With JackeyLove around, Lin Fan finally wasn't as scared.
He could just dump the headset, mouse, and keyboard onto JackeyLove.
All he had to do was hide behind and peek his head out to watch.
He could even check Uzi's progress on the side—he'd thought that guy was tough.
Dragging everyone into a horror game lobby, acting all fierce…
And then he spent forever screaming his head off just trying to climb a staircase.
"Hehehe… that's it? I wanna laugh."
Completely forgetting the scene from earlier where he'd been so scared he jumped straight up out of his chair.
Watching other people suffer was way more fun than suffering yourself.
He cackled so hard his mouth got pointy—if someone said he could lay eggs, plenty would believe it.
A loud cry of "Good Kun!"
Of course, the internet has memory.
That clip was already recorded—especially the jump-in-place, which became an instant classic.
Turns out Tu Bro has this side too.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was terrifying, but the early cutscenes were manageable.
The real problem was the later part—especially that elevator scene where a doll suddenly drops down.
Even JackeyLove got startled.
The game had done all the foreshadowing up front, then waited for that one moment to hit you.
Even Lin Fan—no headset on, watching from behind—jerked his shoulders and yelped.
"What the hell!"
"Your mom's kiss!"
JackeyLove couldn't hold it either and cursed loudly.
TES's double carries got "double-killed" by a falling doll.
Lin Fan, over 1.8 meters tall, got so scared he hugged JackeyLove.
The scene was as ridiculous as it gets.
Viewers were immersed in the visuals too—they got spooked as well, scalp tingling.
Damn. This horror game is insanely terrifying!
But then the camera cut to Lin Fan and JackeyLove and everyone burst out laughing anyway.
Tu Bro really was timid.
AD's pressure resistance was clearly stronger.
After all, JackeyLove had played all the way to this point with only micro-expressions and small flinches.
This was the first time he lost all facial control—showing just how terrifying that moment was.
"Your mom's kiss!" Lin Fan echoed JackeyLove and cursed again, only then steadying his heartbeat.
These little bastards were disgusting.
This game was designed to be anti-human—perfectly reading your mentality.
It made you expect something scary… then gave nothing.
The places you felt were definitely safe… it forced a jump scare.
It lured you into complacency and then tried to kill you.
No wonder it was niche.
"Let's stop, yeah? Let's stop. I can't handle it." JackeyLove said after recovering a bit.
"Yeah…" Lin Fan was still shaken.
And looking at the time, it was already past 1 AM.
It really was time to rest.
As for Uzi and Smlz, the two of them dipped around 12:30.
They looked pretty traumatized too.
No one expected they'd pull a "deal 1000 damage to the enemy, take 800 yourself" kind of stupid stunt.
JackeyLove returned to his own seat and queued a couple games to calm down.
Then he saw Lin Fan still sitting there, not moving at all.
"Fan-ge, aren't you going back to the dorm first?"
"I'll sit a bit… my legs… my legs are weak…"
Chat exploded.
"HAHAHAHA, I thought everything was normal reactions while playing, but that line completely broke me."
"I feel like a lot of pro players are like Tu Bro. Looks like a macho man, but can't play horror games."
"Catch a typical one: TheShy! 'I'm scaredy-scaredy!'"
"Tu Bro: my legs are weak."
"Then I need to check for myself—are they really weak or fake weak?"
Then the audience witnessed something unprecedented.
Lin Fan logged into Korean solo queue!
Then he hit "Find Match."
There were tons of Korean pros on the server, and with MSI happening, even at 1:30 AM plenty were still queuing.
Of course, it didn't matter much for Lin Fan—his rank had decayed down to Platinum.
He hadn't played in over three months; his LP was long gone.
At best, he'd match into low Diamond players.
After all, the old ELO system hadn't changed yet.
Only once hidden MMR matchmaking was fully implemented would Masters MMR consistently match Masters.
So once he queued, it was an absolute slaughter.
And when he got excited, he even pulled out mid Kalista.
He solo-killed his lane opponent in two minutes.
The opponent teleported back and died again.
"Holy crap, I can't tell what's going on with Tu Bro anymore."
"One second he's screaming in fear, the next second he's slaughtering Summoner's Rift?"
"I figured out how to make Tu Bro grind solo queue—make him play horror games! Look, now he's too scared to go back to the dorm, so he can only play games and wait for JackeyLove."
"Hahaha, White Moon, did you learn that? Invite them to play together!"
"Tu Bro really overtrained today."
Chat was having a blast.
Today's entertainment value was maxed.
Tu Bro went from "one stab, two victims" in Goose Goose Duck, to full-on massacre…
Then he got bullied into horror games and turned into a terrified housewife.
Everyone saw that side of him.
And nobody expected the late-night bonus content:
Summoner's Rift.
Mid Kalista exploding an Azir.
It finally satisfied the audience's long-awaited League solo queue content.
It felt amazing to watch.
In under five minutes, the enemy had already died four times.
One death per minute—what the hell?
Is mid Kalista really that strong?
"Honestly, even Knight got destroyed by Tu Bro's Kalista. Mid Kalista seems very viable."
"Azir just collapses when he meets her. Kalista's early damage is too high. Azir can't stabilize in lane."
While chat was still discussing, Lin Fan had already gone godlike.
At that point, everyone realized their earlier worries were completely unnecessary.
Tu Bro's form was still peak!
Just wait for him to smash Faker at MSI.
This year's championship looked very possible…
At 15 minutes, the enemy surrendered right on time.
No choice—godlike Kalista's items were absurd, and her damage was unanswerable.
The rest of the match was just Lin Fan's solo show.
The enemy had no masochist tendencies and chose surrender immediately.
That's the difference between high and low ranks.
Low ranks get mocked for not knowing where surrender is, but honestly they play "pure."
Win is win, lose is lose—they don't surrender.
And that can create comeback opportunities.
Because the team with a lead gets cocky and throws a huge shutdown.
So reverse sweeps happen more often in low ranks.
In high ranks, they surrender at 15 or 20—because they simply believe there's no chance.
JackeyLove's game had only just reached mid game when Lin Fan started his second match.
This time, he picked the very popular mid Yone.
People had seen Kalista before.
But no one had ever seen Lin Fan play Yone.
Was he practicing a new champion?
Mid Yone existed, sure—but in this meta it wasn't always great.
You picked it based on matchup.
This time the enemy was Lux.
Yone into Lux was easy.
At least before Lux scaled, Yone always had the advantage.
But what nobody expected was that at 3:30, at level 3, Yone landed a full combo and instantly chunked Lux low.
Then Ignite, then chased with autos.
Easy first blood.
At that moment everyone realized something was off.
This wasn't "practice" at all.
The proficiency looked like a champion he could immediately use.
How deep was Tu Bro's champion pool, exactly?
People couldn't help putting a question mark over their heads.
Even Yone was this clean.
Sure, the kit was simple, but that earlier trade—going in knowing it was lethal—
If you didn't understand Yone's damage precisely, you wouldn't do that.
No one thought it was possible—not even Lux players.
They got baited straight into death.
Yone has extreme carry potential.
So in under ten minutes he took mid outer turret.
At twelve minutes, Rift Herald took mid inner turret.
Then it crashed into inhibitor, and he grabbed a double kill.
From there, it became the same as the last game:
15 minutes, surrender on time.
After two games, Lin Fan stretched.
Then he glanced at JackeyLove.
That game had reached a white-hot stage—both sides fighting intensely.
At that point, ADC couldn't decide the outcome anymore.
Because the moment you showed, you got deleted…
"Your mom's kiss!"
JackeyLove cursed at his black-and-white screen again.
"Vote, vote."
Even though he didn't start the surrender vote, he clicked yes immediately.
A 34-minute ace was enough to let the enemy push straight to end.
"Shui-ge, you should go back. Without Mark, it's hard to climb. If you lose a few more, you won't even be able to queue."
"…
JackeyLove's eyes rolled.
"You're not still scared, are you?"
"Come on. It's been over for ages. Why would I be scared? It's just too late now. Better to rest early and train tomorrow."
"Then we'll have energy to play well the day after."
"True." JackeyLove nodded and shut down his computer.
Lin Fan greeted chat, then ended stream.
Meanwhile, Bilibili had quietly filled with compilations of Lin Fan getting scared.
They'd learned from "Jia Hui solo-killing LPL players."
They knew scare clips could grab the market—especially first-to-post.
So they worked overtime to rush edits.
But nobody expected there were way too many "sneaky bastards."
It was already after 2 AM.
The scary moment happened after 1, which meant editors started cutting instantly and worked all night.
UP creators competed for traffic, all wanting to be the first to eat the crab.
But viewers didn't care.
They saw "Tu Bro scared" in the title and clicked immediately.
"Was there. Watching again and I still can't stop laughing."
"Never thought Tu Bro would jump straight up on the spot."
"Best part is he didn't dare go back to the dorm alone, so he played two League games to wait for JackeyLove."
"Does Tu Bro actually have Yone in his pool? He looks strong."
"The rank is low. I checked—Platinum/Diamond. Not enough to challenge him."
"Even if the rank is low, the mechanics and damage calculations are top-tier. I think his Yone proficiency isn't low at all. He can definitely pull it out on stage."
"I agree."
"Tu Bro's champion pool is impossible to gauge. You can't tell at all."
Meanwhile, at SKT's base…
They had been constantly monitoring Lin Fan's Korean account.
For a long time, there were no ranked records.
Today, as usual, they checked—and found two fresh match histories.
The data analyst's eyes widened.
He queued ranked!
Could it be because the knockout stage was about to start, so he was warming up?
In that case, these two mid champions were deeply meaningful to study:
Kalista, and Yone.
Yone probably wasn't just practice.
But that Kalista—her lane oppression against Azir was absurd.
It might be something he trained specifically to target Faker's Azir.
Maybe they could use it to pull a sneaky one against TES.
The coach strongly agreed with the analyst's view.
He never believed Dine "didn't train."
He must have been secretly practicing.
Now they finally caught him.
This time, he probably forgot to switch accounts, then logged off immediately once he realized.
Good thing they'd kept watching.
Otherwise they would've missed the critical Kalista intel.
In knockout stage, they could pretend they didn't know.
Then in semifinals—or even finals—spring a small tactic and take a key point.
This was TES's mistake…
With timing, terrain, and people all aligned on their side, wasn't this MSI basically guaranteed?
The coach laughed arrogantly, anticipation rising for the knockout stage.
He opened the schedule document and checked.
Perfect.
On the second day of knockouts, game five was against TES.
Then they could grind TES into the dirt.
It was time to prove LCK's strength to the world.
Last year's champions were just EDG being luckier.
If DK hadn't eliminated them and let them reach finals, this trophy would've belonged to LCK.
Truly unbelievable—a team without the ability still wanted to steal that slot…
Thinking of it, the SKT coach's anger flared instantly.
If Faker had won S11, he would've become an esports living fossil, returned to his peak, and generated immeasurable economic value.
Korean esports would flourish too.
A benefit to country and people alike—why didn't DK understand?
They were supposed to stop at "point made."
But they refused to play fair.
The four-crown legend was gone…
And you even lost a championship that should have belonged to LCK.
A disgrace to Korean esports—especially that kid ShowMaker! No big-picture thinking! Are you trying to destroy Korean esports?!
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup