Lin Fan's starting items were a Dark Seal and a Refillable Potion.
Against Azir, Vladimir really didn't feel pressured at all. In fact, there were even opportunities to find a solo kill early on.
Vladimir wasn't as weak as people imagined. With Ignite, his level-two execute threshold was around 350 HP; without Ignite, it was still about 280.
The higher the level, the more outrageous the execute range became.
After level six, as long as the target didn't have magic resistance or bonus health items, almost every champion was within kill range.
Picking this champion depended entirely on how the player chose to approach the matchup.
Against disciplined players who gave no openings, Vladimir could simply farm peacefully. But against someone like Angel… Lin Fan loved one particular phrase associated with Vladimir:
Let the blood flow like a river.
How could he possibly farm peacefully with his opponent?
At level one, both sides quickly took positions, forming a long horizontal line to avoid any level-one invades.
Saofeng played in such an unpredictable, reckless style that there was always a chance he'd invade early and gift a kill, so this defensive setup was necessary. It also helped speed up the game's tempo.
However, Saofeng seemed to have been scolded by the coaching staff recently. He looked tempted, eager to try something, but perhaps afraid of getting yelled at again, he eventually backed off and went to start his red buff.
On TES's side, Tian followed his usual pathing, clearing from the top side downward. By the time he hit level three, he could move into the river and protect both mid and bot lane.
As long as the team's two carries were comfortable, the game would be comfortable.
This was the conclusion Tian had reached over this period of time.
At the end of the day, a jungler's job was to find and support carries.
Grinding endlessly as a jungler was useless. A fed jungler might win one game, maybe two, but it was impossible to keep winning like that.
In the current league, no team sat at the top purely because of their jungler.
Every strong team had at least one powerful lane—often two.
That was why Saofeng's chaotic playstyle had no place in the current meta.
Tian couldn't understand why he hadn't adapted yet. Maybe that was why Saofeng could be a tycoon while Tian could only afford a down payment.
At 1:35, the mid-lane minions met.
Lin Fan followed behind his minions. Vladimir was weak at level one, so reckless fighting wasn't ideal.
He stepped forward with a Q–auto combo, triggered Phase Rush, gained a burst of movement speed, and cleanly exited Azir's attack range.
Angel was momentarily stunned.
Wasn't this Vladimir versus Azir?
Weren't these two champions supposed to farm peacefully and scale into mid and late game teamfights?
Why was Vladimir playing so aggressively right from the start?
He couldn't understand it.
"Is he just padding damage stats? Playing aggressively from the start so his damage numbers look good at the end?"
Recalling Lin Fan's previous games, he did always play extremely aggressively.
Angel felt like he'd discovered a new secret formula.
Fine—let's trade.
He pushed Azir forward and tried to respond forcefully.
After all, Vladimir couldn't kill him at level one.
When the camera cut to mid lane, the audience was surprised as well.
Vladimir and Azir were brawling this hard at level one?
It looked like a straight-up knife fight.
But with Q on a nine-second cooldown at level one, Vladimir couldn't repeatedly trigger Phase Rush.
Both sides relied mostly on auto-attacks, so the damage was roughly even.
However, because Phase Rush had already been triggered, Azir couldn't keep up with follow-up damage, leaving Lin Fan slightly ahead in the trade.
Angel knew Vladimir's attack range was shorter, so he stepped forward, trying to pressure Lin Fan into missing CS.
Even if his form had declined, he was still a former world finalist—basic judgment wasn't beyond him.
But after glancing at the minion wave, Lin Fan didn't hesitate and stepped right back up.
As long as Azir dared to auto him there, the trade would never be unfavorable.
Right in front of Angel's eyes, Vladimir turned around and calmly took the low-health melee minion.
Angel couldn't believe it.
He was standing in front of the wave, yet Vladimir still dared to turn back for CS. Wasn't that too bold?
He raised his hand and auto-attacked.
Lin Fan immediately returned fire.
As the next wave of caster minions focused their attacks on him, Angel quickly pulled Azir back.
A complete loss.
Why did TheShy never get hit by minions during trades, but it always happened to him?
Did he mistime the autos?
Either way, the situation was unacceptable.
Angel gave up trying to pressure Vladimir and retreated, deciding to focus on farming instead.
Azir was a scaling champion, after all.
"Angel lost that trade pretty badly."
"Stepping past the minion wave to poke at level one just doesn't work, especially against Vladimir."
"You can already see the gap between the two mid laners—so stiff."
The chat exploded with comments.
As the second wave arrived, Angel became much more cautious.
Tian had been camping mid a lot recently, and Angel was completely on his own. He couldn't afford to be careless.
He glanced at Saofeng's position—happily farming the jungle.
Sure, the jungler was comfortable, but the laners were suffering.
With Zed picked, what could they expect in the early game?
Lin Fan wasn't afraid of a gank. Based on his understanding of Saofeng, it wasn't happening anyway.
At level two, he took E.
Activating E, he stepped forward to clear the wave and clipped Azir with the explosion.
The damage wasn't high this early, but the gesture itself was arrogant.
Angel, wary of a gank, chose not to retaliate and retreated under turret.
With Corrupting Potion as his starting item, his max HP was only around 550.
After the early trades, he was already down to 300 HP—far from safe.
He drank a potion and waited for his health to recover.
Lin Fan wasn't in a hurry.
There would be plenty of chances to sink his teeth into Azir later.
Without Ignite, he didn't want to reveal his true intentions too early.
Otherwise, Angel would become cautious, and opportunities would disappear.
As Azir backed off, Lin Fan easily secured level three.
He then moved toward the bottom river to help Tian secure the Scuttle Crab.
Against most junglers, this mid-lane wave state would deter any contest—but Saofeng wasn't most junglers.
Sure enough, the moment Lin Fan stepped forward, Zed appeared nearby.
Zed dashed with a second W toward the Scuttle Crab, trying to contest the Smite.
Thanks to Lin Fan's warning, Tian preemptively Smited and secured it cleanly.
Then he turned, spear in hand, and went straight for Zed.
With Red Buff slowing and Vladimir applying pressure from behind, Saofeng had no choice but to Flash back toward his jungle.
The caster desk fell silent.
Trying to steal Scuttle and losing Flash instead—classic Saofeng.
Guan Zeyuan finally broke into laughter.
The scene was just too absurd.
Saofeng truly lived up to his reputation as the league's resident chaos jungler.
At 3:54, bot lane skirmished.
Titan hooked Aphelios, and JackeyLove seized the chance to unload damage.
Two axes later, Aphelios was already at half health.
Huanfeng didn't even consider fighting back—he immediately burned both summoners and retreated under turret.
ON's Thresh wanted to fight, but seeing his ADC's decisiveness, could only throw out a Flay before backing off.
Without hook, Titan couldn't force anything further.
Still, the bot-lane advantage was clear—JackeyLove had taken control of the lane.
Up top, however, even with Gragas, Zoom was forced to recall at 4:30.
TheShy's Kennen pressure was suffocating, especially with Summon Aery. Each shuriken hurt badly.
With unhealthy HP, Zoom had no choice but to reset and Teleport back.
At five minutes, both mid laners hit level five.
Lin Fan shoved the wave under Azir's turret.
The moment Azir stepped up to last-hit, Vladimir took a bite.
Angel frowned.
Getting poked under turret was expected, but his HP still looked healthy enough.
He planned to finish the wave and recall.
Seeing Vladimir back off to avoid turret shots, he didn't think much of it.
Then Vladimir stepped back in.
Angel suddenly felt something was wrong.
Before he could react, a fully empowered Crimson Rush Q slammed into him.
A blue "197" popped above Azir's head.
His HP dropped by nearly two bars.
Angel froze.
This was a clear kill attempt—Vladimir was going for a tower dive.
But how dare he?
Lin Fan's expression was intensely focused.
He'd waited long enough for this window.
E charged and exploded.
W—Sanguine Pool—dodged the turret follow-up and stuck to Azir.
In an instant, Azir was left with under 30 HP.
Angel panicked and flashed.
The camera immediately snapped back to mid.
"Flash! Angel's Azir is forced to Flash!"
"At this HP… he might just die!"
"Azir tries to disengage—Vladimir follows Flash! Lin Fan waited just a moment—another Q, and he's dead!"
First Blood.
Vladimir completed the tower dive and claimed the first kill of the game.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup