2022 LPL Spring Split Finals MVP.
Before, Lin Fan's heat was high, but what he lacked was a proper title and results.
Even if Spring Split champion "isn't that prestigious," it's still a champion. At least now nobody can clap back with: "What champion are you, exactly?"
Douyu executives watched the stream's viewership keep rising and felt even more certain their earlier decision was wise.
They paid a huge price, and now it was time to harvest.
Just look at the past period's mobile app downloads—far above Huya next door.
And the concurrent viewers—just look at Lin Fan's stream. As a streamer, his peak nearly hit ten million.
That's basically the ceiling.
So far, nobody else has done it.
Maybe it's because of his special "identity."
After all, in the entire LPL, only Brother Infinite Borders is this unique:
never trains, and the moment he goes live he plays other games.
Most absurd of all—he still slaughters on stage.
It makes people curious: where is his limit? When was his true peak?
Because if he doesn't train for a long time, he must be relying on old instincts on stage.
Thinking about that makes people feel it's a pity.
Missing his peak, then not training even as form declines—sure enough, great players all have flaws.
But liking games is still good. At least he won't go out and get tangled in messy men-and-women relationships.
When that stuff hits the news, everyone's head hurts.
Like "PC Number One" Condi, "grass-humping monster," "abortion king Xi-ge," the recent "Beach Boy," and Knight "learning from Cao Cao"…
TL: Cao Cao was a Three Kingdoms general with a womanizer reputation
Every one of them broadened everyone's horizons.
So pro players aren't just game nerds—some have serious party potential.
If possible, people even wanted to see these guys "do bits" together.
Maybe Lin Fan and Feng Feng wouldn't go that far, but at least there'd be joke material.
Win-win: satisfies the audience's curiosity, and lets those guys "release their souls." Maybe they could even form a team and win without a support.
Two flowers bloom—let's talk about the other branch.
Lin Fan's game talent was fully recognized.
His learning speed was too fast.
From PUBG fishing to hot-dropping and gunfighting.
From Naraka: Bladepoint "survival simulator" to real duels and weapon parries—people even said he could go pro.
Then Honor of Kings: hard-stomping pro players and hitting Weibo trending. After a full day of peak Weibo debate, it turned out he wasn't even an Honor of Kings pro—he was a League pro.
Those two days his popularity skyrocketed. A wave of Honor of Kings kids and female college students flooded into his stream.
It even alarmed TES HQ. They didn't change his contract, but they raised his salary by five million…
After that, more and more other-game fans got pulled in.
The funniest highlight was that recent TFT tournament—he literally snatched a slot from all those Douyu TFT grinders.
Next up is the TOC 3 China qualifiers. If he somehow gets top two, he'd represent China at a TFT event.
Just imagining it is hilarious.
You're a League pro, but you don't play League.
You stick your foot into everything and try to eat everyone else's rice bowl.
Right now Lin Fan's chat was scrolling nonstop.
After the championship interview, the entertainment value was maxed. Everyone on stage was assisting, hoping to end the process faster so Lin Fan could go back and grind early progression.
With this, the stream's viewer count was naturally absurdly high—no wonder Douyu management were hiding in the back laughing.
"Brother Infinite Borders, have you opened level 5 yet? Opened yet?"
"Looks like he still hasn't. If so, it's kinda late."
It was already 10 p.m.
Ten hours since server opened.
In Conquest season pacing, a T0 early progression player opens level 5 tiles in around 2.5 hours at the extreme limit.
After that, depending on comp, they do solo troop training or triple troop training.
Then they start sweeping level fives like crazy.
With low battle losses plus abundant reserve troops, a conservative 24-hour power can hit 5000—maybe even more.
T1 early progression is about one to one-and-a-half hours slower.
So they can at least guarantee 4000 power.
T2 is the backbone of big alliances—they open level fives around 7–8 hours in.
At 24 hours they're around 3000 power.
That's why in every World Cup, the top 300 at 24 hours are all 3000+ power.
Of course, tactics EXP also matters a lot.
A skilled cook can't make a meal without rice—
even an experienced early progression player, if forced to do a gold-only start, still has a complicated and difficult process.
But the final "answer sheet" can still be acceptable.
Lin Fan once started an account with only 16k tactics EXP and none of the main early progression generals.
Even then, with random units, he still opened level fives in eight hours and hit level 24 in 24 hours.
Season 2 early progression got changed. Lin Fan needed to relearn it.
Plus he had matches, so he didn't push too hard—so even now he still hadn't opened level fives.
"Let's play it safe. I haven't played S2 in a long time. Ghost Lu Bu is inconsistent. Even though I have one Empress Mu, I'm still going to wait until level 12 to open. I'll grind a bit first."
Seeing chat egging him on to crash level fives, Lin Fan quickly explained.
"Anyway, we're already behind. It's hard to catch up. The goal is to stabilize—just don't flip.
At this pace, 24 hours triple-absolute is still no problem."
After swapping in a small Da Qiao, farming level fours becomes very low risk.
S2 level four and level five difficulty is far lower than Conquest season.
After all, Conquest starts with 8-cost and Vanguard already open.
If you start with Ghost Lu Bu, you can flip so hard you go dizzy.
S2 Ghost Lu Bu can even be a mainstream early progression general—shows the difference.
"Coward, coward. Didn't expect Brother Infinite Borders to have a coward day."
"Crash already! Go crash!"
People love watching chaos, especially early progression chaos.
If he flips, they can cackle all night.
Today's entertainment would be set: Brother Infinite Borders rushed back for Infinite Borders, then immediately flipped.
You love it, but it doesn't love you…
* * *
Meanwhile at Pig Farm HQ, general manager's office.
"Boss, these days our Infinite Borders downloads and recharge volume have increased 25%. New players are also up. Mainly because of a League pro."
"Hm?" Zhu Yuan adjusted his glasses. He'd thought the Infinite Borders product team did great and that's why revenue rose. How did it become a League player?
"Yes, it's him. The first trending topic was because of him too. According to our heat analysis, the commercial value he brings is at least 20 points."
Out of the 25% increase, 20% came from him.
Zhu Yuan got interested.
He wanted to understand exactly what happened.
One look—his eyes lit up.
A streamer of this level exists?
Every game he streams gets a clear daily active boost that day.
From CF to Goose Goose Duck.
And then Spring Split finals just ended—his early progression talk in the interview hit Weibo trending, sitting at number one.
"Brother Infinite Borders wants to grind early progression."
What is Infinite Borders?
As general manager, Zhu Yuan instantly saw the promo angle.
He widened his perspective:
Spend three million gifting on his stream—this is basically the value of a 30-million ad buy.
Then came the heartache:
So much free promotion before, even his nickname is "Brother Infinite Borders."
Yet the captured value was only 20%?
If they operated harder, the effect could double.
If they invited him to play other Pig Farm games—
like Onmyoji, Tom and Jerry…
"Are the Infinite Borders planners idiots? Why didn't they leverage this for promotion earlier?
And those Naraka guys are even worse. Daily active already fell to 40k. Why didn't they find a star player to save it?
Host another tournament and invite Brother Infinite Borders—done!"
These people take salaries and do nothing. Stupid as hell.
Players quit one after another—planners have to take the blame.
Why does Goose Factory keep getting bigger?
They know how to catch traffic.
Thinking about how his subordinates are all idiots, Zhu Yuan clutched his chest.
"Is he still live?"
"He is."
"Register me an account. Recharge three million right now. Tonight, gift it all to Brother Infinite Borders. Push the topic and heat one more level up."
"Xiao Li, you understand, right? Don't limit it to Infinite Borders. Mention other games too."
"Boss, I understand." Xiao Li nodded quickly, registered the account, contacted Douyu customer service for a large recharge.
Funds arrived fast. Douyu fish fins appeared instantly.
Then he opened the stream, preparing to send gifts.
At that moment, Lin Fan had just hit Ghost Lu Bu to level 12.
He was ready to crash Empress Mu.
Logically it shouldn't be too hard. With "stop-and-go," it still depends on Ghost Lu Bu's mood.
Three procs is stable. Five procs can just bulldoze.
So under everyone's expectation, Lin Fan hit March Out.
His heart was still bouncing.
No matter how confident you are, the moment the army marches, you always panic.
What if you low-roll and flip?
The more he thought, the more he felt like he'd donate. He even had the impulse to retreat.
Then he pumped himself up again.
No problem. Easy win.
He was stuck between those two feelings.
His expression was extremely subtle, eyes glued to the screen.
The viewers also held their breath.
Zhu Yuan stopped Xiao Li from gifting.
"Wait until he successfully opens level five. Then we spam."
After a 1:40 march, Ghost Lu Bu finally engaged.
Bang!
Lin Fan instantly felt more confident.
A draw basically means the tile is taken.
He clicked in to check.
His troops still had 2100 left. All three generals were alive. The level five garrison only had 503 left.
"Nice! Success!"
"Ghost Lu Bu popped off. Five tactics procs, back-to-back!"
"Strong strong strong strong strong. First five is taken—now the fun begins. Early progression is over." Lin Fan laughed, mouth splitting wide.
"Holy crap, his smile is even happier than when he won the title."
"No kidding. When he won, he was panicking, scared he'd be one minute late logging into Infinite Borders."
"Hahaha. The moment he won the title, the original smile disappeared forever."
"Clean. That level five was clean. Learned."
"I'm entering S2 in a few days. I'm copying this comp."
"Copy what? Brother Infinite Borders pulled three Ghost Lu Bu in 20 pulls. Who do you think you are?"
"Same quote: when I say 'card pulls,' even dogs shake their heads."
Then gifts started flying.
Super Fire Rockets launched one after another.
Ten, twenty…
Everyone was stunned.
Principal Wang came? Where is he? Where is he?
If possible, can you give me a chance to get rich overnight?
Then they looked closer: Pig Farm general manager Zhu Yuan.
First thought—real or fake?
But the rockets kept coming—no sign of stopping.
Even past one hundred, it still didn't stop.
Now they believed it. With this intensity, it was real.
Brother Infinite Borders' prestige is enormous—didn't expect even Pig Farm's general manager to show up.
Plenty of smart viewers immediately understood the purpose.
Tonight, Brother Infinite Borders' heat was maxed. Weibo topics were all about him. "What is Infinite Borders" was trending too.
In that situation, dropping a big gift is a guaranteed profit trade.
Of course a businessman never loses money. Every step has a purpose.
1500 rockets.
Three million in gifts dumped in.
Lin Fan kept thanking nonstop, looking genuinely flustered.
"Thank you Boss Zhu for the rockets, thank you thank you thank you… ah—stop, don't send more, it's too much. Please stop." He looked like he was panicking for real.
After all, you don't accept money without merit.
Three million dropped without warning—anyone's heart would jump.
Other streamers on the platform were so jealous their teeth hurt.
Especially some female streamers who considered themselves pretty.
They cursed in their hearts:
"What's so fun about a game nerd? The screen is just flashy nonsense. Am I not whiter? Not bigger? Aren't my legs straight? You're all blind.
Wouldn't it be better to send me three Super Fires? Maybe we can meet in private."
Under this massive spectacle, "Pig Farm gifts Brother Infinite Borders three million" shot straight to Weibo trending.
And people started tagging Goose Factory:
Where are your 1500 Super Fires?
If you don't arrange it, Brother Infinite Borders is going to run to Pig Farm.
——
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup