"Nice. I think Brother Infinite Borders basically secured points from that opener. Now it depends on how the cards come," Shen Chao said, not surprised at all.
Everyone was used to it by now—this was the true 1-1 god. Across all these tournaments, Brother Infinite Borders still hadn't ever lost a carousel item fight.
In Lin Fan's stream, viewers spammed exclamation marks nonstop.
It was a pity that at this level, the stream could only show first-person POV—no interaction. The tournament tier was different now.
"With Attack Speed, just play for a win streak into Adventure Xayah. Game 1 should be easy."
"True, but Brother Infinite Borders hasn't played Adventure Xayah that many times. Too many people contest it."
"TFT Worlds or not, when it's time to meme, you meme. If he memes at Worlds, I'll call him the strongest."
"Domestic tournaments are different—no need to get fancy. We were champions last year. A two-time regional championship is still important."
"We League fans are here for laughs. Whether Brother Infinite Borders wins or not doesn't matter."
"By your logic, does League winning a championship not matter either?"
"A normal person would think: if he can win AND meme, isn't that even better? What kind of person hopes he doesn't win?"
Chat bickered while Lin Fan finished his PvE rounds.
The first PvE drop gave him Shen, Yone, Gnar, plus three gold and an Item Remover.
Without hesitation, he bought two Nidalees from the shop, then sold the units that dropped—along with an Ezreal holding items—to hit ten gold interest.
The second PvE drop gave him a rod, and he instantly built Guinsoo's.
The third PvE drop gave him sparring gloves…
By the augment stage, Lin Fan already had five Nidalees, plus Vladimir and Skarner.
For augments, he took DD District.
The plan was obvious—this was a Nidalee game.
Shen Chao watched, practically out of breath.
Stage 2-1, five Nidalees, plus the Astral trait.
On top of that, he had sixteen gold—meaning if he won this round, next round he could take two gold interest.
And the Korean opponent he ran into was also playing Astral. With everything at one-star, Lin Fan was guaranteed to win.
That meant, regardless of whether he maintained a win streak, he'd have 20 gold at Stage 2-2.
Explosive economy!
"This Nidalee should be really smooth. It's strong. His economy is too good—by the second PvE he should have at least fifty gold. Huge room for error."
At 2-2, he did have 20 gold. DD District even handed him another Nidalee.
That meant he couldn't take the full two interest, but six copies was still absurdly smooth.
Then something nobody expected happened—
On screen, Lin Fan started rolling the shop.
Three units on board, six Nidalees—if you don't roll here, it doesn't make sense. With Astral, there was a real chance.
"Brother Infinite Borders has guts. If it doesn't hit, it could explode," Shen Chao said.
The moment he said that, chat pushed back hard.
"No wonder Shen Chao is stuck on the caster desk. If Brother Infinite Borders can be first seed, how do you win without betting?"
Astral procced one copy… then two rolls, nothing.
Third roll finally hit the eighth.
On the fifth roll, Astral procced again—
Nine.
Three-star Nidalee!
Lin Fan's hands were fast. In the last moments, he used the remaining four gold to level, slotted in Gnar, and completed two Shapeshifters.
From twenty gold, he was down to one.
But his board strength was absolutely the strongest in the lobby.
"Unbelievable! 2-2 three-star Nidalee? My god!"
"Mike, what did I say? Looks like you're kissing donkey face for sure!" Johnson laughed arrogantly.
"Dine's performance in pro League is unbelievable, but in TFT he's also god-tier! Three-star Nidalee—his ceiling is limitless this game. Whether it's Shyvana or Shi Oh Yu, both work!"
"Most importantly, his HP is so safe. With a win streak, he can easily 'recover' economy—no, not recover, he'll be even with the lobby! Three-star Nidalee, half the items already built—too broken."
"I don't think there's any issue taking first place this game," Johnson said, laughing so hard his grin was about to spill off his face.
Mike agreed inside, but still forced himself to talk tough.
"Nidalee isn't that strong. First place depends on how the later boards shape up."
"Hahahaha. I can tell you're just being stubborn by how gloomy your face looks. You viewers can't see it as clearly through video, but I'm close enough to see his mouth corners literally drooping."
"Maybe he really has some kind of donkey fantasy, that's why he made a 'kiss donkey face' bet…"
…
Over on the Korean desk, the casters wore pained expressions.
Group A had their third seed, My Paradise. They'd hyped him forever as 'TFT's chosen one,' saying he'd easily win this lobby.
They claimed Dine winning China qualifiers was mostly capital behind-the-scenes—because a League pro entering TFT creates headlines.
At Worlds, they said he'd be exposed.
But then at 2-2 he hit three-star Nidalee.
"His luck is way too good… way too good… his later play definitely won't hold."
"Trust my judgment."
Then next round, their third seed My Paradise got absolutely slammed by Lin Fan—double pain on top of pain.
"Okay, that's trouble. One win, one loss—economy is collapsing. But I believe he can still handle it."
Yet before carousel, My Paradise managed to win another one—only to run into a weak opponent again…
From start to finish: win one, lose one.
On camera, My Paradise's expression was… something.
It felt awful.
Everyone had thirty-plus gold, and he was in the twenties. The only good news was his HP was still healthy.
"My Paradise is suffering. No economy, can't even contest items," Shen Chao said. With Lin Fan's three-star Nidalee, top two was basically locked, so he started watching the other players.
Generally, Korean and Japanese players tend to be strong.
So Shen Chao focused on this Korean third seed.
One look and he almost laughed himself to death—but he kept the professional caster face.
Win one, lose one, and the economy is cooked.
HP is okay, but now he can't even grab items. Unless the shop blesses him, he's going out 6th, 7th, or 8th.
No threat.
Next, Shen Chao said, you watch the loss-streak players. Usually, when they hit level 7 with unhealthy HP, they'll spike hard—those are the ones who can swing the lobby.
As soon as three-star Nidalee appeared, the official stream's viewership began to surge.
Carousel went smoothly—he grabbed Magic Resist. Nidalee's second item, Quicksilver, was basically secured.
Now it would be harder for some random CC chain to flip a fight. There's a lot of CC in this set, and even three-star Nidalee isn't guaranteed to hold.
With that strength, Lin Fan win-streaked straight to 4-1. The economic gains kept turning into levels.
Now it was about what line he'd choose next. If he wanted a higher cap, the clear answer was Jade 9-5.
But this game, he was seeing lots of Spider copies. If he could chase 3-star Spider, it could serve as a secondary carry.
So he went for full suppression and even slammed Archangel's on it—if it worked, miracles were possible.
Unfortunately, without any 10-cost units showing up, he lost his streak right before carousel.
That made the other players breathe a little easier.
But Lin Fan's economy was still good enough that when he returned, he forced level 9 and sped up again.
At 5-6, he was just one Spider short of three-star.
His board already had six Shapeshifters, three Jade, and a five-cost Soraka to support.
Soraka's boost to Shapeshifters was enormous.
"Nice. Brother Infinite Borders is very stable now. With this board, top two is guaranteed. Whether he can take first depends on two-star Shyvana and three-star Spider," Shen Chao said, looking at the big screen.
At 6-1, Lin Fan was still at 84 HP—absolute first place.
By now, three players were already eliminated. One more out and you'd have top-four points.
But that was still not enough. To advance in this format, you basically needed top two every game, since 32 players were competing across the whole event.
And then a monster appeared—
A level 10 "Whispers Bruisers" 9-5 board with two-star Yasuo, two-star Bard, and two-star Soraka. Its combat power was ridiculous, and it was spiking hard.
When Lin Fan collided with it, without two-star Shyvana or three-star Spider, even three-star Nidalee couldn't hold. He got smacked for fourteen damage and dropped to 70 HP, and everyone tensed up.
"Hahaha, Johnson, look. Dine is definitely strong in League, but he can't adapt to late-game board transitions like the other players," Mike said, grinning.
Trash talk was common on the NA desk. That was their culture.
The one with the advantage starts clowning.
"But Whispers Bruisers 9-5 is really strong. Feels like the final duel will be those two."
"It comes down to whether Dine can hit three-star Spider plus two-star Shyvana. Otherwise he's probably only top two. That capped Xayah board can't be beaten—you can only wait."
"Didn't hit!"
"Then this is trouble…"
Right as Shen Chao said that, Lin Fan's POV showed him moving Nidalee to the upper-left corner.
She wasn't eating Jade!
Everyone freaked out. Nidalee not eating Jade should be a disaster.
But when the fight started, Nidalee pinned down the enemy Xayah instantly!
Most importantly, Shyvana was standing in the middle—no one could block Nidalee's path.
"This repositioning! Top-tier. 6-6… if he can one-shot them here for 22 damage, the game is alive. Shyvana can go two-star, then once Spider hits three-star, this game is his!"
Other regions' casters were screaming too:
"Got him! Dine's unexpected repositioning completely read k3soju's mind!"
Nidalee sprinted into the bottom corner, autoed Swain once—
The moment she took damage, she transformed into cougar form and ripped Xayah apart in two bites, deleting the main carry.
k3soju's expression twisted.
In the end, everyone surrounded and beat down the remaining two-star Shyvana!
When Spider was at a sliver of HP, Soraka healed it back up.
"Base HP is 8. Shyvana costs two population. The damage is exactly 22," Shen Chao shouted, hyped.
Sure enough, at the end of the round, the damage was perfectly enough to eliminate k3soju.
k3soju clutched his head in pain. If he hadn't been caught, he probably would've taken first.
Whispers Bruisers 9-5 is the worst kind of 9-5. It can't hold the stage.
Lin Fan immediately started rolling.
The hardest opponent—Adventure Xayah—was gone. The remaining "Bruiser 9-5" was basically a toy.
As long as he hit two-star Shyvana, he'd win this lobby.
Thirty gold—start searching!
Once two-star Shyvana appeared, first place was basically locked.
"Stable, stable, stable! Brother Infinite Borders gets a 'just because' scalp at Worlds!"
"So strong—starting with a statement win, that's Brother Infinite Borders."
"Hahahaha, stomping domestically, stomping at Worlds too."
"His game talent is insane."
"This isn't talent, it's understanding. That round was everything—Nidalee solo deleted Xayah, and Soraka's heal was the difference. Perfect."
"Today's game was kind of lucky—I can only say everything was the best arrangement!"
"Charge, charge, charge! Keep slapping their faces. Didn't they doubt he could take first? He takes one right away!"
"Ever heard 'start low, finish high'? Winning early isn't always a good thing. It makes you a target. Showing too much edge never ends well. Game 2 he'll definitely get targeted."
That actually got a lot of agreement.
Because with 32 players competing, anyone with high points gets targeted.
Round 1 only had two games. Even if you double first, that's only 16 points.
There were still eight games after that.
The ceiling was 64 points, but the floor was only 8. Even then, you could still get eliminated.
Once you get targeted, the risk increases.
Starting from Game 2, everyone could feel it.
When Lin Fan started holding units, other players started "blocking" his shop.
Especially Korea's third seed—he even gave up a round of interest, clearly just to spite him.
"Johnson, what did I say? Now he's showing his true level," Mike elbowed his "brother," eyebrows dancing.
Johnson could only turn away and pretend he didn't see it.
"I believe Dine is a miracle-maker…" he said, but with no confidence.
Especially watching the HP keep dropping—at 3-4 he was down to 57. The pressure was massive.
"Feels like Brother Infinite Borders is going to have a hard time this game…"
Seeing Lin Fan decide to go Shimmerscale Cannoneers, Shen Chao shook his head.
Cannoneers had a low cap, and in mid game it's hard to stabilize.
"It depends on what augment you get. You need Hot Shot plus three-star Tristana to stabilize, and right now they've been blocking Tristana hard. That's trouble…"
Shen Chao didn't finish his sentence before his mouth shut.
F***—how is that possible?
Not only did Hot Shot appear, he even got two Corkis. Even if it's 15% odds, that's still insane.
At level 7, he forcibly rolled and somehow assembled eight Tristana copies, picked up a gifted Tristana, and found a Corki too.
Combat strength maxed out.
Plus Shimmerscale's gold-generating items, he recovered economy again.
Stabilize and take first!
"Unbelievable—unbelievable, truly unbelievable! Today is going to be Dine's lucky day!" Johnson shouted on the official caster desk.
"Mike, what were you saying earlier? I didn't hear it. Could you say it louder? Bring back that arrogant look you had!"
He was so happy he jumped up and started dancing at his desk.
"Holy s***—this can work?!" Mike was numb. Something's wrong. Why does he keep getting his face slapped today?!
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup