Today wasn't just the Douyu Cup.
There was also the League pro scene's loser's bracket match—RNG and V5 fighting for the final spot in the finals.
They started at 4:45 and still hadn't finished even now.
In that situation, the moment Lin Fan won the title, the news instantly surged onto Weibo trending.
"Brother Infinite Borders won the championship!"
A lot of people were completely confused.
What was going on?
Wasn't the match still ongoing?
How did Brother Infinite Borders already win a title?
They clicked in—and only then realized everyone was talking about Teamfight Tactics.
"Holy crap! Brother Infinite Borders joined the Douyu Cup finals and won? He directly got a qualifier spot. With this level, he really might represent China at TOC 3."
"Absurd. Brother Infinite Borders truly understands League of Legends as a game—TFT and Summoner's Rift both. Two flowers blooming at once."
"I knew Brother Infinite Borders had a match today, but I hadn't gotten off work yet, so I didn't see it."
"Missing it was a tragedy. Game four was insane. Mirage was Pirate, and he instantly committed—Pirate! Treasure chests dropping nonstop, then he three-starred Daeja and stabilized into first. At the end, after eating Pirate chests, every unit had items."
"Game four was genuinely amazing. I imagined so many first-place comps, but Pirate Mirage winning? Never."
"Pirate Mirage is actually pretty strong. Win-streak early to build econ, then high Mirage gives you tons of items—fighting power is no joke. A god-roll can absolutely eat."
"Normally Mirage strength is just okay, but Brother Infinite Borders is not normal. 2-7 neutrals dropped Daeja! Instant six Mirage, stable six gold per proc, plus extra items sometimes. Terrifying."
"Hahaha, I only know one thing: Douyu streamers lost so much face. If I'm not mistaken, Brother Infinite Borders only played TFT for like ten-plus days. At first you could tell he was new, then he absorbed everything. Every comp—he can play it. Most importantly, dog luck is insane!"
Of course, lots of people on Weibo didn't understand TFT.
But seeing Brother Infinite Borders, they clicked in to learn.
They didn't know what everyone was talking about, but as long as it was praising Brother Infinite Borders, we're good sisters.
From this moment on, the whole space was occupied by fans. There were basically no haters.
After all, by tradition, you don't take losing fights. Even in losing fights, the "director" misses Q's—let alone random haters.
"RNG and V5 are in game five! Decisive match! Nobody's watching?"
"True. Brother Infinite Borders winning is fun, but today's main show is the match."
"V5 bot lane is kinda unstable. Feels like bot gets blown up in game five."
"Rookie couldn't suppress Xiaohu either. Spring Tiger Emperor is still scary."
"Brother Infinite Borders: all defeated underlings."
"Hard to say. Brother Infinite Borders has been slacking hard lately. Xiaohu and Rookie have been training until after 2 a.m. every day—full form."
Meanwhile, Lin Fan returned to Don't Starve Together.
The early layout was basically done, so it was time to interact with friends.
Once the password was opened, it became a speed contest.
His stream was near eight million. The moment he opened it—instant full.
"Hahaha, Brother Infinite Borders hi. Didn't expect to actually get in."
"I just bought Don't Starve. Never played. I've been waiting for this moment."
"www.xxxxx… spicy interaction."
The third player posted that message.
Lin Fan kicked him immediately.
Too ridiculous—trying to sell porn in his room.
Then another player instantly filled the slot.
"Hahaha, I had a feeling. The moment you open it, just spam click. Luck is so good."
…
"Damn, a porn seller actually got in. I'm done."
"Opportunities go to the prepared. He prepared better, so he got in first."
"I'll pay 20k. Change accounts and swap me in?"
"It's tempting… but I don't have an account."
"Brother Infinite Borders' Genshin friend slot is like 40–50k. 20k to play Don't Starve together isn't bad."
"Wait, are we really not watching the match? It's game five! Don't you want to see who the finals opponent is?"
"No need. Whether it's RNG or V5, Brother Infinite Borders already beat them. Overall impact is small."
"Not necessarily. In this series, Xiaohu and 'Meat Kun' have visibly improved. Both got beaten by Brother Infinite Borders before. Feels like they're saving up to get their revenge in finals."
…
"Today's goal is Dragonfly. Prep first: gather materials for stone walls. Niu Niu, go find a Pan Flute. If you can't, craft one."
Worried the three players weren't watching stream, Lin Fan also typed it in game chat.
They instantly got hyped.
Don't Starve solo means slowly learning guides, but having a leader with goals is completely different.
Stream chat also started spamming.
"Damn. Fighting Dragonfly this early? If you start prepping now, you can probably fight around day 20?"
"As expected. Even Don't Starve becomes a different game with Brother Infinite Borders."
"Not watching the match? Come on, commentate! RNG and V5 are super intense!"
"It's intense, but the casters suck—buzz buzz. If Brother Infinite Borders casted, it'd be great."
During this time, Lin Fan and the three helpers finished preparations for Dragonfly.
Materials gathered, they reached the lava biome.
"Normally I don't bother with lavae cheese, but since it's co-op, for everyone's experience—and as a lesson—I'll show you how to block them."
As he spoke, he placed stone walls in a line near the lava pool.
"Leave a small gap here. If not, they'll path around. Leave a gap and they'll crawl here—but because it's blocked, the lavae can't get through."
Prep work complete.
"You three just sneak in damage. Don't get greedy. Dragonfly hits hard."
"Okay okay!"
"Charge!"
"It's my first time doing a group boss fight in Don't Starve."
"I've played co-op before, but I could never find people to play with."
"Wait here. I'm going to pull Dragonfly."
Lin Fan finished and controlled Wilson to go provoke Dragonfly.
With so many viewers, only a minority had played Don't Starve.
Seeing such a huge bug pop out scared them.
And the HP bar above it was a terrifying 27,500!
Compared to Wilson's HP, the gap was ridiculous.
"Holy crap—monster!"
"This looks kind of interesting. Boss this huge?"
"I've played Don't Starve for years and I've never even seen Dragonfly. I've never heard of those bosses you guys talk about."
Lin Fan ran downward. At the corner, Dragonfly slapped him.
He lost 75 HP instantly.
Then he found the rhythm and started hitting.
Four swings, then step back.
The other three helpers ran in and started hitting too.
But their movement wasn't as slippery as Lin Fan's.
They all took a slap—HP nearly bottomed out.
But looking at Dragonfly's HP, it was still around 25,000.
"This is why I recommend enabling health bars. Without health bars, hitting a 20k+ Dragonfly and not even seeing progress—that's despair."
"Hinting. Hinting."
"'Simp' is you—simp so long you can't even see the progress bar…"
"You three can back up and I'll fight. 20k is fine. My habit is hit four, dodge one. Some guides say hit five, hit six—that's their habit. The best way is finding your own feel."
"If you can kite properly, you won't get hit at all."
After several clean cycles, he pressed Dragonfly down to 85%.
"Like this, it's easy, right?"
He hadn't finished flexing when the slap came—Dragonfly caught him on the retreat.
If not for the helmet blocking some damage, his body wouldn't survive it.
"Ahem… at 80%, it starts spewing lavae. At that point don't chase. Eat meat to recover, swap helmets."
"Don't Starve's design is reasonable. The boss goes to get minions, but it gives you a break. How much HP you recover depends on whether you can survive the next phase."
"Since we prepared, we can block the lavae."
Sure enough, the lavae got stuck above.
"No need to kill them. Don't worry—they'll combust later."
When Dragonfly came back, he kept swinging—one hit after another.
From morning to dusk, and Dragonfly was still at 19,000 HP!
Fighting this boss was all about patience and mechanics.
Once you fully adapted, it became more and more comfortable.
"Run, run! Enraged state is untouchable. Back off immediately, then blow the flute to calm it."
Seeing Dragonfly enrage, he retreated and pulled out the Pan Flute.
The moment he played it, Dragonfly calmed down.
Just as it was about to leave, Lin Fan hit it once to pull aggro back.
Continue the fight!
HP was down to 17k, and night was coming.
A true day-and-night grind.
"Brother Infinite Borders' mechanics are so practiced it hurts to watch."
"He's probably been slapped plenty. When I first played, I loved provoking Dragonfly too—then two slaps and I died."
"Come on. Dragonfly can solo four bosses. If you're not a god like Brother Infinite Borders, you're just donating."
…
It went from day 20 to day 21 dusk…
And Dragonfly still had 2700 HP!
"Insane. This is basically a solo Dragonfly, right?"
"Yeah. And the scariest part is I only saw Brother Infinite Borders eat jerky twice."
300 HP. 200. 100.
Dragonfly kicked its legs and collapsed.
Gems and a scales blueprint dropped.
"This is co-op, but it's basically a solo…"
"So strong. A day-and-a-half fight. No man more enduring than Brother Infinite Borders."
"Crazy."
"Honestly, it's not that hard. Many creators have tutorials. Don't greed for hits, learn the rhythm, and it's fine. You can also just face-tank if you prep well.
Compared to Sekiro bosses, it's much easier…"
They're different types of games. Don't Starve is more chill exploration. There's difficulty, but not as extreme as people imagine.
Sekiro loves torturing players…
And the biggest victims are streamers.
After killing Dragonfly, Lin Fan closed the room.
Then Niu Niu typed in chat: "Brother Infinite Borders, have you played Escape from Tarkov?"
"Hm… I've heard of it, but I haven't played."
"Then you have to try it. It's really fun. It's a shooter, but it mixes in RPG elements, and it's massively multiplayer—really good."
"Sure, I can try. Usually games I haven't touched before, I'm pretty bad."
"But we'll push it back. Infinite Borders is about to start early progression. I need to prep."
"Because Infinite Borders!"
…
"Damn, a hater slipped in!"
"You can tell. That Niu Niu guy isn't a League fan. He thinks there aren't enough games and wants even more? He's trying to distract Brother Infinite Borders!"
"Over. Not just a hater—he's a diehard fan of another team. He's trying to undercut at the root…"
"I'm crying. Brother Infinite Borders is Brother Infinite Borders. Every game serves Infinite Borders. Whether he plays depends on Infinite Borders."
"Looking forward to S2. I originally followed him because of Infinite Borders streams. Now he returns to his true heart! Nice!"
"Uh-oh. When a player's chat isn't spamming about the match, do you know what that means?"
"In Brother Infinite Borders' stream it's normal. But if they really lose Spring Split title, that Water Ghost Sister is going to explode—she'll flame Brother Infinite Borders into the ground…"
At that moment, Lin Fan deliberately clicked into Douyu's League match stream.
He glanced at RNG vs V5 game five.
It was 24 minutes. Kills were 7–6, and gold was dead even.
Looked like another bladder match.
If it was about to end, he could watch. But at this pace, it wouldn't finish in twenty minutes.
So he clicked X.
"It's intense. Hard to tell who wins. But from draft, RNG looks better. It scales. And this tempo is definitely going toward 30+ minutes."
Sure enough, V5 held early and kept gold close, but later they couldn't hold anymore.
At 35 minutes, RNG had a solid advantage.
They used Baron to run macro, and at 41 minutes ended in one push.
Then a scene that made RNG fans despair appeared:
RNG winning hit Weibo trending—
but above it was "Brother Infinite Borders won the title," and "Brother Infinite Borders predicted RNG would advance to finals…"
They lost to Brother Infinite Borders in winners' bracket.
They won in losers' bracket, but still lost the Weibo trend to Brother Infinite Borders.
And now their finals opponent was still Brother Infinite Borders!
RNG's nemesis!
——
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup