After successfully diving the fountain and taking Knight's Syndra head, the entire team was in high spirits—especially Tian, who was laughing so hard he made little giggling noises.
Backstage, Luo Sheng was already clutching his stomach from laughing.
When Game Two started, he'd already expected them to win—but he hadn't expected it to be this easy, especially with Lin Fan saying his Azir could "casually" handle Syndra.
By normal logic, Azir should absorb pressure mid, transition into mid-to-late game, then take over.
Instead, mid lane turned into nonstop solo kills on Knight.
Sigh!
Knight had been on JDG for so long—how was it that he didn't look any different from when he was on TES?
Still the same.
He needed to keep grinding a while longer.
Maybe playoffs would bring some changes.
As for JDG, Luo Sheng still thought they were strong—at least a top four playoffs team. But he still recommended Homme invest more in Yagao.
Maybe then they could even snag runner-up.
Nice.
Right now, though, there was a serious question:
How long could Lin Fan maintain this peak form?
Nothing had shown yet, but it could become a real headache sooner or later.
Still… if he'd been able to hold it this long, then with a little effort he should be able to adjust back quickly anyway.
Whatever—right now they were winning. He'd worry about it when they started losing.
Luo Sheng stood up from his seat and walked to the lounge door to wait for the players to return.
Very nice.
Four straight wins to start the Summer Split.
Sure enough, you only truly understand what patch changes do to a team when you clash head-on.
From these four matches, it looked like there was basically no impact.
Assassins like LeBlanc might be hard to pick for now, but traditional scaling mages and traditional aggressive mages were still utterly dominant in Lin Fan's hands.
At the venue, the moment JDG's base exploded, everyone simply picked up their water cups, took a sip, then stood up and walked over to JDG's side to shake hands.
Honestly, walking over to shake hands felt pretty good.
You could clearly see the expressions on the losing side—Kanavi and Knight, the mid-jungle brothers, both looked awful.
One had a face as dark as charcoal.
The other was red all over.
Just walking past them, you could feel the low pressure radiating off the two.
But the funniest part was that Zoom—thick-skinned as ever—didn't seem to notice at all. He grinned ear to ear and cheerfully shook hands with JDG's players.
Lin Fan nodded at Knight. "You played pretty well today."
He genuinely wasn't trying to mock him. In their earlier solo, the lane kill happened in two or three minutes.
Today, he only got the solo kill after Tian helped once.
Knight's laning had clearly improved a lot.
Looks like his training volume really had gone up.
"…"
Hearing that, Knight's fists practically "hardened," but after comparing their size difference, he decided discretion was the better part of valor.
"Here it is! The classic scene. 369, your teammate is so strong. This is way too useful!"
"Coming to TES to play weak side is so refreshing. I didn't even do anything top, and mid already pulled the tempo to the ceiling."
"Or I should say… without realizing it, I even won an MSI title."
"Hahaha. Duke's career is getting a second spring. I thought Worlds was the end, but it turns out it was the beginning."
"Honestly, playing well really isn't as good as having strong teammates. Bengi has already laid down and won three titles. Meanwhile, Uzi had a long career with dominant performances, but his highest honor was only an MSI title."
"Classic: Uzi's teammates were bad. But with that playstyle—even if Brother Infinite Borders played ADC, he couldn't do it. Four-protect-one, but not fully four-protect-one."
"Shh—don't say that now. If you talk nonsense, you'll regret it. If the GSL fans swarm you, you'll know what pain is."
"Don't slander. GSL is long gone. It's Zombie Sister's world now. Look at the cafeteria—who dares talk about TheShy? The moment you do, you get swarmed."
"Then why doesn't anyone swarm Brother Infinite Borders?"
"How would you swarm him? He plays other games all day. They call it a 'unique style.' Nothing to say."
As the players walked to center stage and bowed, the director also displayed the match stats on the big screen.
Twenty-two minutes, and Azir's damage was actually 19,000!
Truly worthy of the title "Damage Bro."
"Brother Infinite Borders' Azir is really something. It's got a lot to it. He took over the game way too early. His performance was absurd."
"Today's match was just too exciting. It really lived up to being the Week Two spotlight match.
Two games, two pentakills: Lucian and Azir. That was satisfying. Truly satisfying."
"I've seen Brother Infinite Borders' Kalista before, and now he pulled out mid Lucian. Honestly, it feels like if JackeyLove doesn't play ADC properly, Brother Infinite Borders wouldn't mind replacing him." As he said that, Guan Zeyuan laughed out loud.
When everyone heard that… it actually seemed possible.
No wonder JackeyLove played bot so well these two games with zero issues.
Brother Infinite Borders wants to play ADC too. No wonder his champion pool keeps expanding with marksmen.
And if people play Azir this patch, Brother Infinite Borders has Kalista as the perfect counter.
To be fair, everyone's earlier judgment had been a bit off.
With strong laning plus a deep champion pool, other pros need a lot of time to adapt.
Brother Infinite Borders? He only needed five or six days.
Other players talk about talent, but compared to Brother Infinite Borders, they're nowhere close.
Guan Zeyuan and Rita chatted a bit, then gave their concluding remarks.
"Congratulations to TES for winning 2–0 over JDG. This series was extremely exciting. We saw the coaches' draft battle and the players' wonderful clashes."
"TES has now achieved four straight wins. Everyone's form looks great. We can look forward to how long TES's streak can last."
"Hahaha, I think they might tie the record," Rita said with a smile.
"You know what? That really might happen."
The post-match interview went to Tian.
Yu Shuang: "Tian, after playing today, how was your experience?"
Tian: "Mm… I feel like the whole game process was under Brother Fan's control. Really, I didn't need to do much. I just followed Brother Fan's tempo.
He's absolutely the clearest-thinking and strongest-laning mid I've ever partnered with. No exceptions."
"Ah… that's a very high evaluation…" Yu Shuang didn't know what to say and hurriedly changed the subject.
After all, Tian had a lot of "tempo" with Doinb.
Doinb was a world champion with an unimaginable number of fans. As a small host, she was genuinely afraid of getting swarmed.
But the moment Tian finished speaking, the livestream chat went wild.
"Holy crap. Never thought Tian would be this bold!"
"Dropping that line in an interview—looks like Tian's helmet is strapped on tight."
"But honestly, what Tian said isn't wrong."
"It's true. Doinb is a first-tier mid, but compared to Brother Infinite Borders, he's still behind. This evaluation is pretty fair."
"Winning so much and getting results—getting cocky is normal… but to be honest, any jungler in Tian's position could do the same."
"Pure luck. Who would've thought he'd transfer over and run into a carry daddy."
…
After TES vs JDG ended, discussions exploded on Weibo and the forums—one after another, like bamboo shoots after rain.
The heat didn't drop at all.
Even the Naraka: Bladepoint Tieba had a few people bringing it up.
After all, Lin Fan still had matches coming up there.
Making finals in solo queue was basically guaranteed. The interesting part was the upcoming trio battles, since the teams were mostly pro squads.
Could he dominate like in League of Legends?
His individual skill was strong, but trios relied heavily on teamwork. If the teamwork was bad, he probably wouldn't get far. It felt more like he was here for fun.
"I just came out of Brother Infinite Borders' livestream. It's not like everyone said. He's actually strong! He's not messing around—he's aiming for the title."
"No way, really?"
"Go watch and you'll know."
That post directly dragged a huge number of people into Lin Fan's livestream.
Once they entered, they couldn't leave.
Anyone still hanging out in Naraka Tieba at this stage had deep feelings for the game—
Even if the game's planners were trash.
…
After the match, once they returned to base, Lin Fan immediately went to find Dai Laoliu for trio practice.
Recently, Dai Laoliu and Yaya had completely been convinced by Lin Fan. The three of them climbed rank easily and happily.
Simply put: listening to commands was never a problem. Maybe this year's Elite Cup really could be won…
If they won, then there was another question to consider.
Retire, or not?
Even Dai Laoliu felt conflicted.
After all, the main reason for retiring was that he couldn't get results.
But they hadn't even played yet—thinking too much now was pointless.
Just follow Lin Fan, ride the heat, and that would already be pretty good.
"Brother Infinite Borders, any pressure for tomorrow's solo queue and trio matches?"
"Not really. My form is maxed out—especially after today's series, I feel even less pressure."
"That's good. Want to grind some solo queue? The second round has a lot of pros," Yaya said.
"Two more trio games. After two more, I'll go solo."
After that, Lin Fan played two more trio games with Dai Laoliu and them, then squeezed in two solo games.
It was about 12:30 a.m. He greeted the viewers and ended the stream.
At 8:00 a.m., the alarm woke Lin Fan right on time.
As usual, he checked today's slacking tasks.
"Task issued: Slack off for six hours today."
Reward: Syndra Proficiency 100%.
"Huh? Duplicate champion?"
His mid-lane champion pool was already full. And yet he got the same champion reward again… what was going on?
If I finish this task, what happens?
Double Syndra?
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup