After Lin Fan ended stream, plenty of viewers still felt unsatisfied.
They ran to Weibo to chat.
"Tu Bro's perspective is truly opened up—no arrogance in victory, no despair in defeat. He didn't act like us fans, getting smug off one BO1 win."
"Yeah, especially when he said Faker might not have adapted to the high ping yet—I really didn't expect him to say that."
"You got one thing wrong. Up to now, Tu Bro still hasn't lost… but I know as a pro, losing is only a matter of time."
"Maybe not. As LPL's only jungler with a 100% win rate in BOs, he's 11–0 so far!"
"Honestly, FPX's situation back then was pretty similar to TES. But in the end he didn't become the savior—mainly because he self-destructed. If he could still play, TES's jungler might actually be Bo."
"No way. If Bo could still play, Little Phoenix would've won two championships. The championship roster would've kept going."
"But back to the point—Tu Bro's analysis makes sense. So we still can't relax. Until MSI ends, we really shouldn't be popping champagne at halftime!"
"But I genuinely think Tu Bro is such a good person. His character is spotless. As a pro, his only flaw is probably 'being unprofessional,' right?"
"As long as he keeps winning, is that even a flaw? Isn't a pro's goal simply to win every match?"
After so many events, people now had a pretty clear understanding of Lin Fan:
A strong pro with solid fundamentals.
And his character was excellent too.
That also explained why so many pro players liked playing with him.
When he got bullied, they all stood up to support him.
Of course, that was earlier.
Now haters still existed, but you couldn't find them on major forums.
Nobody likes "speaking up against the tide."
They were simply waiting for the right moment.
If there isn't one now, there will be one later.
For a player who doesn't train, there are only two ways to avoid getting blackened forever:
Either your form lasts all the way to Worlds, you win the title, and you immediately retire.
Then you become a League legend.
Retire with full honors, no blemishes in your career—how could anyone blacken that?
But so far, LoL has never seen a person like that.
Many who meet the conditions are still at peak and have no intention of retiring…
They're still fighting to create new history.
To borrow Imp's line:
Even if you disagree with him, his achievements should still be placed on the table.
A whole night of lively chatter—posts popping up one after another.
As a result, in college classrooms during the day, there were several more empty seats.
Teachers were used to it.
They simply pulled out the roll-call sheet and started calling names.
Then they'd grin and say:
"Helping someone answer roll call? Your participation grade gets cut in half."
Hearing that, many people silently shut their mouths.
Bro, it's not that I won't help you—
I really can't.
Next time don't scroll forums that late.
Tu Bro is strong, sure…
But the teacher holds our economic lifeline.
Fail finals and you'll get belt-fried meat at home.
And your monthly allowance drops by 500.
In college life, that's a nightmare…
May 22.
The third day of rumble stage.
For TES, today's schedule didn't have much pressure.
18:00 against SGB.
Vietnam's brothers—creativity was actually impressive, but their raw strength was still lacking.
TES easily ended them in twenty minutes.
Someone had just made a milk tea and discovered it was still scalding hot.
TES pulled a "hot tea slays SGB," taking their fifth win.
TL: The "hot milk tea" (热奶茶, rè nǎi chá) is a Chinese gaming pun/meme that plays on phonetic similarity.
"热奶茶" (rè nǎi chá) = "hot milk tea" sounds very similar to "轻拿下" (qīng ná xià) = "easily take down/win"
In context: When TES beat SGB easily in 20 minutes, someone literally made milk tea that was still hot by the time the match ended—so "hot tea slays SGB" becomes both:
A literal observation (the tea stayed hot because the match was so quick)
A pun meaning "easily defeated SGB"
___
SKT appeared on stage in the next match.
From the close-up shots, the five players no longer had any of that early confidence.
No smiles.
Not exactly serious either—
They just looked like they'd explode if you poked them.
Which made sense.
They came for the championship, but their current record was 2–2, sitting mid-pack among six teams.
Forget first place—they hadn't even touched second.
TES and G2 had stomped them underfoot.
Back in the day… what even were these "irrelevant" teams?
They didn't take them seriously at all.
And now it was like this.
They'd thought the trophy was already theirs.
Reality was cruel.
Worse, domestic support was shrinking while criticism and pressure kept growing.
Especially bot lane.
Getting lane-killed by TES was one thing.
But getting smashed by the Turkish region—what was that?
They got killed once, fine.
After that, every bot lane duo in the tournament could press Gumayusi down and beat him.
Nobody understood where his domestic "dominance" even came from.
People were stunned.
So T1's bot duo got dragged out and cursed into the ground.
Of course, Faker's performance wasn't great either.
He was being attacked plenty.
Even Zeus—the best performer—still got caught in the blast.
Same old rule:
Win and you get praised to heaven.
Lose and everything you do is a capital crime.
Hyped before the match, worthless after.
It's hard to adjust mentally.
The whiplash is too big…
The same was true for LCK fans.
Before matches even started, the region's PR was at maximum volume.
It felt like LCK was "back at the peak," trophy already in pocket.
Then they played like dogshit—it was bound to cause a massive backlash.
Even the arena's SKT cheers got noticeably quieter.
For every match that followed, fans had doubts first.
Can they win? Big question mark.
Lower your expectations, and even if the ending is bad, you won't be crushed by disappointment.
If SKT wanted to change people's minds, they had to prove themselves with strength.
Riot's schedule-making was still experienced.
The last match of rumble stage would be SKT versus TES—the grand closer.
That was SKT's final chance.
Before that, they had to win everything.
So today they played viciously, trying to end in twenty-something minutes.
It backfired.
PSG found the opening and counter-punched.
SKT's huge advantage got erased.
The game returned to an even starting line.
Down below, the coach's face was black.
I told you to win cleanly—
not to throw like clowns.
The situation made him sweat.
If they lost again, furious fans might tear them apart.
He clenched his fist, palm sweating.
What's ironic was that the "breakthrough" didn't come from SKT.
It came from Bay, who threw an absolutely massive fight at the critical moment—
looking like he was match-fixing.
PSG got aced, and SKT pushed straight to end.
At 34 minutes, the game finally ended.
A win was a win…
but it was ugly as hell.
All five players left the stage with dark faces.
Even during the bow, they didn't hear warm cheers.
Then TES versus G2 happened, and SKT got dried into silence.
By ten minutes, there was no suspense—TES already had a 5k gold lead.
Lin Fan's Twisted Fate was terrifying again at 3–0–4, firmly controlling the entire game's tempo.
The first time, Caps was cocky and picked Yasuo, got beaten to death.
The second time, he played seriously—
and nothing changed.
Twisted Fate still roamed freely.
In the end, TES ended in one push at 23 minutes.
Chat spam scrolled like crazy.
"It's over. Tu Bro is addicted to playing cards."
"No joke. LPL has a tradition of playing cards. Before: 'You can't kill me with 17 cards.' After: Xiao Zao losing on the 'heavenly card.'"
TL:
The LPL Card Game Tradition: This references famous LPL moments involving literal card games:
"You can't kill me with 17 cards" (17张牌杀不死我) A trash talk moment where a player was so confident they claimed opponents couldn't beat them even with a massive advantage
"Xiao Zao losing on the 'heavenly card'" (小昭天牌输了) Xiao Zao had a "god hand" (天牌 = perfect cards) but still managed to lose
References choking with an unbeatable position
_____
"Honestly, JackeyLove's card skills aren't that different from Xiao Zao. Now I get why they love playing mahjong and cards together—both suck, so they don't really lose money."
"Hahaha, I was fine before, but that line broke me."
"When Hou Ye played mahjong with them before, didn't he reveal he was winning piles and piles?"
"Hahaha, at their level, it's really hard to be elegant."
"I don't know how Tu Bro plays cards, but his gomoku is definitely dumb…"
"Probably because matches aren't hard, so he doesn't want to show later picks."
"True. Are these teams really not banning Twisted Fate?"
"But Twisted Fate's laning is already weak. If they can't beat even that, they'll lose even harder against other champions."
"This feels like Galio back then. In that interview, Feng-ge wanted to ban Galio, but because of Xiaohu he couldn't say it. You know what that means."
Chat spam flew.
The tone wasn't as aggressive anymore.
Mainly because yesterday Lin Fan specifically said: a single rumble game doesn't matter much.
If you can advance, then a loss is just a loss.
Just like Samsung back then—RNG smashed them 0–11 in groups and everyone thought Samsung was the weakest LCK team.
But in the end, they were the ones who laughed last.
After groups they swept everyone, beat SKT easily, and lifted the trophy.
There are too many examples.
Just like Tu Bro said—no need to over-celebrate.
If fans aren't completely rabid, being able to listen is actually great.
Once mobilized properly, it's pure positive energy.
Otherwise, stirring drama everywhere just makes the internet a mess.
May 23, rumble day four.
At this point, MSI was basically entering its final stage.
By normal pacing, there were only six days left.
Day four was for points—teams that still had theoretical qualification chances hadn't given up.
But first place was essentially already determined.
TES were on an six-win streak, leading by a mile.
And they didn't disappoint.
They beat EG and SGB, expanding their wins from six to eight.
Worth mentioning: aside from the one game against Caps' Yasuo where he used LeBlanc, Lin Fan played Twisted Fate in the other seven games.
Damn—was he making Twisted Fate his signature now?
Domestic viewers were confused.
But if Twisted Fate wins, there's nothing to say.
As long as you win, even mid Soraka is fine.
Meanwhile, overseas forums were also buzzing.
A seven-win streak on Twisted Fate was something they'd never seen.
People started analyzing:
Could it be that only Twisted Fate was played with confidence?
Should someone try banning it?
That kind of talk was "smartass" stuff.
After all, LeBlanc already showed up and created MSI's worst massacre—killing from start to finish.
More people believed the truth was simple:
If he picked other champions, the remaining five mids couldn't withstand it at all.
His individual level was just a tier above.
If Faker and Caps were world-class mids, then Dine was world-top-tier.
The gap was real.
ShowMaker might be the only one who could suppress Dine.
After all, this wasn't the Demon King era anymore.
It was the era of "Show God."
May 24.
The final day of rumble stage.
Before matches even started, SKT's players were already in the lounge, fists clenched, eager to go.
These past days were a nightmare.
Flamed every day. Every day.
If they hadn't later strung together some wins and brought their record to 6–2, giving people hope again, the attacks might never have stopped.
But if they lost again today, what awaited them might be endless bombing.
At that point, maybe legal would have to step in and send lawyer letters to every flamer just to pause the attacks.
To avoid that, they had to win today!
Even if they advanced as second seed, people could accept it.
As long as they made TES go 1–1 today, the public would accept it too.
As for TES, with eight straight wins, only if they lost both matches today would they risk losing first place through a tiebreaker.
But today's opponents—besides SKT as the one strong team—there was no reason to imagine losing to the other.
So in everyone's eyes, first place was locked.
And that's exactly what happened: TES beat PSG easily, ninth win locking first place.
Now they just had to wait.
If the schedule held, at 7 PM Beijing time, they'd play SKT in the final rumble match and close out the stage.
Honestly, everyone was relaxed.
The last match had a bit of "friendly match" flavor—win or lose didn't matter much.
But now that they were on a nine-win streak, not chasing the final tenth would be a waste.
So TES planned to go all-out.
Double-kill SKT.
End rumble stage cleanly.
Perfect close into semifinals.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup