this situation, Lin Fan could get a pentakill.
TES voice comms exploded.
"Fan-ge, pentakill!"
"Pentakill, pentakill, pentakill…" Zoom shouted as he flashed in and stunned Fiora with E.
JackeyLove seized the moment, added a burst of damage, then stopped when he judged it was enough.
Fiora got blown up on the spot.
Quadra kill!
Four kills!
TES fans in the crowd jumped out of their seats.
"Pentakill! Brother Infinite Borders!"
"AHHHHHHHH—!"
A lot of people waved flags.
If you looked closely, you could see a Lifeline photo…
And at the top: "Apex is super fun."
After all, Lin Fan's fanbase was mixed.
There were Honor of Kings fans who came before, and now fans from all kinds of games were showing up.
Some people didn't even understand the game, but hearing "Brother Infinite Borders" they knew it meant cheering for Lin Fan, so they joined in anyway.
Wei really didn't want to donate the pentakill, but Lee Sin took two steps and realized he couldn't run.
He was already slowed.
Lin Fan chased two steps forward and finished him with Q.
Pentakill!
The pentakill sound rang out across the Rift, carrying a shockingly dramatic tone.
"Brother Infinite Borders~!"
"My god!"
"Lissandra's damage is way too insane! He goes in and instantly detonates Varus, then takes a pentakill afterward—my god!"
Wawa's eyes were wide, his face full of disbelief.
"Brother Infinite Borders picks Lissandra and gets a pentakill on stage. I can only say… too strong!"
"The entry timing was perfect. He went in and controlled four people instantly."
"RNG can't play the game anymore."
That pentakill completely erased RNG's hope of a comeback.
"His items are too good. Mejai's is maxed. It's hard to imagine how RNG can play now. The moment he enters, Varus just explodes."
"That pentakill was insanely shocking. I really didn't expect the game to go like this."
"This is Brother Infinite Borders. No matter what champion he pulls out, it's always top-tier execution." Tongxi shook her head.
"Yeah, that's why I really look forward to TES matches. I've basically watched every single one."
"If Brother Infinite Borders can keep this form, his career is going to be incredible."
"Honestly, his career is already incredible." Tongxi smiled.
"True. LPL hasn't had a pro player like him before."
…
"Hahaha, Fan-ge is so handsome."
"You baited them perfectly. The moment RNG saw you, they panicked, so I could sneak into their backline that easily."
"And that pentakill was because you all helped. I was just cleaning up after."
"Doesn't matter. Brother Infinite Borders is godlike. I only assisted your Lissandra—LPL's number one Lissandra!"
"Terrible wording. That's clearly LPL's number one mid."
"Shh. Keep talking and you'll get both of us flamed."
"I don't give a damn. I'm always full of tempo. I don't care about them at all," JackeyLove said.
"Stop messing around. Baron, Baron—end in one push."
"Sure. When we push high ground, see if you can set me up for another pentakill."
"We'll try. Lucian might have a chance."
With RNG wiped, TES had no difficulty securing Baron. Easy take.
The three casters shifted the focus back to the match.
"TES secures Baron easily. RNG's situation is extremely difficult now."
As casters, they couldn't blatantly pick sides—especially in a big match like this. Both fanbases were terrifying. Say one wrong line and you'd get swarmed on Weibo.
After taking Baron, TES recalled, reset, and bought items.
Jax split-pushed top. With the item lead, Fiora really couldn't handle him.
Bin wanted to outplay, but he knew that if he dared Q in, he'd just be donating.
The front-to-back was even worse. With waves pushed in, RNG could only keep backing off.
Once the Nexus fell, Fiora had to go back.
Zoom took top with ease.
RNG retreated to the Nexus turrets.
TES didn't rush. They waited for two lanes of super minions to arrive, then rotated bot.
With two inhibitors down, losing the third would make wave pressure unbearable.
But RNG didn't dare step out.
If they stepped out, Lissandra would engage.
So they hid under the Nexus turrets, waiting for TES to come in.
With three lanes broken, TES started pressuring Nexus turrets.
Lin Fan found an opening—E into Flash for the engage.
He wasn't trying to CC everyone. He just wanted to delete one target first.
So he dropped his ultimate on the Lee Sin standing frontmost.
JackeyLove glided forward with a silky sidestep—Q, tap, W, tap—kill secured.
Watching the double carries sprint in, Tian refused to be left behind. He ulted in—Dominating.
Nexus turrets were instantly disabled.
Even with Lee Sin alive, it was already a landslide. With Lee Sin dead, it wasn't even the same game anymore.
RNG members fell one after another.
Ace!
JackeyLove let out a long sigh.
"No pentakill… They didn't give me any face at all."
"If it was double pentakills, they'd definitely panic."
"True."
RNG's Nexus exploded. The game ended at 27:34.
TES took game one of the winners' bracket.
"Congratulations to TES!"
"Yes. Their mid-jungle coordination was brilliant this game, and Brother Infinite Borders even picked up a pentakill!"
"Hope RNG can quickly adjust and face the next games."
After the short break, both teams returned to the stage.
But from their expressions, RNG's pressure was obviously much heavier.
Getting smashed in game one clearly affected them.
And in game two, RNG's draft changed drastically.
The aggressive LeBlanc was gone—Xiaohu took Lissandra instead.
And Lin Fan pulled out LeBlanc.
It felt like: you played LeBlanc badly last game, so I'll teach you.
The moment people saw it, they got excited.
A "swap champs" teaching match—were they about to teach both sides?
Drafts were locked in quickly.
Blue-side TES: Gnar top, Hecarim jungle, LeBlanc mid, Zeri + Yuumi bot.
Red-side RNG: Jayce top, Lee Sin jungle, Lissandra mid, Aphelios + Lulu bot.
RNG's idea was to copy TES's plan from last game: feed the side-lane carries, then win through them.
The idea was good.
Reality was cruel.
Their mid Lissandra couldn't even get lane priority!
Three minutes in, she was shoved under turret. LeBlanc even helped Hecarim secure two Scuttles.
Wei was stunned.
Damn it!
How is Tiger Bro losing to LeBlanc?
At five minutes, Hecarim with Ghost ran behind and kicked Lissandra back.
LeBlanc chained with E, then followed with W.
Then the second dash plus Q mark proc drained the rest of Lissandra's HP.
First blood.
Tabe's face changed backstage.
LeBlanc got first blood—how does Lissandra lane now?
The lane was already losing. Now it was even worse.
And it went exactly how Tabe feared.
After Lin Fan recalled and upgraded items, "LeBlanc the Queen" fully came online.
After chunking her to two-thirds HP, Xiaohu already sensed danger and hid under turret.
But as the wave pushed in, LeBlanc Distortion'd in and dumped QR to proc Electrocute, then used E to finish—she tanked two turret shots, maximized damage, and still completed the solo kill.
At that moment, the official stream chat exploded.
"Teaching both sides, as expected!"
"Look at the builds—what LeBlanc buys magic resist?"
"Brother Infinite Borders better get twenty kills this game, or I'm not convinced."
"That's exaggerating. Ten, maybe. Twenty is like playing bots. Xiaohu's bad, but not that bad."
But after getting ganked once and then solo-killed, Lissandra was basically done.
Roaming was almost impossible. At best, she could play teamfights as a utility bot and try to catch LeBlanc.
Xiaohu stared at his grayscale screen in despair.
No matter how today ended,
getting taught on both sides would be a huge post-match narrative.
Do young players really hit this hard now?
Xiaohu felt his body stiffen.
And what made him stiff wasn't over yet.
Hecarim hit level six and kicked him again…
Black screen again.
TES's plan was simple: feed LeBlanc without limit.
By around 20 minutes, she could take over and dominate the game.
At nine minutes, after upgrading again, LeBlanc slipped top.
Bin didn't realize he was being targeted.
Mini Gnar jumped in and autoed once—then LeBlanc appeared from behind and erased Jayce with one combo.
Bin was shocked. What kind of damn damage was that?!
He pressed Tab and saw it:
Luden's Echo was sitting in LeBlanc's inventory.
What the hell—Luden's at nine minutes?
How is she this fed?
But looking at Xiaohu's miserable state mid… LeBlanc's items suddenly felt very "reasonable."
At 12 minutes, RNG's mid outer turret fell. The gold gap hit 4k—compared to game one, it wasn't that huge.
But this game had a fatal problem: LeBlanc was way too fed.
7–0–3.
Mejai's had quietly stacked to twelve, and every stack had Xiaohu's name on it.
In game two, RNG was behind but kept looking for openings.
Wei made an aggressive bot play—but LeBlanc was already waiting in the bot lane brush.
Lee Sin stepped out and got deleted by LeBlanc's three-skill combo.
RNG's bot duo couldn't escape either.
From that moment, RNG completely lost all comeback hope.
Watching LeBlanc keep killing in side lanes, Xiaohu fell into despair.
The better Lin Fan played, the heavier his pressure became.
TES started Baron at 21 minutes. RNG arrived for a desperate fight.
But with LeBlanc's massive burst and Hecarim wrecking their formation, they had no answers at all.
Ace!
At 23 minutes, TES marched straight to high ground with Baron buff.
Surrounded by five people, LeBlanc instantly deleted Aphelios—Lulu protection didn't matter.
TES followed immediately, giving RNG no chance at all, and ended in one push.
2–0. TES hit match point!
…
No doubt RNG's pressure was enormous now.
Reverse-sweeping three straight games was unimaginable.
This entire playoffs, only TES had pulled off a reverse sweep.
At this point, even RNG fans didn't have confidence anymore.
And sure enough, the result matched expectations.
In game three, RNG just collapsed. Aside from top lane playing normally, the other lanes made all kinds of warped mistakes.
In just 21 minutes, game three ended.
3–0!
TES defeated RNG!
"Congratulations to TES!"
"Congratulations to TES for advancing to finals!"
"Their form is just too good—an easy 3–0 over RNG. And Brother Infinite Borders, once again, three-game MVP!"
Wawa nodded like crazy. "Yes. Too strong!"
——
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup