"Reporter Yu Wenbo here, bringing you the news…"
Lin Fan's popularity in the esports scene was sky-high. A huge number of content creators specifically clipped his daily livestream moments and farmed followers like crazy on Bilibili.
The biggest accounts had even climbed to 270,000 followers.
One creator was named "Brother Infinite Borders' Trophy Cabinet."
Right after the stream ended, he immediately made a meme video.
It instantly raked in a flood of coins and likes.
After watching it, everyone could only shout: genius.
He cut together the entire process of how Zhan Ying invited Lin Fan to review Go yesterday, then stitched it with Lin Fan's response from this morning.
"Zhan Ying? To me she's just a Go player, that's all."
…
"Want to try voice-linking with Brother Infinite Borders?"
"What would I even say? We've only played two games of Go."
"Ahh, that's so awkward."
On camera, Zhan Ying covered her mouth with a shy look.
Then she immediately connected to Lin Fan's stream.
"There's no problem with you taking the initiative."
As soon as that line landed, a WeChat voice call popped up on the side.
After that, it was nothing but Go analysis.
And it gave everyone a tiny little shock.
At first it looked like pure comedy—everyone was laughing and spamming in the comments.
But by the end, the screen was full of question marks.
At this point, it wasn't us who had a problem.
Brother Infinite Borders really had a problem.
"This is our first time voice chatting too."
"Yeah. We'll see if you dare come in."
Holy crap… that bold?
…
The content creator put in real effort.
"Look here—don't think it's big. Actually, if you just push in a bit, it gets smaller."
"And here—if you can hold it in, the whole game becomes extremely comfortable."
"Right."
"Black could've pushed here, but if you hold it in, you can strike straight into the heart—go deep inside."
"Mhm…"
"Honestly, it's just a few positions over and over. When I play Go, I like sticking close."
By this point, the video's bullet comments were packed like a wall.
"You'd better be talking about Go!"
"Absolutely insane! Truly insane!"
"If I hadn't watched the video and only heard the audio, my mind would've gone straight into the gutter."
"Up poke, down poke, left poke, right poke—are we talking about 'color' now?"
"I'll be honest, it's a little perverted. Brother Infinite Borders is that kind of bro?"
…
At the end, there was even a dedicated little cut of Lin Fan:
"Actually, we don't have any relationship. JackeyLove's Weibo post was just him fanning flames. He told me immediately afterward too. But if he's going to do that, he has to pay a price—ten hotpots won't be enough."
And in the outro, the creator also added a clarification:
"This video is stitched together from clipped livestream footage. The full context can be found in the original VOD replay."
Under the video, viewers left all kinds of comments.
"The video is a meme edit taken out of context. Still, it's really funny from start to finish."
"Hahaha, didn't expect Brother Infinite Borders to pull off this kind of 'colorful' communication. Looks like a quiet horny guy."
"To take things out of context, selected from: 'Don't Take Things Out of Context.'"
"Brother Infinite Borders keeps shouting 'push, push, push,' and Zhan Ying can only go 'mm-hmm mm-hmm.' Honestly, I declare this a god-tier bit. I'm dying."
"Brother Infinite Borders keeps 'push push push,' Zhan Ying can only 'mm-hmm mm-hmm.'"
"These are all normal Go terms, but when you pack them together it feels weird. It really sounds like dirty talk."
"This is bad—now it's hard to look at Brother Infinite Borders the same way."
"I never thought that clean-looking face could say such wolfish lines. Sisters, are you liking him more or what?"
"Contrast! I love this kind of contrast."
"No—when I watched the livestream that day, it was totally normal. Why does it look so insane now? It feels completely different."
"It's edited like that, of course. The creator's editing skill is just strong. Brother Infinite Borders didn't even mean it that way—he got passively 'social-deathed.'"
"Hahaha, 'Brother Infinite Borders' Trophy Cabinet' is pretty solid. He even explained for Brother Infinite Borders at the end."
"I missed the morning stream. When I first saw Weibo hot search, I thought it was weird. Brother Infinite Borders isn't exactly a monk, but I'd never heard any scandal about him. Suddenly there's one—strange."
"You guys don't know Sister Ying well. She's about to get engaged. For this to blow up is kind of ridiculous, but after watching the video I can't hold it."
"But it's pretty fun. Not a single dirty line—these are Go terms."
"After seeing this, I've decided I won't go spam this stuff in Brother Infinite Borders' stream anymore."
"Pro players should train properly. Leave the rest to us."
"True. I think Yu Meimei is great!"
"Tomorrow I'm camping Brother Infinite Borders' stream. I want him to teach me how to 'drive.' This kind of subtle driving is exactly what we webnovel writers need. When I start a new book, I can go crazy."
TL: Driving refers to alluding to sexual context
The discussion under the video was all over the place.
But it did make a lot of people realize one thing:
Brother Infinite Borders and Zhan Ying weren't anything like the messy stuff people imagined.
So why did so much CP shipping suddenly appear?
It felt like someone was pushing it behind the scenes.
Who was stirring this?
Was there some kind of scheme?
"Did a team buy water army to affect Brother Infinite Borders' competitive state from outside the game?"
"If you say it like that, it feels possible. TES really did get affected a bit—they even dropped a game!"
"Yeah. With TES's strength, they should've gone undefeated in individual games through Summer regular season. Playoffs depends on other teams' adjustments, but I don't think winning the title would be that hard."
"Once that news came out, the team's form would obviously be affected. JackeyLove played that badly—this probably had something to do with it. Otherwise he wouldn't have started eating melons right away."
"Exactly. I can only say Water Ghost Sister is really good at washing. She can throw the blame like that—invincible!"
Meanwhile, "Brother Infinite Borders' Trophy Cabinet" watched the backend numbers—views and coins rising nonstop—and he couldn't stop smiling.
Beautiful!
This is Brother Infinite Borders!
The traffic master.
Good thing his vision was correct. He'd believed Brother Infinite Borders would blow up, so he started making videos immediately.
"Brother Infinite Borders! I hope you keep leading TES to win! Win Worlds! Then I can keep riding your heat!"
He clasped his hands together and bowed at Lin Fan's photo on his monitor.
As long as the heat stayed, it meant 30–40k a month in video revenue…
For a normal person, that was insanely good.
So now he was absolutely TES's most loyal fan—every match he prayed for a big win.
Wins meant topics, and endless traffic.
"Brother Infinite Borders, I hope you learn more games and do more fancy stuff."
…
At this time, Douyu and Bilibili suddenly released a joint announcement.
To strengthen interactive livestream entertainment, improve streamer-to-streamer communication, and launch streaming events, streamers from both platforms would be able to voice-link and collaborate.
Of course, the event schedule would still depend on its performance.
In simple terms, Douyu was the side taking a bigger loss—after all, Bilibili was a "minor" livestream platform.
Lots of people watched videos, but far fewer watched live.
For the partnership to happen, Bilibili paid a significant price.
But Douyu also had its own considerations.
After all… they had Uzi.
Do some dual-platform events, some cross-platform competitions—more highlights.
As for Huya, seeing the two platforms cooperate without them, they could only grit their teeth in rage.
I'm the number one!
How can you do this…
July 2.
After a short rest, TES returned to the stage again.
Today's opponent was UP, a mid-to-lower-tier team.
But unlike history, UP's top laner was still ZS.
After all, TES had gone on a ten-win regular-season streak, won Summer Split, and won MSI. In that context, Zoom contributed a lot, and White Moon still believed he was the best-fit top for TES.
So naturally, TES wouldn't sell Zoom anymore.
UP did have a world champion mid laner though—Cryin.
That was basically the only highlight today.
After all, in terms of trophies, both mids were MSI champions.
So let's see which MSI champion was stronger…
But everyone had a scale in their hearts.
They knew how big the gap was.
Cryin left RNG wanting to prove himself.
But it didn't work out.
UP's record was still awful.
On the other hand, you could call it karma.
RNG isn't a place you can come and go as you please.
Which pro player ever left intact?
They all got peeled like an onion.
You have to admit Zoom was smart.
He slacked so hard even he believed he was useless, and RNG gave up on him—only then did he escape the club.
A very wise choice.
But the "scene people wanted" didn't happen.
Maybe because they'd dropped a game to LNG before, TES went full throttle today.
Game 1 ended in just 21 minutes.
Lin Fan pulled out a mid "Big Eye"—Vel'Koz—a pick nobody had seen from him in a long time.
The moment it appeared, everyone froze.
What the hell is this?
Pros play mid Vel'Koz?
This champion has terrible roaming and support, his CC is unstable, and he can be burst down easily.
He needs teammates to coordinate.
Of course, the upside is obvious: insane AOE damage and maxed-out waveclear.
Even so, he usually doesn't roam.
It's an extreme style either way.
But Lin Fan picked it as the fifth pick.
For a while, nobody understood why.
Yet when the game ended, Vel'Koz's final score was 9–0–7!
Early lane didn't have too many problems.
Because Vel'Koz can't do much early and mid.
Tian's Jarvan mostly played around the bottom side, protecting bot.
But at the 9-minute Herald fight, Vel'Koz sat far in the back and fired a laser straight through, maxing damage to the ceiling.
Especially Kalista, who wanted to step up and deal damage—she got forced back by Vel'Koz's ultimate and couldn't output.
Meanwhile JackeyLove popped Zeri ult and started spraying.
That fight nearly wiped UP—only top laner ZS escaped.
No Herald, no kills.
That teamfight completely broke them.
After securing Herald, TES moved with "speed is crucial"—no hesitation, group mid and push.
They took mid outer turret at 10 minutes.
In the blink of an eye, they rolled the snowball bigger.
Then it turned into the mid-jungle-gank-bot phase.
Vel'Koz's solo support is weak, but with Jarvan it's different.
Vel'Koz + Jarvan are the perfect duo.
Jarvan ults, Vel'Koz fires laser and "zaps" people.
No fancy mechanics—if you trap them in the ring, just throw skills inside.
With a bodyguard, you're not afraid of turning a corner into love.
So bot-lane felt unbelievably comfy.
Kalista counters Zeri, sure, but without an advantage, she's still a toy.
Elk watched his screen go gray over and over and slammed the desk.
If this keeps up, I'm calling the police!
Cryin, give me something!
They've got Vel'Koz perma-ganking bot—your Ryze should come too!
Instead… it became buy-one-get-one, and Zeri collected two heads.
From that point on, it was garbage time.
At 20 minutes, TES started Baron.
With Baron secured, UP couldn't defend the push.
Vel'Koz just tossed skills and harvested kills.
Everyone watched in disbelief.
Why does his Q hit every time? Are the angles really that sharp?
"Holy shit, Brother Infinite Borders didn't lie. He really trained in Honor of Kings. Tell me—Vel'Koz is Angela, right?"
"Damn it, when you say it like that, it actually makes sense. It really is Angela."
"Training League through Honor of Kings—I rate it truly invincible."
"But the confidence is real. He even dares pick Vel'Koz. Brother Infinite Borders is clearly even stronger now."
"Feels like this is a hero teaser. Next time you see what Brother Infinite Borders plays in Honor of Kings, you should study it carefully."
As for Game 2, it was even more of a collapse than Game 1.
This time, Lin Fan picked the extremely oppressive Sylas.
This champion might not be the best in top-tier mirror matchups, but for stomping weaker opponents, it's effortless.
Cryin wasn't known for laning anyway.
So once Sylas landed E in lane, he chased and beat him down.
At level three, he got an easy solo kill.
The wave froze under TES's tower, and when Ryze teleported back and stood in mid, he didn't even dare walk up.
Mid lane collapsed.
By ten minutes he was down 30 CS and had been solo killed twice.
A book-reading Sylas was terrifying.
He killed wherever he went.
Amid the laughter of TES players, they took a clean 2–0, securing their sixth straight league win.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup