In the blink of an eye, it was May 20th.
The Rumble Stage officially began.
At the Busan Esports Arena, 4:00 PM—SKT versus G2.
With the home-field advantage, whether it was the start of groups or the start of rumble, the organizers always placed SKT in the first match.
Korean fans in the arena waved their light sticks nonstop, chanting "SKT" and "Faker" from time to time.
Because ping issues had occurred in groups and forced rematches, Riot went heavy on the tech for rumble stage—strictly keeping the venue at 35 ping.
They were doing everything possible to prevent another TES rematch situation.
To be fair, once Riot acknowledged the mistake, their efficiency was solid.
The whole venue's ping was kept at 35.
Sometimes the display showed 22, but the real value didn't change.
The cheers in the arena filled the entire SKT roster with confidence.
They wanted to take the first rumble win and throw out the LCK champion's momentum.
Win G2 today, smash TES tomorrow.
The schedule was already perfectly clear in their minds:
Rumble Stage first place would be theirs.
Advance to finals early, then casually take the trophy.
Even if Riot favored TES, it didn't matter.
They would still win MSI with ease.
The crowd didn't doubt it either—throats strained, support poured out, all-in for SKT!
But reality developed in a way that completely caught the audience off guard.
G2's jungler Jankos was on fire!
His Diana turned into a killing god.
Wherever he went, people died—literally.
SKT played the whole game like a pile of loose sand, completely clueless about what to do next.
Especially top laner Zeus.
After getting targeted repeatedly, by 30 minutes he was sitting at 0–4 with terrible items.
Kills were down 6–15, and gold was behind by 8,900.
At that point, the only hope was Faker's Twisted Fate trying to pick people off and fish for openings.
And somehow, he actually lucked into catching Yasuo a few times.
The situation seemed to stabilize, and Korean fans started roaring again.
This is the strength of a championship team!
So what if we're behind in gold?
We can still find openings and claw back.
Just keep dragging it out—let Zeus's Kennen finish his items, let teamfights come online—and we can still win.
Next would be the beautiful comeback script.
All they needed was one perfect teamfight.
Win it, then blow the horn to attack.
Honestly, Korean fans' "Ah Q spirit" was impressive—or maybe it was SKT's three titles giving them the fantasy.
To them, being down 10k gold wasn't much.
After all, even a team like EDG had thrown plenty of 10k leads.
So wouldn't G2 be even worse?
EDG had a Worlds title.
G2 only had an MSI title.
The "tier" was different.
So flipping the game would be easy and relaxed, right?
Korean fans waved their light sticks even harder.
"Faker!"
"T1!"
"T1!"
Back at base, the entire TES squad watched the broadcast feed and started discussing noisily.
"Do you think SKT can come back?"
"Hard," Mark analyzed. "This comp, without an early lead, can't deal with Yasuo later. And Diana is way too fed. Even if they shut her down once, in teamfights she can still dive in and blow SKT's formation apart."
"Yeah. They have a chance, but I really didn't expect SKT to crash in their very first rumble match."
"G2 isn't weak. If you treat them like pushovers, you're the one who'll suffer," Lin Fan said.
He already knew SKT's first rumble game ended in a heavy loss.
And honestly, it was self-inflicted.
The draft was too abstract, and in-game they looked half-asleep, handing chance after chance to the enemy.
In that situation, how could G2 possibly miss?
They just rolled the advantage forward step by step.
By this point, SKT had basically been sentenced.
Top lane was Ornn—everyone gets a free item, and G2 only scales harder.
All they needed was a clean engage and the game was over.
G2 had plenty of engage tools.
The simplest: Diana goes in, knocks up, Yasuo presses R—game ends in one wave.
Just as the casters were praising SKT's "resilience," Diana finally found the opening.
Flash in—she pulled Twisted Fate and Tristana!
Those two looked infected—no reaction at all before getting hit by the ult!
Caps didn't hesitate for a second—R instantly.
Yasuo soared into the air—Last Breath!
The damage was horrifying.
Plus the Q on landing—Twisted Fate and Tristana got deleted immediately.
The sudden disaster made the casters short-circuit.
Everything had been "going in the right direction"…
But with both carries dead, there was nothing left to play.
Kennen was 0–5, support was 0–5—no combat power.
Even though Viego was 4–1, without the double-carry damage, his build could never 1v5.
The arena's cheers cut off mid-breath.
Faker stared at his grayscale screen and yelled, "S**t!"
They had entered the game expecting to win.
He never thought they'd crash like this.
And in such an unreasonable way.
G2 simply marched down and ended off that one window.
After forty minutes, G2 took the win.
At that moment, the Busan Esports Arena officially became the Busan Library.
"Feels like their mental's collapsing."
"Of course. They thought it was a free win, fell into a massive deficit, then Twisted Fate found a few picks and it looked like they could stabilize. They really did drag it past 30 minutes and give you hope—but G2's execution was just too decisive."
"Hahaha, all I can say is: deserved. Korean fans were so arrogant earlier. Now rumble starts and SKT shows their true form!"
"I thought they were scary. That's it? G2 crushed them!"
"LOL, Busan Esports Arena, huh? Why is it so quiet now?"
"Watching G2's five players strut around like they own the match is so cocky, but I love it—especially seeing those fans helpless."
Domestic chat spam scrolled like crazy.
LCK and LPL had deep grudges.
Whenever the opposing region lost, it was instant schadenfreude.
Especially since LCK fans didn't play fair—back in groups, if TES showed even a tiny disadvantage, the venue cheered like crazy.
So now? Cause and effect. Karma. Deserved.
"Cough, don't celebrate too early. TES plays next…"
"Why would we be nervous about TES? Tu Bro was slaughtering people even when he wasn't training. These past two days he's been grinding League like he ate something weird—peak form. Forget EG. Even SKT and G2 are toys."
Meanwhile, the referees at TES's base began urging them to test equipment and connect to the venue.
The BP phase went smoothly.
The moment that sparked noise in the arena and chat was EG's mid picking Yasuo—while Lin Fan locked in Twisted Fate.
Last match, Faker's Twisted Fate into Yasuo had no lane control.
He barely got to ult during laning.
To a certain extent, when early game goes bad, mid Twisted Fate takes a lot of blame.
So this match was interesting…
"Hahaha, is Tu Bro about to teach Faker how to play Twisted Fate?"
"It really looks like it. Who even picks Twisted Fate fifth—especially into Yasuo?"
"Hahaha, this is so funny."
At level 1, Lin Fan didn't skill W.
He took E instead and immediately started looking for chances to poke Yasuo.
Jojopyun's individual skill was nowhere near Caps.
And Lin Fan's Twisted Fate was also stronger than Faker's.
So the gap looked enormous.
Less than thirty seconds into lane, Yasuo lost a third of his HP.
He had to retreat to tower just to soak XP—no extra thoughts at all.
That's what early advantage looks like.
Yasuo only has real playmaking after level 3, using E and Wind Wall to bully Twisted Fate.
Before level 3, there's basically no solution—at best you trade with passive.
Most Twisted Fate players avoid trading because Yasuo can actually threaten a solo kill after level 3.
But with his HP already chunked, Yasuo wasn't thinking about level 3 all-ins anymore.
He popped a potion, stared at his one-third HP bar, felt zero safety—and chose to recall.
That gave Lin Fan a window to roam.
He headed straight top.
This match Duke was on Gangplank.
If Gangplank snowballed, he could hard-limit EG's double carries.
He'd force Gwen to miss waves.
Zoom saw his big brother arrive and got bold—he started hitting turret plates right in the enemy's face.
With Lin Fan's help, they secured the first plate.
Top lane gold started to separate.
"Tu Bro's roaming tempo is here!" Wawa shouted.
"It all comes from his absurd laning ability. The mid gap is too big. Even though Yasuo counters Twisted Fate, he still can't handle the pressure."
"Exactly. It's Tu Bro's Twisted Fate—there aren't many domestic mids who can endure it…"
Chat instantly spammed "Shit hand."
Knight's LeBlanc losing to Lin Fan's Twisted Fate had been burned into memory—especially because it was a clean 1v1 with no jungle interference.
It showed just how strong Tu Bro's Twisted Fate laning really was.
Jojopyun was just an LCS mid…
Not even a major region—basically wildcard.
Against Tu Bro, he was a toy.
At 6:30, Twisted Fate hit level 6.
But Lin Fan didn't ult to side lanes yet.
Instead, Tian came from the flank and kicked Yasuo through Wind Wall.
Lin Fan chained the Gold Card, Zoom ulted to support.
Easy kill—first blood on Yasuo.
TES's tempo fully ignited!
At 7:30, Twisted Fate ulted top.
Hecarim plus Gangplank easily killed Gwen.
They didn't take top outer turret right away, but they grabbed two more plates.
And Rift Herald was secured cleanly afterward.
At that moment, first turret was already in TES's pocket.
At 11 minutes, Gangplank and Hecarim ganked mid.
Yasuo reacted quickly, but against a Hecarim with Ghost and E, there was no escape.
Feared by the ult, then kicked out—dead.
Lin Fan didn't want that kill, but Zoom was considerate and stopped hitting, handing it over.
Since it was already like that, Lin Fan wasn't stingy.
It's just first turret—everyone eat together!
They summoned Rift Herald mid.
One headbutt—two plates gone.
Then they pushed out the last plate and took mid outer turret.
Kills were only 2–0, but TES's gold lead was already 3,500.
And the way they were winning was textbook LCK macro.
The Korean fans in the venue felt like they'd been slapped across the face.
SKT lost mid-jungle clash.
TES won mid-jungle clash…
Meanwhile, international students were screaming support for TES.
A full-body mental assault.
Instant tilt.
They couldn't even find words—so they dumped their anger on SKT and on Faker.
Layer after layer of insults stacked…
But the match didn't care.
Lin Fan's gold was excellent.
On recall, he built Everfrost.
Second item, he planned Rapid Firecannon.
Because top had Gangplank and bot had Zeri—he could play utility.
Twisted Fate's single-target lock is terrifying in small skirmishes.
The 14-minute dragon fight proved it.
Gold Card on Yasuo.
Zoom didn't disappoint—one barrel chunked Yasuo for over half HP!
JackeyLove followed up damage and secured the first kill.
EG lost a man.
Hecarim rampaged through the fight.
TES took the teamfight win without losing much.
They secured the first Infernal Drake.
From that moment, TES fully controlled the game.
EG kept searching for comeback chances, but the more they searched, the more Twisted Fate called them out by name.
Especially after Rapid Firecannon came online—one ultra-long-range Gold Card and you're forced to stand still.
Even Wind Wall did nothing.
After repeated tug-of-war, EG's top and jungle died.
With the first Baron secured, the unstoppable push began.
Best-support Twisted Fate started naming targets.
Zeri sprayed with her electric gun.
Gangplank's cannons roared!
EG's HP bars dropped like paper—pa pa pa pa.
Ace!
Somehow, even though Twisted Fate's damage was low, Lin Fan still ended the final fight with a quadra kill.
His stats looked gorgeous: 8–0–14.
TES fans on-site jumped up in excitement.
"Go go go! TES, let's go!"
"Damn, Tu Bro is deceptive. Last night he was crying from ghosts, today he's smashing opponents!"
"Calling out Faker by name—this is how you play Twisted Fate!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup