With playoffs getting closer and closer, the scramble for points was in full swing.
Teams stuck in that awkward middle range of the playoff zone were all grinding like crazy, pushing upward nonstop.
And the teams near the top wanted to climb even higher—because this year's format came with a "Revive Armor."
The higher your seed, the more likely you were to get that Revive Armor.
Who wouldn't want an extra layer of fault tolerance?
Of course, besides all those teams, there was one more that drew special attention: WE.
They were currently setting the most outrageous record in the league.
Thirteen straight losses.
At this rate, it would be hard for them to win any of their remaining matches.
As if they were cursed…
They could have an early lead and still couldn't convert it into a win.
One inexplicable teamfight and all their previous effort would be wiped out—"not today, not today" all over again.
957 stared at WE's Nexus exploding, bitter.
He couldn't even force a bitter smile anymore.
But that was esports.
If your strength wasn't enough, no one would pity you. They'd only mock you and pile on sarcasm.
March 14.
V5 beat TT 2–0. It looked like their loss hadn't affected them at all—everyone played steadily.
March 15.
TES vs. IG.
JackeyLove rolled up his sleeves, ready to help his two good brothers get their revenge first.
A revenge match. Execute justice!
Lin Fan heard that and agreed. Without a word, he pulled out LeBlanc.
He hadn't planned to be this violent, but since JackeyLove said so, he could only let Yuekai have a good time.
And in the last scrim, Yuekai's Ahri had beaten Lin Fan up—new and old debts, paid together.
Yuekai was young, hungry, and full of fight. And because he'd beaten Lin Fan in scrims, he couldn't understand why someone this "bad" could be slaughtering people on stage.
His little head was packed with big confusion.
He confidently locked in Sylas.
Survive the early game and then it's "the sky is high for birds to fly, the sea is wide for fish to leap."
Lin Fan, of course, intended to give him a proper lesson.
…
He held nothing back.
And because Yuekai loved to scrap, Lin Fan sent him back to fountain three times by seven minutes.
He tore the lane straight open by himself.
Staring at a LeBlanc that took half his HP with a single W, Yuekai went blank.
Was this really the same guy from the scrim?
Was he dreaming?
But the damage from that in-your-face LeBlanc was painfully real.
He'd wanted to blow up Infinite Borders Bro. Lin Fan had been getting all the hype lately.
People didn't really know his true level and got intimidated, but Yuekai thought he knew.
When it came to real head-to-head, Lin Fan shouldn't have been able to do it.
But reality hit hard.
Turns out he was the clown.
Once Lin Fan took off, he even roamed bot once, letting JackeyLove pick up two more kills.
Draven's axes were spinning like a blender.
One crit for over 200 in the early game—who could withstand that?
Even going tank couldn't hold it, because the base HP just wasn't there yet.
Of course, Yuekai wasn't completely useless this match.
He taught everyone something important:
Lin Fan didn't just play Syndra—his LeBlanc was also a signature pick.
He'd hidden it deep.
A lot of teams were already preparing for playoffs—especially LNG.
Based on the current standings, TES was very likely to end up around fifth or sixth.
That meant they could meet in Round 2.
So LNG wanted to study Lin Fan more, watch more.
For many coaches and analysts, Lin Fan was a massive headache.
Something was off about him.
His ranked history was scarce. He spent all day addicted to other random games.
There was no way to scout him—couldn't even figure out how deep his champion pool really was.
You thought he couldn't play Ahri—then he quietly pulled out Ahri.
Then he pulled out Twisted Fate and ran the whole map with tempo.
Good thing they remembered TES had a match today and took another look.
The moment they watched, they caught the key point—LeBlanc showed up.
LNG's analyst immediately added it to his little notebook.
The rest of the match turned into a horror game.
IG's map was pitch black. Take one step and your HP bar disappeared.
With such a massive deficit, they still dragged it to 29 minutes—honestly, it was a nice farm game. Everyone padded their stats to look pretty.
"IG is doomed today. Really doomed. Infinite Borders Bro's in a bad mood—LeBlanc is massacring!"
"Or maybe he's helping Rookie get justice? IG did do some shady stuff this season. Management's debts get paid by players."
"They weren't making playoffs anyway, and now they get beaten senseless—body and mind both tortured."
"Aren't you guys curious? Infinite Borders Bro's LeBlanc is this cracked? We never even see him train, and he was playing Goose Goose Duck earlier. I can't accept this."
"And what about Ahri and Twisted Fate before that? What, does he really have some 'deep-blue skill-point' system where he just shouts a line and upgrades?"
…
In Game 2, IG didn't dare act as cocky as the first game.
After getting educated by Lin Fan, they were genuinely scared.
And the more Yuekai felt like a clown, the more he wondered where he got the courage to pick Sylas into LeBlanc…
So this time he picked Orianna, hoping to stabilize lane and scale.
But after seeing Game 1—TES with a huge lead still took 29 minutes—you could tell how bloody and brutal it was.
Even with a long break, IG still hadn't recovered.
The coach's talk didn't even finish. Everyone looked dazed.
So Game 2 was even sloppier.
Still, as IG's new big brother, Xun did something different.
While teammates got caught, he laughed and farmed.
Mid died a lot, so he ate mid waves—his gold exploded.
And in teamfights he performed well too—he just chased JackeyLove and hacked nonstop.
Two hits to half HP. Such heroic performance earned him the title "Sect Master Xun."
But in this game, JackeyLove played with honor.
He didn't drag it to 29 minutes like last time.
After taking Baron, they pushed in one wave and ended the base—an easy win at 26 minutes.
Worth noting: both carries went Godlike.
They were completely out of control.
For the post-match interview, JackeyLove was invited.
He gave Lin Fan a very high evaluation.
One word: strong.
With him in mid, bot lane played extremely comfortably.
After this match, people discovered a stat:
Among mid laners who had played eight matches, Lin Fan was actually first on the solo-kill leaderboard.
The wolf is coming.
This time, the wolf really is coming.
And after taking down IG, TES's win count reached eight.
At this point, making playoffs was already a done deal.
Other playoff teams felt the pressure skyrocket.
Week 8, weekend.
TES vs. LGD.
TES's form was excellent, but LGD was famously "steal from the rich, give to the poor."
It wasn't like good form guaranteed a win against them.
LGD was weird like that—no one could explain them.
So people were watching this match closely too.
But this one really had no suspense.
A stomp.
Anyone who'd watched LGD knew they loved bullying teams that only needed one or two wins to lock playoffs.
But against a team that was already firmly in, they couldn't bite.
A rope snaps where it's thinnest.
Misfortune finds the most miserable.
LGD was that misfortune.
TES threw a combo punch and had LGD howling in pain.
But only during the match.
Once it ended, it barely affected them—optimism ran in the family.
Eat, drink, clock in, clock out.
After beating LGD, TES only had one regular-season match left: Weibo Gaming.
And honestly, "Dark Angel" and "Earthbound Spirit" versus Infinite Borders Bro… that picture felt beautiful.
…
Probably one side would roam like crazy, while the other side would farm minions like crazy—dominating minions.
Everyone quietly added this match to their logs and rushed to watch it.
Plenty of people also dropped into Lin Fan's stream to scratch the itch and find new games to play.
After all, playing League too much got boring—you needed other games to reset.
And Lin Fan's stream was basically a game library.
You could see any game there—except anything related to League of Legends.
The moment you opened it… Infinite Borders.
"S1 is about to end, but I still haven't farmed enough Merit Points. Sure enough, in Season 1 nobody grinds—what exactly changed people's mentality later? That's a question."
Thinking about the Conquest Season—huge grinders everywhere, people spending money to roll cards like maniacs—even Lin Fan couldn't understand it.
Why not just spend a little, control yourself, and go to bed when you're done? Why grind that hard?
After farming a bit, he exited and switched to another game.
He hadn't practiced in a long time—his mechanics had fallen off. He'd trained hard, so he couldn't just give it back.
So he queued solo for two matches.
At first, he was rusty.
Then he got smoother and smoother.
He saw "Blue Armor" and immediately went for a parry—then realized he'd been baited into parrying…
And a full combo instantly deleted him. A suicide engage into a chicken dinner.
Jesus. Who knew someone could have that many dirty tricks mid-fight?
"Damn, what a crafty old fox. The heart of a tactician is truly filthy—actually setting me up, a young man."
Hearing Lin Fan say that, the chat went even crazier.
"Not sure who you're calling filthy when you tricked a kid yesterday. Xiu Cute got scammed by you all day—CPU'd, right?"
"Just karma. The cause you planted earlier is the payback you get now."
"Your weapon practice wasn't good enough—your duel experience isn't rich enough."
"You guys are talking so much—do you even know what rank he is? He's Asura now. What 'King' are you?"
"I think the streamer's already super strong. So clean. Nobody plays Fire Man as smoothly as him—once he ults, the greatsword just keeps hopping."
"Are you dumb? He's a pro player. Not long ago he topped the LPL solo-kill chart. Naraka fans can get out."
"Whatever—when do we get to my favorite Goose Goose Duck segment?"
Pro players were already more popular than regular streamers.
And Lin Fan had stacked multiple buffs.
Mainly, he played everything—and after grinding, he played everything decently.
Some random viewers just became fans like that.
Especially Naraka.
From being clueless to being skilled—he'd even climbed to Asura.
That pulled in a huge wave of Naraka fans.
For them, watching Lin Fan train and get stronger step by step was satisfying—and his talent was outrageous.
In just over a month, he got this good.
How many people could do that?
Everyone also knew how hard it was to hit Asura in Naraka.
No wonder Brother Fan never trains and still slaughters on stage—his game talent is just that absurd.
He's built for this.
You can't envy it.
After two more Naraka games, he successfully got another chicken dinner.
Only then did Lin Fan, satisfied, exit.
"Infinite Borders √ Naraka √"
"Infinite Borders √ Naraka √"
…
A whole row of those messages instantly filled the chat, perfectly in rhythm.
"Guess the next game! Infinite Borders Bro's clocking in and out is always precise—I think the next one is Heroes Evolved."
"If it's Heroes Evolved—Xin Zhao is invincible!"
"Xin Zhao? That's Zhao Yun, but I think you're right."
"What era are you in, still saying Zhao Yun? I'm a ten-year Heroes Evolved player—I think Li Bai is cooler."
The audience didn't have to guess for long.
Lin Fan rapidly clicked and opened QQ Speed.
That familiar background music hit, and a lot of people's memories flooded back.
Back in the days when CrossFire and QQ Speed dominated half the internet cafés.
In that moment… their hearts moved.
He was good at other games, so QQ Speed shouldn't be bad, right?
They were excited to see Lin Fan show off his driving skills.
Then they realized they'd imagined too much.
Everyone wanted to kick Lin Fan out of his chair and drive themselves.
What even was this? He couldn't make a concave corner drift? If he had to "find a hole," would he not find it either?
Mental torture.
Start to finish.
"Alright, I can't eat anymore. I need a breather."
"Same. I need to recover too. I'm out—see you the day after tomorrow for TES vs Weibo. That one's interesting."
"Is Infinite Borders Bro going to flip in the gutter?"
"Against other teams, maybe. But against the Earthbound Spirit, I don't feel it."
"Not afraid of ten thousand—only afraid of the one. If P-Angel shows off, I can't accept it!"
"Honestly, losing that match might even be good. Playoffs are already locked. Use the final regular-season game to flame him and make him train hard for playoffs—wouldn't that be great?"
"True. Better to lose in the regular season than in playoffs."
The stream stayed lively. The chat never stopped.
When the system prompt appeared, Lin Fan knew it was time to clock out.
He said goodbye to the audience and happily went off work.
He knew his persona had been accepted. Once people got used to it, it was fine.
March 25.
The final regular-season match would be TES versus Weibo Gaming, closing out the regular season.
Even though both teams had already made playoffs, it would still affect seeding.
If TES beat Weibo, they'd be fifth. If they lost, they'd be sixth.
It didn't matter that much—either way, they'd enter in Round 2.
So today's match came with no real pressure.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup