After everything that happened on the 14th, it really did affect today's MSI.
Even though SKT had matches today, far fewer people were discussing the games.
Instead, everyone was talking about how many times Tu Bro whiffed yesterday…
How Tu Bro went "four chickens and one third" and advanced to finals as group first…
And, most importantly, how Goose Goose Duck's official team specially made an outfit just for Tu Bro.
SKT's official social media staff were completely confused.
Where was the hype?
Where did the match hype go?
Facing a market as huge as China's esports scene, it would be a lie to say they weren't drooling.
So they'd long since created an official Weibo.
They even had an account on Bilibili.
And their follower count wasn't small.
Of course, that had a lot to do with their legacy.
As three-time world champions, it would be strange if they had no fans globally.
But now, with no one discussing the matches, they felt miserable.
No topics meant no traffic.
No traffic meant no sponsors.
And those were piles of money.
They could only try to stir things up themselves, manufacture narratives…
But the number of participants was pitiful.
The results were awful.
Some sponsors even started wondering if their money had been thrown into the sea.
Tu Bro's casual stream had more heat than this.
Yesterday, Fall Guys daily active users increased by at least thirty percent.
It instantly made a lot of companies start thinking.
But the fastest to act was Goose Goose Duck.
They were a small company—planners and programmers combined were fewer than twenty people.
Trying to throw 3 million in gifts like Netease was unrealistic.
But they still showed sincerity.
They designed an exclusive outfit for Lin Fan—one-of-one across the entire server.
Not for sale.
A commemorative piece, made only for him.
The moment you logged into the game, you'd receive their gift.
They also used Twitter and domestic channels to speak up, @-ing the TES Esports Club.
Over the course of a single morning, the story fermented and shot to #1 on Weibo trending.
It trended more often than some second-tier celebrities.
The most ridiculous part?
No paid boosting.
All organic discussion.
That alone showed just how popular Lin Fan was.
Honestly, nobody expected this.
In just over three months, he went from a support everyone screamed at… to the top streamer of the esports scene.
The transformation was beyond imagination.
"Tu Bro's status is insane. Goose Goose Duck made him a custom outfit."
"You think this is a joke? We can't even get into the servers lately—who do you think made that happen? All Tu Bro."
"Not gonna lie, this is a hidden gem of a game. I only found it because of Tu Bro's stream."
"Let's negotiate. This game needs an accelerator anyway, and it's not as fun as everyone thinks. Can you not play it on Saturdays and Sundays?"
"Hehehe, honestly it's addictive. Today we don't talk logic, we only stab. I'm a good guy with a knife."
"Tu Bro hasn't played Goose Goose Duck in a while. Xiao Zao, K-God and the others miss him badly. Every lobby they leave a spot open, just waiting for Tu Bro."
"Waaah… this is so touching! So can Tu Bro spend some time in Goose Goose Duck? Xiao Zao got possessed recently—T1 Xiao Zao."
TL: I forgot to say, T1 means Tier 1, or top tier. So really really good.
"She rolled Falcon once and went crazy—killed seven people."
"Tu Bro's good son finally grew up. I'm sure he'd be proud."
"Hmph. Faker might not have an exclusive Goose Goose Duck skin, but he has three Worlds champion skins!"
"Get out, Korean fanboy!"
…
At this moment, Lin Fan also quietly started his stream.
His viewership climbed from five million upward.
After all, getting a custom exclusive outfit was a great hot topic.
Everyone wanted to see what Lin Fan thought.
More importantly, they wanted him to log in and show the outfit.
So they all poured into the stream to chat and clown around.
In that atmosphere, MSI matches began.
Worth mentioning: Group A's first match, AZE versus SGB—
The official broadcast hovered at just over five million viewers…
Some drama-marketing accounts clipped a comparison screenshot between Lin Fan's stream and the official broadcast.
They posted it immediately:
"MSI viewership collapses! The culprit is Tu Bro!"
Honestly, even SKT's matches only briefly spiked past nine million before dropping again.
It was obvious people weren't interested today.
Group stage was just strong teams bullying weak ones.
If SKT crashed and burned, then people would watch.
Otherwise, there wasn't much to see.
SKT never expected that after all their adjustments, they'd fully restored their form.
In their first game today, they ended DFM in twenty-three minutes.
Everyone was high-spirited.
There was none of that first-round slump anymore.
Every game they won looked like maximum effort—like they might flip at any moment.
They played beautifully.
Yet nobody watched.
After the win, their official Weibo post got barely any comments.
From being the center of attention to being ignored—
The whiplash was hard to accept.
"TES, huh?"
"Player Dine, huh?"
"When the knockout stage comes, you'll all realize what you support is just glass—one touch and it shatters."
"Faker may be older now, but he's still the strongest mid in the world. He's not someone who can climb by leeching off other games' popularity…"
That was what many Korean fanboys and SKT staff were thinking.
Meanwhile, Lin Fan's stream was chaos.
Chat spammed nonstop.
"Ahhh, Tu Bro, log into Goose Goose Duck already! I'm dying to see it."
"Stop grinding Genshin. I know you pulled Ganyu and you spam her ult to clear everything. We get it. We're jealous—very jealous. But we're even more jealous of your Goose Goose Duck exclusive skin."
"Just take one look at the skin…"
"It's not that I don't want to log in—if I'm alone with no lobby, it's boring. How about a viewer lobby… ah, no. Last time I played Don't Starve and let three viewers in, I nearly got my stream banned. My manager chewed me out—almost docked my pay. Unless it's officially organized, I really don't dare."
With viewership this high, it wasn't all fans—there were plenty of haters too.
If someone joined and started causing trouble, one "your mom's friend" joke could blow up the entire stream.
After finishing his Genshin chores, Lin Fan closed it.
"But if you really want to see it, I can log in and show it. I actually already sneak-peeked this morning. It looks pretty good."
The moment he said that, chat exploded.
"Damn, no wonder Tu Bro could hold back all afternoon—he already checked it before stream."
"What the hell, you like eating alone?"
"Alright, time to change my rating. Tu Bro is the type who only cares about himself being full and doesn't care about his fans."
…
Lin Fan quickly logged into Goose Goose Duck and opened a room.
A white-skinned 'Kun' character appeared on screen.
A red bib with gold and silver embroidery, and a big character "Fan" in the center.
On the side, he held a big hammer—because his ID was Lin Big Hammer.
Gaggle Studios did an excellent job.
You could tell from the details that they put in real effort.
"Holy crap, looking at this white Kun, I think of one word: Invincible Bro!"
"What the hell, isn't this the Invincible Great Fan Bro? Add 'Fan' in the middle—Invincible Bro is basically confirmed!"
"Hahaha, not gonna lie, it's kind of goofy, but it actually fits Tu Bro."
Seeing the custom skin, everyone was satisfied.
More people heard the news and poured in.
Viewership climbed toward nine million.
At this rate, another ten-million moment was coming.
Meanwhile, MSI viewership next door kept dropping.
It even fell below five million just now…
Still, SKT's remaining two games were very clean.
Both wins combined took less than fifty minutes—stomps.
Their group-stage record became 6–0, also finishing first and advancing.
At this point, all three groups were complete.
The six teams advancing were finalized:
Group A: SKT, SGB.
Group B: TES, PSG.
Group C: G2, EG.
From here, it followed the classic MSI structure.
Six teams would play a double round-robin BO1.
Then the top four advanced to semifinals.
But the schedule was tight.
Everything had to finish before the end of May.
Under that pressure, semifinals would flow directly into finals—no rest day.
This was the first MSI with the scale expanded this far.
And it wasn't hard to see Riot's intent:
Expand the format to expand League's global competitive influence.
Make MSI and Worlds bigger and bigger.
Every change comes with imperfect preparation.
By the time S13 MSI arrived and they'd stepped on every landmine once, there would surely be improvements.
News that SKT advanced as group first also appeared in Lin Fan's stream chat shortly after.
But no one cared.
They didn't even watch the matches.
Group-first or not—who cares?
We'll see their real level in the knockout stage.
At the very least, nobody had seen Tu Bro go all out yet.
Every match, he seemed like he didn't care.
He just played random games before matches—as if "unprofessional" was carved into his face.
At first, everyone panicked.
But after watching Tu Bro win and win and win, they now felt uneasy if he *didn't* play random games before matches.
Believe, doubt—whatever.
If he actually loses, then flame him later.
"Xiao Zao and the others aren't ready yet. I'll see if I can hop into one of Lao Ma's lobbies."
Since he was logged in already, he couldn't just log off without doing anything.
Lao Ma ran a lot of Goose Goose Duck lobbies.
So Lin Fan sent him a WeChat message.
Almost instantly, Lao Ma replied with a room code.
They'd played together before, and Lin Fan's popularity was rising—bringing viewers to smaller streamers wasn't a bad thing.
"Oh? The guy who bullies kids is here!" Sansan said immediately.
Xiu Ke'ai snorted.
Lin Fan always tricked her—whenever she played with him, she basically got farmed.
It made her look stupid.
"Wow, this outfit is so pretty!" Tuantuan had sharp eyes.
"So the game company made this just for you?"
"Ah… actually they made one for me too, but they haven't sent it yet," Lao Ma said, sounding a little sour.
"Hahahaha, I think the big hammer is the finishing touch. Handsome, right?"
"Start start start! If I get a knife this round, the first person I'm stabbing is Lin Big Hammer!"
Soon, thirteen players were ready, and the first round began.
It seemed Lin Fan hadn't played in a while—his luck wasn't here today.
Right off the bat, he had no knife.
He was just an Engineer.
The moment the bell rang, he ran straight to the Laboratory, planning to hide in a closet and be a creeper.
At that moment, Tuantuan stood beside a box.
Lao Ma was talking while moving closer to her.
But halfway over—Tuantuan stabbed Lao Ma to death.
Then, like a C-section birth, Wukong popped out.
Wukong swung and stabbed Tuantuan.
Next, Sansan rushed in from the side and stabbed Wukong.
In an instant, three dead bodies piled up next to the closet.
Lin Fan thought for a moment and prepared to jump out and hit the alarm.
But then Xiu Ke'ai rushed in from the side and stabbed Sansan.
In that moment, Lin Fan's CPU ran at full speed.
So many knives were out.
Two wolves were out.
Justice and Sheriff had to be in play too.
Lao Ma died as Pelican had left.
And with that, it still wasn't over.
That meant Xiu Ke'ai had to be a wolf.
"She's a wolf."
The stream audience was completely confused.
Most people didn't talk logic—they only talked stabbing.
If you had a knife, it was fun.
If not, you couldn't even read the situation.
Before Lin Fan could hit the alarm, Xi'en crawled out of the closet first and pressed it.
"Full vote Lin Big Hammer out. I'm Engineer. I saw Lin Big Hammer front-kill in the closet…"
"Damn…" Lin Fan heard that and knew he was in trouble.
Only Xi'en and Xiu Ke'ai were there.
Xiu Ke'ai made the kill, and the two of them were clearly trying to frame him.
Everyone else was an outside position.
If Lin Fan couldn't hard-confirm Xiu Ke'ai as a wolf, the good guys were dead.
"Here's what really happened. *I'm* the Engineer. Diao Deyi left as Pelican. I don't know what Tuantuan was, but she got stabbed by Monkey Bro, so Monkey Bro was likely a wolf, and Tuantuan was Justice—good guys don't use knives like that."
"Then Sansan stabbed Monkey Bro—Sansan was likely Sheriff. And Xiu Ke'ai was the last wolf. She stabbed Sansan."
"Xi'en is a pure bad pigeon! She wants to win by forming a vote bloc with Xiu Ke'ai. Because Xiu Ke'ai would definitely get called wolf by me, she wants me voted out first."
"As long as I die, Xiu Ke'ai's wolf identity is locked in—so the wolf will never kill Xi'en after that. With no good guys left who can stab, the pigeon becomes invincible. She can tag everyone!"
He spoke at lightning speed—explained the whole situation, and exactly why Xi'en was doing it.
Compared to the other two's weak accusations, this one hit hard.
He successfully shattered the bad woman's plot and voted out the final wolf.
"Beautiful! Tu Bro is hard-carrying!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup