"When I was in Tianren City, I looped around the city once, but I didn't leave. I kept some opportunities to steal kills in the chaos. Only like that would they realize I'm Brother Infinite Borders."
"Was that on purpose?" Dai Lao Liu asked.
"And I got grappled multiple times."
…
"So was it on purpose, or were you careless?"
"It was—on purpose."
Dai Lao Liu's expression turned complicated.
"Only you would dare play like that in Tianren City. If I did that, I'd be donating. I have to say—high skill, high courage."
"In our group, aside from a few pros, everyone else is still a bit short."
After all, Naraka has run many tournaments since last year. Streamers with real skill had already gone pro like him.
The ones left… honestly, they really were fodder—average at best.
Especially with Naraka's heat dropping nonstop, streamers in this category had been struggling for a long time.
Even so, seventeen kills leaving Tianren City was still insane.
A lot of people can't even hit that kind of statline while smurf-stomping.
It was basically "see someone, chop them."
He turned it into a murder simulator.
"Hahaha, you're being too humble. The entrants are all solid."
"In solos, I'm fine by myself. If I can't win, my Tarka Ji can escape. And anyway, qualifying pressure isn't that high.
In eliminations, I can just coast a bit. If I mess around long enough I'll reach finals, then I can turn it on.
But since we caught a last-minute slot for trios, we need to practice properly," Lin Fan said to Dai Lao Liu.
"I was thinking the same. A lot of pro squads entered Elite Cup trios. If we don't practice and build coordination, it'll be hard."
"I'll call YaYa over."
Lately GBL has been messy. They haven't even done internal scrims in a long time.
Even just sitting down together, the atmosphere feels weird.
As the founder, Dai Lao Liu never expected he'd be this powerless. He really couldn't find a solution.
In that case, better to let everyone calm down and use Elite Cup as a reset.
Maybe the team can return to how it was at the beginning.
Even though he's mentally prepared to retire, the more he thinks about it, the harder it is to accept.
After all, he built this team with his own hands.
As long as there's a chance, he wants to try again.
If they can win Elite Cup, then he'll push one more time.
GBL!
I'll lead you guys on one more run!
Under Dai Lao Liu's urging, YaYa also joined quickly.
The moment he joined, they queued.
YaYa and Dai Lao Liu stayed in the #2 slot as usual. Lin Fan naturally took the #1 slot and demanded shot-calling authority.
In a team game, the most important thing is calls.
If the team has two voices making decisions, key fights will always have problems.
So Lin Fan took command right away.
Dai Lao Liu had no objections.
YaYa wanted to say something at first. In his view, Lin Fan's skill is good, but he isn't a pro. Against pro squads, his tempo might not adapt.
But then he thought about Lin Fan's traffic.
Just this moment, so many people had poured into Lin Fan's stream. If they argued, he'd get raided.
So better to go along with Lin Fan for now.
Later, once Lin Fan realizes reality isn't like he imagined, YaYa can smoothly take back shot-calling authority.
That would be stronger than arguing now, and it would preserve a good impression.
But after two straight games, under Lin Fan's calls, not only was there no problem—several decisions were downright brilliant.
His macro was too good…
YaYa couldn't believe it.
A guy who's never played competitive matches—how can his game sense be this good?
He'd assumed Lin Fan would rely purely on mechanics, charging in mindlessly.
Instead, every fight was synchronized. They played as a unit, constantly creating outnumber fights.
Every open-field skirmish was easy.
Kill one, turn back, kill the next.
They really executed trios coordination to perfection.
Watching the Big Buddha holding the front line, YaYa couldn't help wondering:
If GBL's #1 slot wasn't DaBao, but Brother Infinite Borders—what would GBL look like?
First place with ease? Or at least stable top three?
Definitely not their current 8th–9th place.
But Brother Infinite Borders' main job is still League. Coming to Naraka is basically "for fun."
Weibo once offered huge pay and still stopped once they heard it was Brother Infinite Borders.
Let alone GBL…
As a founding member, YaYa didn't want to see GBL disband.
DaBao has skill, but he doesn't listen and loves to shift blame.
And YaYa himself is also stubborn and hates being blamed, so he argues back.
When results were good, it didn't matter.
But after the Jie Cup ended, they kept losing.
Lose too much, add fan pressure, and they exploded into arguments—then into fights.
Now thinking back, they just weren't mature enough.
Once the match is already lost, pursuing blame is pointless.
YaYa let out a long breath.
He thought Elite Cup would just be "play along and ride some clout."
But at this rate, they might actually get a real result.
If they can take top three, Old Dai might not retire after the season ends.
Keeping the same roster for one more year… maybe it's not just fantasy.
Meanwhile, chat scrolled like crazy.
"I suggest the streamer understands the situation in trios and intentionally runs it down, then gets knocked out in round one."
"Agreed. If Brother Infinite Borders gets hurt by Naraka, he'll go all-in on League."
"How are we thinking the same? I'd rather look for teammates than opponents. Not afraid of god-tier enemies, afraid of pig teammates."
"Holy crap. Great minds think alike!"
"But this TOP squad actually has something. Feels like they'll slaughter the Elite Cup!"
"Hard to say. Trios is mostly pro squads. There aren't many solo streamers. Once the real fights start, it won't be as smooth as today."
"YaYa, throw once for Brother Infinite Borders—one rocket and it's done!"
Dai Lao Liu's stream also filled with similar comments.
Almost the same as YaYa's.
Compared to external enemies, people love internal division more.
GBL's collapse was internal issues and internal fighting, right?
Surely these two brothers understand that.
Of course, YaYa and Dai Lao Liu pretended not to see it.
The moment you respond, it becomes a huge narrative.
They queued three more games and easily took three straight firsts.
This is what playing the game feels like.
Checking the time, Lin Fan was satisfied and ended stream.
From here, he'd only be able to play Naraka after his League matches.
Luckily, after qualifying in solos, there were no more solo matches for him for now.
The planners and ops felt like they knew his schedule—every remaining Naraka match window avoided conflicts perfectly.
Lin Fan was very satisfied with that.
After all, if there's a conflict, League comes first, no question.
He'd have to give up these "fun" events.
Because Lin Fan's solo performance was too eye-catching, there was a ton of discussion about his skill online.
Just watching him brought back the same feeling as TFT Worlds.
Everyone doubted him, then he slapped everyone.
His talent still stunned people.
Familiar moves, familiar smile, bold aggression.
It reminded people of Brother Infinite Borders on the pro stage.
Under all this discussion, time passed quietly.
June 18.
TES's weekend battle against IG quietly kicked off.
Like the WE match, everyone thought there'd be no suspense.
After all, current IG isn't old IG.
And after being tested, their report card looked like trash.
So even with TES, the match wasn't scheduled at prime time.
Still, viewership was huge. Before it even started, the stream was already past 8 million.
No one was surprised.
As long as Brother Infinite Borders is there, there's traffic.
In Game 1, Yuekai pulled out a super rare mid Ornn.
Everyone was shocked.
What is this?
Is mid pressure that insane? Mid Ornn?
Absorb pressure. Don't get solo-killed. Do nothing.
Lin Fan saw Ornn and instantly locked Ahri.
If I can't kill you, can't I farm your teammates?
Shove mid, then go bot.
If mid won't suffer, then bot should prepare to explode.
Sure enough, under Lin Fan's "care," Wink and Xinliu went back to fountain right on schedule.
Gank once, gank twice—camp nonstop.
Mid Ornn didn't get solo-killed. His stats were the prettiest 0-0-0 on the team.
But it did nothing.
Both side lanes collapsed.
At 14 minutes, both outer turrets top and bot fell. Then TES grouped mid.
Yuekai blocked Ahri charm with Ornn W, but got held by Mark's Yuumi Final Chapter.
Early Ornn can survive Ahri, but not five people beating him.
He got deleted and mid tier one fell.
That play meant three outer turrets were gone. Tempo fully took off.
Neutral objectives got hoovered up by TES.
Ahri hid in bushes waiting for easy meals.
And sure enough, she caught Lulu placing vision.
Support killer mode activated.
One smooth combo, delete.
Mejai's gained four stacks.
A man who loves books is this confident.
Looks like IG's five are "impressive" too—each of them is carrying four layers of pressure.
Whether they add a fifth layer depends on the others.
Game 1 ended at 24 minutes. With Baron buff, TES ended in one push.
"My suggestion: don't let Brother Infinite Borders have Ahri. Once he has it, nobody knows how to respond."
"True. Ahri pressure is huge. You play mid Ornn, and he just doesn't play you—WQ shove then gank bot. Zero temper."
After Game 1, Guan Zeyuan and Rita discussed.
Online, Weibo topics were exploding too.
Core topic: he's distracted by other tournaments and his form still doesn't drop.
Soon enough, Game 2.
IG learned. They banned almost every roaming mid.
Twisted Fate, Ahri, Taliyah. Second phase even banned Galio.
But mid still locked Ornn.
Their plan was: bully mid mages early because damage is low, plus tankiness is buffed, Ornn clears waves fine…
Then Lin Fan answered with Yasuo's brother—Yone.
Once Tian hit level six, Yone plus ult tower dive got the kill, and Lin Fan snowballed out of control.
He started collecting kills everywhere.
A fed Yone might not kill tanks in three swings, but he will always kill ADC in three swings.
Wink put on a pain mask.
In teamfights, Yone E'd in and ulted straight at him.
Wink flashed the ult, but Yone stuck close and Q-AA crit twice and killed him anyway.
Damn it.
Why does an ADC have to bear mid-lane pain?
And where's my support?
Wink was numb.
Losing isn't unacceptable.
But losing and getting hard stomped?
That's hard to accept.
If we could win, who cares if I'm 1-5? Doesn't matter.
But Yone already had three items:
Immortal Shieldbow, Infinity Edge, Blade of the Ruined King.
That gear alone made his scalp numb.
He just prepared to die the moment Yone looked at him.
IG has no star player. Once they fell behind this much, Wink had no ideas, and they collapsed like a landslide.
They lasted two minutes longer than Game 1, then TES ended with two lanes of super minions.
"Brother Infinite Borders! Another Yone! How deep is this champion pool? We never even saw him play it lately. This is absurd!"
"What a plain three-win streak. The official schedule is unfair. EDG can't fight anymore, and IG and WE are basically 'Wolong and Fengchu.' Easy wins."
"Don't rush, brothers—check the next match and you'll know. The focus match is tomorrow's final series!"
Seeing that, people quickly checked the schedule.
Scrolling to the 19th, at the bottom:
TES vs JDG!
Holy crap—'that guy' versus Brother Infinite Borders!
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup