The big screen switched to the in-game view. The eight players spawned from the starting portals and sprinted toward the components they wanted.
The three on-site casters immediately began analyzing.
"Based on group stage and semifinals data, Xayah still has the highest top-four rate. If you can grab attack speed, your first choice should still be Adventure Xayah."
"So a lot of people are definitely going to fight for that attack speed."
Sure enough, on screen, four Little Legends piled into a tight ball—clearly aiming for the attack speed.
It was obvious the meta was still a bit warped.
Guinsoo's Rageblade held enormous weight. No matter what comp you played, you wanted a Rageblade.
Jade Nidalee, Adventure Xayah, Duelist Yone, Adventure Daeja…
Once these comps came online, their placement rate was extremely high.
With attack speed in hand, you basically already had half your points secured.
And since top six qualifies directly for Worlds this year, a lot of players weren't even aiming to win the championship.
Their goal was simple: just don't go seventh or eighth.
"Let's see who actually gets the attack speed…"
The moment the protective barrier dropped, the carousel instantly turned into chaos.
"Tu Bro snatches first blood—he grabs the attack speed right out of Shixin Kuangluan, Korol, and Annihilation's hands!"
"Just like you'd expect from the 1-1 god—during the component phase, Tu Bro has never lost a single fight."
"Now we'll see if he goes Adventure Xayah, or rerolls Nidalee."
Before the early rounds fully start, casters have more time to analyze.
But honestly, if the desk doesn't have real game understanding, commentary just becomes noise—people mute instantly.
The organizers clearly understood this.
With the stage this big, they couldn't just throw random low-tier casters up there like before.
So the desk was filled with eliminated high-level players.
Honglian, Bicycle, and Juanzi.
Huya, Bilibili, and Douyu were all represented—rain and dew for everyone, no one offended.
"Is he rerolling Nidalee again?" Juanzi asked.
"Hard to say. Tu Bro's Nidalee reroll doesn't look like ours. His stabilize is too strong—his margin for error feels higher."
"He has a different understanding of Nidalee. If the augment fits, I think he'll go for it."
The desk's focus was on Lin Fan, so the broadcast naturally cut to his first-person view.
Everyone was satisfied.
Because when it's online play, outside the end-of-match discussion, people are used to watching his POV.
Right then it was augment selection.
As soon as Trade Sector appeared, Lin Fan didn't even think—he locked it in.
"Reroll Nidalee?"
"That's very possible."
Trade Sector is a reroll augment: one free shop refresh every round.
You can bank gold while still seeing more shops.
After Krugs, you roll down once and the hits feel smooth.
Normally, the standard line is Gnar three-star through a lose streak.
But Lin Fan opened with a two-star Vladimir and a two-star Skarner.
And Vladimir even had a Redemption.
That made the desk pause—this quality was high.
Was he playing for a win streak?
But that made sense too.
You can't instantly level with no gold. Put in quality, win a round, then level later—fine.
Two-star Vladimir was genuinely powerful, and with Redemption healing, he just wouldn't die.
At 2-2 he hit two-star Nidalee, then leveled and added Sejuani—board strength maxed.
"Tu Bro is probably playing Astral Swiftshot this game," Shen Chao thought for a moment. If he's leveling, that's the most likely direction.
"But Astral Swiftshot has a low first-place rate. It's great for placing though—most importantly, no one contests it."
"I get it. It can't really win the lobby, but it places well. No one will target you. Top six is stable—play for safety."
Shen Chao nodded with satisfaction.
Earlier, watching Lin Fan's decisions felt too risky—hard to accept.
Now this steady approach was exactly what he liked.
First place or not didn't matter. Getting to Worlds was the point.
And with attack speed, you didn't need to bleed HP to contest items.
Now he could win-streak—super safe.
Rod isn't a priority component anyway.
If you can grab it, great. If not, build frontline items first.
The key card for this comp is Illaoi.
She determines the comp's floor.
Only a solid frontline gives Varus enough time to deal damage.
So building frontline items first was fine.
Varus just needs a Rageblade; the rest can be found from Treasure Dragon.
That's also why Lin Fan slammed Redemption immediately.
Illaoi's ultimate makes her extremely tanky, and Redemption adds sustain.
Once she's three-star, she can stand forever.
During that time, Varus stacks Rageblade.
The desk realized this too.
"This comp can definitely place once it's online. Winning first is still hard."
After level four, he immediately naturaled Varus, and Trade Sector rolled him a Shen.
Frontline quality was great.
To be safe, he even leveled to five to preserve the streak.
Because other people's boards were also strong—he wasn't the only one trying to win-streak.
Then carousel came.
A Negatron Cloak Illaoi appeared, and the desk couldn't help shouting.
"Ah!"
"Is Tu Bro actually going to get that?"
Negatron Cloak isn't that useful early.
Its real upgrades are limited—Gargoyle Stoneplate is okay, Dragon's Claw is basically dead weight in many spots.
So it really might slip through to him.
"That Nidalee reroller has to take attack speed—she can't take cloak."
"Annihilation doesn't want it either."
As people grabbed items one by one, the Illaoi walked toward Lin Fan.
Chat instantly exploded with question marks.
"?????"
"I can't accept this."
"Astral Swiftshot is garbage, but this is so smooth. Are you sure you can't win first?"
"What the hell, Illaoi is basically priceless. Double Bruiser is online. Later you go level six, add Nami—your rolls are going to feel godlike."
"This is too smooth!"
Even without perfect items on Varus, that Negatron Illaoi was worth a fortune.
Lin Fan adjusted the board:
Illaoi, Skarner, Vladimir, Varus, Ezreal.
Frontline quality was high, backline damage was online.
He easily win-streaked into Krugs.
Even with many units held, after Krugs he still hit 30 gold interest.
Most importantly, both Varus and Illaoi were one copy away from two-star.
And he found a Nami.
After thinking, Lin Fan leveled straight to six.
With 6 Astral, he started rolling.
First shop: one Illaoi, plus four Vladimirs.
Then the loot orb popped four gold.
No hesitation—he moved Vladimir's items onto two-star Illaoi, then used the armor component to build Gargoyle Stoneplate.
Clean, decisive.
Then he rolled again and found two-star Varus.
He reorganized, activated four Bruiser and two Swiftshot.
A two-star Illaoi with real items as the wall in front—losing was basically impossible.
Then he sold the two-star Astral units, swapped in one-star copies on the bench, and prepared to refresh Astral again later.
Rolling at 6 Astral is easy to mess up under pressure, but the payoff is higher than 3 Astral.
More orbs, more gold, and you can hit Varus and Illaoi faster.
So if you can manage it, you should. If not, 3 Astral is still fine.
His win streak held until 4-4, then the lobby's quality started catching up.
But his HP was still 88—no real pressure.
He was still two Illaois away from three-star, and he had a Neeko.
With high HP and Trade Sector, he could comfortably eat with HP as a resource.
Once he found one more Illaoi, he didn't hesitate—he used Neeko to copy her.
"Holy crap…" Bicycle couldn't even speak—he just blurted "holy crap."
"That's… a little too luxurious."
"Yeah."
With HP this healthy and Trade Sector ticking, there was no need to spend Neeko here.
Normally you'd hit naturally in a round or two, or just roll for it.
So nobody expected it.
But the next second, Lin Fan sold the remaining Astral units and rebuilt the board into 4 Swiftshot + 4 Bruiser.
Illaoi stood up front like a war god, refusing to die.
His HP bar barely moved.
Varus only had Rageblade, but 4 Swiftshot still output strong damage.
He was already three-star and had Quicksilver, so he kept firing nonstop.
The third item would depend on Treasure Dragon.
At Treasure Dragon, Lin Fan didn't reroll too much.
He still had a spare bow component.
He took Runaan's Hurricane after careful thought.
Varus already deletes backline well—Runaan's plus his ult lets him bypass frontlines and shred carries.
Later he could replace the weaker Swiftshots and search for five-cost carries.
That line could actually win first.
The foundation was already laid.
At level nine, he added two-star Yasuo, and the comp was capped.
He dueled Korol's Shimmerscale Cannoneer to the end.
Adventure Xayah had already been rolled to death during the mid-game.
Shimmerscale Cannoneer's raw power was even worse than Varus at this stage—Korol only survived because he preserved HP early.
And because Lin Fan had just knocked out a two-star Aurelion Sol player, Korol managed to finish second.
Game one: Tu Bro seized the initiative again—Astral Swiftshot took first place.
"Wow… Tu Bro's choice is surprising, but it proved correct!"
"Beautiful. That's 8 points. In finals, 16 points unlocks championship eligibility—three straight firsts can end the tournament. Tu Bro just completed one-third of the job!"
"A clean Bruiser Swiftshot lesson—though honestly, everyone here shares responsibility for letting it happen."
"True. It was too smooth. Once Illaoi showed up, I felt the game had no suspense."
In the venue, the moment Lin Fan got first, the cheering squad stood up instantly.
"Let's go! Fan-ge, let's go!"
"Shen Chao, weren't you saying the comp can't win? Didn't he just take first?" Uzi nudged Shen Chao beside him.
Shen Chao smiled awkwardly.
"I'm just not accurate. If I were accurate, I wouldn't be stuck off the caster desk."
"True." Uzi nodded seriously.
Old teammates roasting each other—true damage.
But to be fair, Shen Chao's understanding really had declined.
Every time he entered tournaments, it was first-round exit or second-round exit.
He hadn't even escaped Huya platform qualifiers in ages.
Maybe he should learn from Tu Bro too?
And after game one, Lin Fan hit the trending list almost immediately.
Weibo discussion exploded.
"Damn, this rhythm is so familiar!"
"No way… I can accept Tu Bro making top six, but winning the whole thing is too absurd!"
"He's really making it look easy. Astral is supposed to be garbage, right? This comp should be the worst."
"Isn't this exactly why Tu Bro is insane? That flexibility—nobody else can match it. He's really going to win!"
"Is he really a League pro? Why is he this good at TFT too?"
"TFT is 70% luck, 30% skill. Reaction speed doesn't matter much. Pro-player buffs don't help. This is a completely new field."
"Heh. Everyone's happy right now. Tomorrow's results will be pain."
"I agree. You're looking down on EG?"
Just as everyone was celebrating Lin Fan's first-place, someone always had to ruin the mood.
But thinking carefully, their point wasn't entirely wrong.
After all, TES's whole roster was at the venue, and the core player was literally sitting on stage…
"This is easy. Tu Bro just goes three straight firsts and ends. Start at 5, go home by 7, start training at 7:30."
"If Tu Bro gets three straight chickens, I'll wash my hair upside down!"
But reality became even more magical.
Game two: Lin Fan high-rolled Adventure Xayah, hit the level 9 capped board, and took first again.
Game three: frog comp raised successfully—Sohm and Ao Shin pulled off an extreme comeback, reverse-killing a capped Jade Level 9 legendaries board!
Three straight firsts!
Chat exploded. The screen filled with spam.
The venue went berserk.
Nobody expected this trajectory.
Three straight firsts is already crazy.
But the player doing it was even more unbelievable:
Dine—also known as Brother Infinite Borders, Tu Bro, a League pro…
Tomorrow he was supposed to play MSI semifinals, yet today he just won TFT China finals with three straight firsts!
Watching Ao Shin and Sohm spit nonstop, everyone's faces turned red as they screamed.
"The upside-down hair washer—get out here!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup