Watching Viego fall, Faker hurriedly threw out skills while retreating.
But against a Hecarim with Ghost popped, Akali's little dashes were basically just taking the bus—
the last stubborn struggle in front of a plane.
Hecarim stepped up with an auto, applying Red Buff to slow.
Then Tian spun once—like a windmill!
Those two hits alone were already painful, and it still wasn't over.
Faker glanced to the side—Hecarim was behind him, and Renekton was closing in.
The pressure kept climbing.
And most importantly, he had to keep his state for the next laning phase.
So he didn't hesitate—he burned Flash to escape back under tower.
Staring at Hecarim escorting Renekton as they shoved the wave, Faker's thoughts drifted back six or seven years.
Back then, he had a partner like that too.
Within three steps of mid lane, you'd always see him.
Every trade came with zero worries.
But now… everything had changed.
Bro Chicken…
Faker could only lick his wounds under tower, then watch with envy as Hecarim protected Renekton's recall.
"Damn it—how long has that Hecarim been sitting mid?" Oner couldn't help complaining.
"No idea… but mid really isn't playable for me now," Faker replied instinctively.
His attention wasn't even on voice comms anymore.
As for Oner's question, that was something for the VOD review later.
"Damn it!"
A cannon minion walked into tower range.
After eating tower shots, it died at the exact moment Faker tried to last-hit—
and because he panic-used a bunch of skills, he accidentally hit a melee minion behind it.
Then he missed another minion right after.
His mood exploded.
Nothing about this match felt smooth.
Even his hand gripping the mouse had veins bulging.
Especially when Renekton came back to lane—
and Faker saw the items.
Even though he'd mentally prepared, seeing it still made him dizzy:
Serrated Dirk, plus a Long Sword.
How many minutes has it even been?!
Earlier, one Flash-stun combo already deleted him.
Now that he was a squishy, wouldn't Renekton's damage just overflow?
Press the Attack Renekton—one empowered bite instantly procs the Vulnerable state.
Riot designers, take a good look at what you created!
"Tu Bro's items are way too rich. At four minutes, having this kind of build… I feel like Faker is going to have an unforgettable experience," Wang Duoduo said, sucking in a cold breath.
He imagined himself in Faker's shoes and his scalp went numb.
Press the Attack Renekton with double-dash E, plus Prowler's Claw later—how does Akali even run?
This looked like a King stomping Bronze.
The damage just overflowed.
Akali didn't have enough resistances or HP to tank it, and she didn't have enough burst to trade back.
In short: no damage, no tankiness—losing on every axis.
"The level-three solo kill matters way too much! If it were normal development, Akali would just hold lane pressure and wait until level nine to fight back. But now she's already collapsed."
Wawa held back his laughter, but the schadenfreude leaked through his tone anyway.
"But then again—if Dine builds Prowler's into Blade of the Ruined King, TES won't have a frontline. The longer it drags, the lower their margin for error."
"True. But if Tu Bro dares to build like that, he definitely plans to end fast."
With mid two kills up, why would you build tank?
That's pointless.
Wawa felt the build was fine.
And the rune choice made it obvious from the start—he wanted to play early game.
Press the Attack fits Renekton perfectly.
Especially after buffs: extra damage on proc, plus scaling damage amplification by level.
Combine it with Prowler's Claw—double swords united.
Then add Blade of the Ruined King later and your side-lane 1–4 pressure becomes monstrous.
Not just squishies—even tanks can get cut down.
Who's playing "slow and steady late game" with you?
You win off early strength—smash them!
…
So the moment Lin Fan pulled out Serrated Dirk, Faker couldn't stay in lane anymore.
One slightly greedy step and the crocodile comes in—
two E dashes, a Q swipe, and Akali loses a third of her HP.
Faker stared at the missing health and started clawing at his head.
Anxiety. Pure anxiety.
He couldn't find a way out.
To put it bluntly, even if Renekton stood still and let him do a full combo—then backed off and repeated—Akali still wouldn't win.
Because once Renekton gets the first W bite, the damage is enough to straight-up delete him.
So mid lane became thin ice.
He had plenty of ideas in his head, but he didn't dare move.
One slip and he'd be back in fountain.
Seeing Akali's little lane feints, you could tell Faker was scared.
If he'd just started with Doran's Shield, wouldn't that have been fine?
Instead he bought a Dark Seal—his courage was insane.
Even Lin Fan, when he played Akali, always started Doran's Shield.
If you want the nurse to give you shots, you need a protective shield.
Doran's Shield is the hardest protection.
With it, even if you lose lane, you won't get one-combo'd.
Six minutes.
The fed Renekton hit level six.
He dashed forward once, forcing out Faker's E.
Then the second dash followed immediately.
He popped his ultimate—his body swelled even larger!
Under the pressure of a red Fury Renekton, Akali had to drop Shroud.
But she was just slightly in front of her tower.
Renekton stood in the center and kept burning her with the ult aura.
Don't underestimate Renekton's ultimate—its burn damage is not low.
A lot of Renekton solo kills at six rely on that burn as the finishing damage.
Faker watched the axe-wielding crocodile and felt terrified.
Shroud was about to end too.
Staying was dangerous.
Before that, he had to run back under tower.
But the moment he showed his head—
Renekton slammed him with an axe and stunned him in place!
HP plummeted.
Instant Press the Attack proc—disgusting.
One auto and a Q, and the solo kill was effortless.
A level-four Akali in front of a level-six Renekton was just free meat.
Faker stared at his grayscale screen and felt… oddly calm.
Was he getting used to it?
Or was this simply his level?
Maybe he should've retired long ago.
In his years as a pro, he'd seen too many genius mids.
The last one who made him doubt his life was ShowMaker.
And today, his Dao heart felt unstable again.
Seeing mid get solo-killed, Oner didn't dare say much.
He hurried Viego toward mid.
Minions were small issues.
The key was not letting Renekton eat too many plates.
With this mid-jungle pressure, Rift Herald was definitely TES's.
If Renekton took too many plates, they could summon Herald and smash mid tower.
Then TES could invade freely, and both side lanes' development would be restricted.
Because you'd never know whether TES was coming top or bot.
Mid outer turret—at minimum—has to survive to 15 minutes, not get ripped down at 8 or 9.
But the moment Oner stepped out mid, Renekton kept chomping tower.
Oner couldn't take it.
Why are you so arrogant?
He started moving in to shove Renekton back—
then his mouse hand froze.
A horse ran out from the side…
That "zoo combo" was too savage.
Better to avoid the edge and go clear raptors.
But then he watched Renekton finish plates and walk straight toward raptors—
a dash, and he was over the wall.
Hecarim followed with a straight face, clearly escorting him.
Damn it!
He could see them messing around in his jungle, and he had no answer.
He could only turn and head top side, pinging bot to be careful—don't let Renekton and Hecarim sneak up behind them.
Bot lane saw the ping and immediately ran toward tier two.
Their lane pressure was heavy too, and after drinking all their potions, they were still at half HP.
It was the perfect recall timing.
If the enemy wanted to dive bot, then run.
That let JackeyLove take two turret plates for free, then recall to buy.
Overall, TES only had a small crack top lane.
Everywhere else was a massive advantage.
And at eight minutes, Akali got tower-dived and killed again—
mid was officially shattered.
Zeus quietly suggested, "Hyung, why don't you go top? Gwen scales normally—she's not a burst champ. You can farm top."
"I'm Kennen. My range is long, he can't kill me easily. I can ult to disengage. It's more stable, and later we can look for a chance to catch him."
Faker softly agreed and moved Akali toward top.
At that moment, Lin Fan finished Prowler's Claw and returned mid.
When he saw the little mouse in mid lane, he actually laughed out loud.
I was thinking of coming top for you—
and you deliver yourself.
No hesitation—E in, ult, Prowler's onto him!
W bite—chomped the little mouse.
Smack-smack-smack—15% damage amp.
Full HP Kennen dropped to half.
Then Vulnerable procced.
Zeus panicked.
Why is the damage this high?!
His finger hammered Flash nonstop.
But 1.5 seconds of hard CC was enough for the mouse to die three times over.
Renekton spun the big axe, Kennen's HP hit bottom, and one auto finished it.
Solo kill.
"Wooo!"
"Deleted!"
"That lane swap was too on-time. Tu Bro finishes Prowler's and you come mid to donate?"
"LMAO, did they agree on this?"
"My god, mid Renekton does THIS much damage?"
"Honestly, this patch Press the Attack Renekton is way stronger than Conqueror. Once he goes in, no squishy can run."
"TES's mid Renekton has a point. Kennen top, Akali mid—no frontline, all squishies. Renekton bites one-by-one."
"Everything is meat on the chopping board!"
"Damn it—Prehistoric Croc!"
Casters across regions started calling out the highlight.
Dine didn't get Twisted Fate this time, and yet in under ten minutes he'd stirred up this much blood and chaos.
A slaughter—worthy of the Butcher of the Sands!
"After the match, I honestly suggest SKT hire a sports psychologist for their players."
"This is a one-sided massacre."
…
In team comms, it was two extremes.
TES was all laughter.
SKT was dead silent.
How do you deal with this Renekton? That was the number-one problem in front of them.
At ten minutes, mid outer turret was already gone.
And that was without even using Rift Herald.
Five plates, plus first turret gold—Lin Fan ate like a king.
And that still wasn't enough.
To become a truly fat croc, this was far from enough.
He took a lap through SKT's jungle, then even ate two of Tian's camps on the way back.
Only then did he recall satisfied and bought his second item: Blade of the Ruined King.
At twelve minutes, he and Hecarim headed bot.
Gank bot!
He'd had his fun—time to let teammates have fun too.
But his damage was so high that he barely had to do anything before people died.
He arrived bot and immediately got a double kill.
After thinking for a moment, they didn't even use Herald.
The two of them made the long trip top.
Faker had already sensed the danger.
But Hecarim's ultimate cut off the retreat.
Even if you're miserable now, we don't mind making you even more miserable.
Akali's score became 0–4.
Renekton took that kill and became 8–0, hitting godlike exactly.
Tian summoned Rift Herald and even caught the tail end of turret plates.
Before 14 minutes, all three outer turrets were gone.
Gold deficit hit three thousand already, not even counting kills and CS.
The gap was beyond imagination—completely one-sided slaughter.
Prowler's plus BotRK—three people come, three people die. That's how terrifying it was.
At 17 minutes, SKT tried to defend their base.
But Lin Fan had Stopwatch and feared nothing—charging in first.
Tian saw big bro go in and didn't hesitate.
JackeyLove even dashed forward aggressively trying to deal damage.
TES didn't treat the inhibitor turret like anything special.
Renekton, ult active, swung his chilling axe through the crowd, spraying blood everywhere.
Varus got deleted!
Kennen went down!
Double kill.
Viego tried to run, but Aphelios rooted him.
Renekton chopped him down without even blinking.
As for Akali and Thresh—they were already stuck in the middle of the crowd, unable to move.
Lin Fan turned back, spun the axe, and collected two more heads!
A passionate announcement echoed through the entire Busan arena.
Pentakill!
With the international students' faces flushed red as they screamed their support, TES pushed forward relentlessly!
At 17:54, they destroyed SKT's nexus.
An ultra-short game—
not even twenty minutes.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup