The big screen quickly played the pre-match video.
First up was Xiaohu.
He appeared on camera with his mouth cracked open—his signature smile.
"Playing against Brother Infinite Borders is pretty stressful. I just hope I can hold mid lane and give the audience a great match."
The moment he said that, the stream chat spammed "boring."
It kept getting more and more bland.
Back then, trash talk was wide open—every line was a classic. Now everyone was cheering each other on.
What are we doing here?
This "trash talk" was making people sleepy. It would've been better to say nothing.
Just start the match—would be way more exciting.
But then Brother Infinite Borders showed up on the big screen.
"Nothing much. Playing RNG is easy. It's not even as hard as fighting Dragonfly. We'll end 3–0 fast so I can go back to Infinite Borders and grind the leaderboard."
One simple sentence—but it detonated the arena.
Chat doubled instantly.
Wild!!!
The tone was absolute confidence.
"Such strong charisma. And that last line is a fatality. I'm liking Brother Infinite Borders more and more."
"Everyone else: hope to bring the audience a great match.
Brother Infinite Borders: they're all trash."
"I can't hold it. That reverse twist is too cool. Anyone who dares to flame in trash talk is a warrior. The last one I remember was Uzi: seventeen-year-old you is runner-up, eighteen-year-old Yu Wenbo is champion."
"No matter win or lose, Brother Infinite Borders' line is max entertainment. If he wins, it's domineering confidence. If he loses, it's instant corpse-whip."
"As an Infinite Borders fan, hearing Infinite Borders makes me cry."
"Isn't today early progression day?"
"He was streaming Infinite Borders at the club this morning. I was scared to death… I can only say: when will Infinite Borders die?"
"No wonder he said he has to rush back to grind early progression. He really is rushing."
"Unless it's 3–0, it'll go until 8 or 9 p.m."
"I'll say it now: Brother Infinite Borders is rushing back to early progression, so today he's full power. True form. Tiger Big Fisher gets beaten up."
Chat went crazy.
If nothing else, thinking about another game while playing finals—Brother Infinite Borders is the first.
The last shot went to Tian.
"Wei is a bit stronger. His jungle thinking is too clear. I'm just relying on our mid to carry. Jungle has to hug the mid laner's thigh to make a living."
"Brother Infinite Borders is too strong. RNG has no advantage at all."
"The mid gap is too huge. No need to say more."
Then Tian's bowl-cut grinned at the camera.
"Holy crap, the worldview just opened up. First time I feel like Tian isn't being sarcastic. That's all facts."
"Not gonna lie, from regular season game six onward, Tian entered a new world. Mid lane can carry like this?"
"Doinb refuses. Knight refuses…"
"Which is why neither of them are on the finals stage, and Knight doesn't even have the chance to film the video."
"When you put it like that, it's true. Knight is obviously a TES player, but he didn't even appear in trash talk? Even Qingtian showed up. That's wild."
"Hahaha, so satisfying. But that's all his own doing. Still, there's one thing he experienced that we never will: you laugh at Knight for having no matches; he laughs at you for being a noob."
"666666!"
The director didn't cut back to the caster desk.
Straight to the player booths.
The three casters were still hyping, but the big screen already swapped to ban-pick.
Game one made it obvious both sides were fully prepared.
After the bans and picks, the lineups locked in.
Blue-side TES: Gnar top, Viego jungle, Viktor mid, Lucian + Nami bot.
Red-side RNG: Jayce top, Hecarim jungle, Orianna mid, Zeri + Yuumi bot.
The comps were pretty similar.
Especially mid—low direct confrontation, more scaling.
Tempo-wise, TES played around bot; RNG played around top.
With Jayce top, they had to build an advantage—resources would pour into top.
"Alright, audience friends, the match is about to begin."
As the coaches walked to center stage to shake hands, Wawa hurriedly said.
"Let's see if it really is like Brother Infinite Borders said—playing RNG is like playing with toys." Principal Guan muttered on the side.
The moment he said that, Wawa and Miller both gave him a thumbs-up.
You used your curse before the match—and now you're doing it during the match too?
Chat instantly got chaotic.
"Principal Guan cursing right now is not appropriate, right?"
"What are you doing…"
"Brother Infinite Borders is hot today, but then Principal Guan cursed him—this Viktor might start donating."
"Holy crap, might actually happen."
"Your talk is making me panic, but once I open Infinite Borders, I instantly calm down. Brother Infinite Borders has mysterious Eastern power protecting him. Principal Guan's curse can't threaten him."
Lin Fan understood Xiaohu very well.
When Xiaohu can beat you, he hits like a truck.
When he can't, he turtles forever.
This Orianna pick was basically telling Lin Fan:
Don't even think about solo-killing me. I'm staying under turret and going nowhere.
Both mids ran Flash + Teleport.
In this patch, Teleport can be swapped for Ignite or Ghost, but for mid-late teamfights, Teleport relieves team pressure.
Viktor is the classic scaling mid.
Once items come online, two spells erase squishies, and his ultimate can split the battlefield.
Zeri in mid-late fights gets heavily constrained by Viktor.
Once Viktor drops ult, GALA can't walk forward.
So Viktor is mainly there to counter Zeri.
And since Xiaohu picked Orianna, if there were no obvious openings, Lin Fan didn't plan to play too aggressive.
He just needed to scale for teamfights and create an environment for Viego to reset.
As for bot lane, Lucian–Nami naturally had advantage.
Top lane, Zoom just had to absorb pressure.
Overall, TES drafted better.
But RNG had no choice.
To limit the opponent, you have to give something up.
There's no world where you limit the enemy and still draft a perfect comp—
unless the other coach is an idiot, takes counterpick and gets countered instead.
That kind of thing happens too, and people curse like crazy.
Lin Fan bought his starting items.
He didn't take Corrupting Potion—he went Doran's Ring plus two potions.
Viktor's mana costs aren't that high. Once he gets Lost Chapter, it's completely fine.
As minions met, Lin Fan's Viktor and Xiaohu's Orianna started trading in mid.
Mid lane is all details—catch every small window.
Viktor has shield. Orianna has shield too.
They can both block a trade early.
And Orianna's passive autos hurt a lot.
Xiaohu wanted to play safe and scale, but he wasn't actually a coward.
So they kept looking for chances to mess with each other.
In the end, Lin Fan kited better—he sneaked in an auto, baited Orianna's shield, then backed off.
But the trade didn't change the lane much.
Solo-kill was still impossible.
At best, Viktor could hit level two first and see if Xiaohu slipped.
Xiaohu saw the situation and immediately backed off, refusing to give any openings.
But while retreating, he still got clipped by Viktor's E.
Since solo-kill wasn't happening, Lin Fan called Tian anyway.
"Tian, after wolves, come gank."
"Got it, Fan-ge. I'm coming right away."
Hearing mid-jungle comms, JackeyLove immediately stopped pushing.
He'd developed a conditioned reflex:
when mid and jungle are making a play, bot lane can't int.
Xiaohu backed off, then saw Viktor raise his hand to last-hit and his eyes lit up.
He walked up, Q'd, shielded himself, then autoed once.
Then he side-stepped and dodged Viktor's E cleanly—small profit trade.
Xiaohu felt great.
Orianna into Viktor was totally fine. Advance and retreat, safe and stable.
That was at least a show of dominance.
Not helpless.
Lin Fan backed up and started drinking potion.
Seeing Viktor "coward out," Xiaohu's confidence surged.
The potion revealed two things:
Viktor was scared of a gank, which meant the jungler wasn't around mid.
Xiaohu's movement became more aggressive.
Looks like his training was paying off. Beating Rookie was the best proof.
He's not that much worse than Brother Infinite Borders.
And you're still playing other games before finals?
Today you'll regret it.
Lin Fan watched Orianna's movement and knew Xiaohu had taken the bait.
That was normal.
TES drafted to play bot, so Viego was full-clearing.
Xiaohu naturally wouldn't think the opponent would go insane and gank before finishing camps.
At 3:04, level three Viego was already in position behind red-side raptors.
Seeing Orianna with zero awareness, Lin Fan knew it was done.
Tian activated E and charged out from behind.
He stayed calm—Q slash, auto to apply red-buff slow.
Lin Fan Q-auto'd to add damage.
In that moment, Xiaohu got double-teamed until he had no temper left.
The key part was: TES didn't blow major cooldowns yet.
If Xiaohu flashed, would they follow? He'd still die.
It was so bad he didn't even know whether to flash.
In the end, he still wanted to live.
Survival instinct was too strong.
But Tian flashed W to stun, Viktor dropped Gravity Field, and Orianna got chain-CC'd to death.
Tian timed it perfectly and handed the kill to Lin Fan.
First blood.
400 gold in the bag.
Another beautiful opener.
Xiaohu's expression changed.
Flashed and still died.
No Flash Orianna into Viktor—lane pressure would be terrifying.
Even worse: Viktor still had Flash.
Wei saw mid and knew it was doomed, so he hurried bot to look for something.
But TES bot lane retreated immediately.
And RNG bot duo had no real lockdown.
Even if Hecarim popped Ghost, if the angle is wrong, you can't kick.
So RNG had to swap their focus back to mid.
At least force Viktor's Flash. Otherwise this uneven lane would crush Xiaohu.
But TES mid-jungle tempo was even faster.
Lin Fan recalled and bought Amplifying Tome plus Dark Seal.
Then he shoved mid.
Tian hid in mid brush. He knew Hecarim would come.
Mid-jungle stood close; Lin Fan could follow instantly.
And Nami came too!
No risk. Mid-jungle-support synergy.
RNG's support is Yuumi—so once bot wave is shoved, Mark can roam freely.
The moment Wei stepped into Viego's hunting zone, he was already dead.
W bite, Nami CC, then Viktor Gravity Field—
damage poured in completely.
Mark and Tian even did the detail of handing the kill.
Dark Seal stacked to two.
Wei was numb.
He only wanted to come mid to relieve Xiaohu's pressure.
Instead of relieving it, he donated himself.
Damn it!
And the worst part—Nami came too.
Is this "protect the dad" in mid?
So Lucian bot isn't worth investing? Just abandon him?
This was TES's familiar tempo:
two kills start for mid.
"Viktor gets played like this? TES is executing their plan so thoroughly." Principal Guan was shocked.
"It's fine. Once Viktor gets items, he carries too hard," Miller said.
Xiaohu stared at Hecarim's corpse, speechless.
Forget it—Viktor is this fed, Orianna has no Flash, so just turtle mid.
Later, one good ult can still help the team win.
So many people helping him—it's hard not to be strong.
It's envy-inducing… even Viktor gets forced ganks like this.
But while Xiaohu was turtling under turret,
bad news came from top lane.
At 5:30, Viego and Viktor ganked top.
3v1 and dove Jayce.
Bad news: Viktor picked up yet another kill.
Even worse: Dark Seal quietly stacked to four.
At that moment, Xiaohu was speechless.
He turtles and they can't kill him—so they gank top.
TES mid-jungle are actual hooligans!
——
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup