After TES finished this match, they would have no games for a full eight days.
This schedule had Luo Sheng complaining nonstop in the lounge.
"What the hell is this—making decisions with your ass instead of your brain?"
"We finally get our momentum going, and then there's an eight-day cooldown. Are they deliberately targeting us or what?"
He then glanced at their next opponent.
WE…
Hmm. It didn't seem quite as bad as he'd imagined.
WE's position at the very bottom of the league still hadn't been shaken by any team.
Ten straight losses—remarkably consistent.
"Hahaha."
Luo Sheng burst out laughing, but as if he'd suddenly thought of something serious, his expression quickly returned to normal.
"Damn, the pressure's still huge. If we lose to WE, not only does our playoff competitiveness drop, we'll lose face too."
"No, these eight days we need to keep a close eye on their training. If I'm not careful, their minds won't be on the game anymore."
They had talent, sure—but they weren't as hardworking as he'd like. Someone had to stand behind them with a whip.
They'd trained so hard before because the team's results were terrible. Now that they could finally catch their breath, there was a real risk they'd relax.
Luo Sheng immediately left the lounge and headed for the training room.
He skipped over Lin Fan and focused on the others.
Seeing everyone still training diligently, he nodded in satisfaction.
Good—they hadn't been blinded by the winning streak. As long as they kept working hard, they were good players.
During this waiting period before the next match, Lin Fan spent his days immersed in Honor of Kings and Infinite Borders, transforming into a full-on grinding maniac. Everyone was used to it by now.
TL: So apparently... it wasn't Rise of Kingdoms but another game called Infinite Borders. So I assure everyone, it will be like this moving forwards. I will ensure consistency as usual.
After all, he could still pull out eye-catching champions even in scrims.
Every day, JackeyLove muttered behind Lin Fan that maybe Honor of Kings really was Brother Fan's champion training ground.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain how he could casually play Daji for fun, have Ahri look terrible in scrims, and then dominate on stage.
Lately he'd been messing around with Zhang Liang—at this rate, he could probably even pull out Malzahar.
This made JackeyLove believe what Lin Fan had said before.
Brother Fan really wasn't an ordinary person.
Everyone had their own training methods—you couldn't rigidly copy others.
Don't be fooled by him playing other games. In reality, he'd already started training.
After being benched, he'd realized this problem and began his real training, completely reinventing himself and slaughtering opponents on stage.
March 4th, Friday.
Everyone gathered behind JackeyLove to watch the V5 versus JDG match.
In Lin Fan's memory, V5 had lost this match.
Rookie had committed two major blunders—one game on Galio, one on LeBlanc.
But the first pick this time left Lin Fan confused.
V5 directly locked in Orianna.
It felt like something had changed.
Lin Fan suddenly became interested—he no longer knew how this match would go.
Sure enough, "Two Balls and One Chicken" lived up to his reputation. His control over the game was still overwhelming.
Of course, JDG wasn't easy to deal with either.
They traded blows back and forth, and the first game dragged into a full-on bladder game.
In the end, relying on Karsa's Sejuani using fog of war to land a perfect ultimate onto Yagao, they successfully started a teamfight and ended the game at forty-three minutes.
"Insane. V5's current form is ridiculous. They won again—at this rate, they're favored in their next match too."
"At IG he was restricted by Shy—last year it was all happy gaming," JackeyLove sighed.
S11 TheShy… if you had to describe him in four words, it'd be hard to put into words.
Obsessed with ranged-versus-melee matchups.
In short—just messing around.
In that situation, Rookie was inevitably affected as his teammate.
Now, he seemed to have found his rhythm again.
Perhaps because JDG couldn't close out that long first game, their momentum took a huge hit.
The second game was a complete stomp, and V5 swept them away.
V5 went from an eight-game winning streak to nine.
Now, besides wondering how long Infinite Borders Bro's form could last, there was another question—could V5's streak continue all the way to the end of the season?
As for V5's match against TT tomorrow… needless to say, it'd be a massacre. They'd get their tenth win this week.
Sure enough, that's exactly how it went—V5 beat TT 2–0.
In the blink of an eye, it was March 6th.
After facing four strong teams in a row, TES finally got a free win tonight.
TES versus WE.
In the first game, JackeyLove went completely berserk.
Maybe it was because he hadn't gotten a pentakill on Draven last time—today his killing intent was off the charts.
Anyone who appeared in front of him looked like free gold.
Thanks to several mid-lane Ahri roams by Lin Fan, JackeyLove had three kills within the first six minutes.
With his already hyper-aggressive Lucian, he completely took off, unloading shot after shot until WE couldn't handle it at all.
The game ended in just twenty-two minutes.
WE's five players slumped in their chairs after the first game—utterly drained.
Although WE's results weren't good, Shanks was absolutely an "academy headmaster"-level player for WE.
Last year's Rookie of the Year, his individual skill was undeniable.
This match proved it too—Infinite Borders Bro's Ahri from last game wasn't a fluke. He genuinely had the skills.
---
In the second game, Luo Sheng swapped Lin Fan out to maintain Knight's value—and his feel for the game—letting him play one match to test the waters.
There was no real pressure on their record, and the opponent was WE.
The first few minutes went fine, but once the ten-minute Rift Herald fight hit, the familiar feeling returned for TES fans.
Classic mispositioning.
Xiao Tian couldn't find a good angle, unable to engage properly.
JackeyLove stood too aggressively.
WE seized the opportunity, executed a perfect teamfight, and took full control of the early game.
However, this young squad repeated their old mistake in the mid game.
They couldn't convert an advantage into a win.
They gave TES time to stall.
The game was dragged all the way to thirty-seven minutes, until both carries were fully built.
In a critical teamfight, Knight finally played the role he should have.
Though he was focused down and killed, he dealt massive damage and forced out many WE cooldowns—a death well worth it.
JackeyLove's Zeri cleaned up.
The game ended in one final push at thirty-eight minutes and thirty-four seconds.
TES won 2–0, securing a five-game winning streak.
Comparing the second game to the first, the difference made by swapping mid laners was enormous.
The former domestic number-one mid laner had fallen to a point where people didn't even know what he was doing anymore.
This sparked a third question among fans—what happened to Knight?
Interestingly, that very night, someone on Weibo gave an answer to "What happened to Knight?"
It ignited a massive wave of gossip.
As both sides started tearing into each other, more and more explosive revelations surfaced.
The melon just kept getting bigger.
Good lord—Knight was this fierce?
The Time-Management Master, Knight!
Now everything made sense—why his Spring Split performance had been so awful.
Some people even took schadenfreude in it.
Before, he still had chances to play. After this scandal, with Infinite Borders Bro's in this form, Knight's bench seat would probably be worn through.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup