Angel's pings were flying all over the map. If this were any ordinary jungler, he would have rushed straight to mid at this moment.
But could SofM be considered an ordinary jungler?
Not in the slightest.
He calmly went to the top side first to clear a camp of Krugs. Only after that did he head toward mid, fully satisfied.
It had to be said—his timing was calculated with frightening precision.
When SofM arrived in mid, the feast was perfectly set. A massive wave of minions was crashing into the turret, and every single one of them belonged to him.
The moment Vladimir stepped forward to engage, Jarvan appeared near the second turret to intercept the low-health Azir. He simply followed up with a single Q, with no intention of stealing the kill.
As a result, Azir was blown up directly by Vladimir's ultimate.
In short—great teamwork with the jungler.
And that wasn't just true with Tian and SofM.
If it weren't for Angel, things wouldn't have collapsed this quickly in the first place.
Since the kill was already secured, there was no reason to linger in mid.
A quick ping, and he moved toward the lower half of the map with Tian. Although Vladimir had already used his ultimate, Jarvan's ultimate was still available, with full killing power. Huanfeng had no Flash—once he got hooked by Nautilus, it was guaranteed death.
Watching Jarvan and Vladimir move downward, SofM continued to spam signals on the map instead.
This game, he was on Zed. Ensuring his own development was critical. The massive wave in front of the turret absolutely had to be eaten.
Every sacrifice his teammates made in the early game was for the sake of winning later. Give him a bit more time to scale, and he would step up.
As long as Vladimir was properly focused, that champion would have very little room to operate.
Huanfeng looked at the massive wave under his turret and laughed.
No way out at all.
He wanted to farm it—but he didn't dare.
Two retreat pings went out, and he fled together with Thresh, abandoning the turret.
Losing two turret plates to a single wave hurt—anyone saying otherwise would be lying.
Since the enemy had already retreated and there were no kills to be had, they turned around to secure the Ocean Drake instead—the most comfortable dragon during the laning phase.
Although it was already past eight minutes, the sustain it provided would still feel great, especially for Zoom on the top lane. His pressure was enormous, and an Ocean Drake would help alleviate a lot of it.
---
Vladimir's first completed item was still Hextech Rocketbelt. Compared to the original version, now that it was a Mythic item, it was significantly more expensive.
Even with Lin Fan's absurd level of farm, he was still short by one hundred gold.
He clicked on the Rift Scuttler on the minimap.
"I'll take it. I'm short on gold."
"If Brother Fan wants it, of course I'll give it to you," Tian replied dutifully. He whittled the Scuttler down to low health, and Lin Fan casually took a single sip, pocketing the gold.
Instantly comfortable—Rocketbelt secured.
The moment Tian gave up the Rift Scuttler was naturally caught by the broadcast, and the camera immediately switched over.
"Oho, look at that. This is the Brother Infinite Borders' treatment—Tian even gives up the crab that was already in his mouth."
"Team tyrant confirmed. If you don't give it up, you get bullied."
"Honestly, if my teammate were Brother Infinite Borders, he could take entire waves or jungle camps—no complaints at all."
"Exactly. When the big carry gets the gold, he makes things happen. If it wins games and matches, why wouldn't you give it?"
"No wonder Tian sometimes rolls his eyes when Knight eats his blue buff. Turns out someone eating gold but not winning games is just freeloading—anyone would lose patience."
"Heh, that actually makes a lot of sense. Up to now, who's missing from these nine straight wins?"
"It's only nine wins so far—not ten yet."
"With Angel playing like this, the coffin lid is already nailed shut. If TES still loses, wouldn't that be Angel resurrecting from the dead?"
…
At this moment, back at the TES base, Knight stared at everything happening on his monitor. Thinking about how he wouldn't even get a chance to play, he was furious.
Betrayal. All of it was betrayal.
Before, they were all brothers, calling him Golden Left Hand every other sentence. But now? Everyone avoided him like the plague.
Just wait until you get knocked out in playoffs—then you'll know who was really carrying you to victories.
But by then, it would be too late.
Knight muttered to himself in the base, full of resentment. Meanwhile, Lin Fan had already bought Rocketbelt and returned to the mid lane.
Tian's ultimate still hadn't been used. There was no opportunity, so there was no need to force something far away on the top side. They continued to hard-camp mid.
This actually moved Angel—because SofM was right beside him.
But Zed was an extremely aggressive champion. Even so, Azir's health continued to plummet.
The only good news was that he didn't instantly die.
Angel could only lick his wounded arm and turtle under the turret.
With only one-third health left, it felt like Vladimir could dive him at any moment.
The damage from the previous two trades was completely unreasonable. He couldn't understand how Vladimir's execute threshold was this high.
As the minion wave was about to crash into the turret, Angel gave up on staying to farm. He hurriedly recalled Azir.
Better to recall and reset than be sent back to fountain.
After today's match, his reputation was probably ruined.
He never imagined that the final match of the regular season would be this brutal.
SofM originally wanted to take the raptor camp, but seeing Azir recall, he stopped what he was doing. With a single W shadow, he appeared under mid tier-one turret, preparing to take the wave.
Honestly, that move… showed zero respect for Lin Fan.
So Lin Fan went in and took a sip right away.
SofM was surprised.
You're fighting me like this under turret?
Is Jarvan behind you?
There was no Jarvan behind Vladimir—but there was one behind Zed.
Everyone had already fought once, and most skills were on cooldown. Burning such a crucial W right in front of them was basically suicide.
With Vladimir tanking the turret, Tian felt zero pressure. An EQ combo launched Zed into the air.
Blood Pool activated, scorching the area around Zed.
Second Crimson Rush Q—slash and drain—his blood pump was sucked dry, forcibly emptying the rest of Zed's HP.
"That's kinda int…"
"Yeah… even if SofM wanted to eat the wave, there was no need to blow W like that."
"Angel was actually very smart here—no greed at all. With unhealthy HP, he just ran. Even though he lost a massive wave, at least he stayed alive."
"Vladimir already has three kills and is about to hit level nine. How does Weibo deal with this then?"
"Even SofM probably didn't expect TES's mid-jungle to pull the trigger so decisively. The moment he went down, they were already in position."
"Exactly. This play was always meant for mid. Whoever came would meet the same fate."
As mid-lane advantage continued to snowball, Vladimir began to play a role similar to Ahri.
Lin Fan had demonstrated this before.
After all, once E fully charged and detonated, clearing an entire wave was effortless.
Most of the turret plates were already gone. There was no real point in continuing to grind against Azir in mid.
Weibo understood this as well—but being the passive side, understanding didn't help. All they could do was wait for TES to make the next move.
At that moment, something suddenly happened bot lane.
Nautilus hooked Huanfeng again. For a moment, it was hard to tell whether the follow-up Q was on JackeyLove or Huanfeng.
Double summoners were instantly burned, trying to copy the previous escape.
But after already letting him get away once, JackeyLove wasn't having it.
He flashed forward and chopped again, his killing intent crystal clear.
Seeing this, ON immediately used Flay, trying to push Draven away and give Huanfeng some breathing room.
But Draven's dual axes were already flying from both hands, spinning straight toward Aphelios' position.
So fast!
Huanfeng had already used Flash earlier. He dared not hold back, wanting to use every skill possible—but there were none left.
He twisted and dodged with everything he had.
But a champion's movement speed was far slower than flying axes.
Back and forth, the axes returned. Two hits landed cleanly, sending Aphelios straight back to fountain.
---
JackeyLove then shifted his target to Thresh.
ON still had Flash and didn't panic, flashing back under the turret.
Only then did TES's bot duo give up the chase.
Bot lane comfortably secured a lane kill.
As the good news came in, TES's top lane also successfully caught Kennen.
After all, TheShy was a man with a title—World's Easiest Top Laner to Gank. If you dare to gank him, he dares to die.
Earlier, forcing Duke to absorb pressure had been painful. Now that they were developed, it was time to help relieve his burden.
The moment TheShy heard Vladimir's low hum and saw that crimson figure appear top lane, it was already too late.
Knowing he couldn't escape, TheShy chose to fight back head-on.
But Gragas' ultimate sent Kennen's Heavenly Thunder into empty air.
Gragas and Vladimir barely lost any health.
Once the ultimates ended, it was harvest time for TES's top and mid.
Lin Fan even gave the kill on Kennen to Zoom.
After enduring pressure for so long, he deserved to pad his economy and ease the lane gap.
The reason Tian had been quiet all this time was because he had gone straight to take Rift Herald.
With this timing, as top lane secured Kennen's kill, Rift Herald was also just completed.
To further suffocate Kennen's growth, they used Herald to forcibly take down the top tier-one turret.
During this time, Lin Fan returned to mid.
Azir had pushed the wave back under the turret.
Despite the chaos on the map, Weibo didn't sit idle.
ON started stirring things up, preparing to bring SofM over for a counterattack.
They couldn't just keep letting the enemy find opportunities.
Angel seized a timing window, dashing forward to try and shove Vladimir back.
Lin Fan could have activated Blood Pool immediately. He glanced at the three Weibo players—there wasn't much damage. Instead, they looked like they were delivering themselves.
The three Weibo brothers instantly got excited.
Vladimir didn't react in time—no Blood Pool! Kill him now!
ON used Flay, trying to lock Vladimir down completely.
But their damage was far too low.
Relying entirely on Zed to deal damage was unrealistic. After unloading everything, Vladimir still had a third of his health left.
For Lin Fan, that was more than enough.
A quick sip, then the ultimate slammed onto the ground, hitting all three.
E charged up. Timing it perfectly, W activated—boiling water cooking the chicken.
The squishier the body, the faster the HP melted—and all three of Weibo's members were extremely squishy.
When E detonated, everyone was already at half HP, not to mention the follow-up damage from the second wave of the ultimate.
At the instant Blood Pool ended, three more sips of blood lifted Vladimir back up.
They couldn't kill him.
And the situation instantly became extremely dangerous for Weibo.
The boss elimination plan failed. Now it was Plan B—run!
Whoever ran slower stayed behind as rearguard.
Lin Fan wanted all three, but his cooldowns were limited. The last one would be left to Tian.
One sip finished off Azir. There was no choice—Azir still had mobility and had to be dealt with first.
With Phase Rush's movement speed, he continued chasing Thresh, waiting for the third Q cooldown.
As levels increased, Q's cooldown shortened, and Vladimir finally started to feel like a real vampire.
Seeing that Lin Fan wasn't chasing him, SofM finally felt relieved.
But then, from the side, Jarvan's EQ combo knocked him up.
…
Lin Fan secured a double kill. Tian took one as well.
Weibo lost everything. Not only did they fail to shut down Vladimir, they handed over three more kills.
At 15:30, Lin Fan pushed a massive wave into mid turret and dove without hesitation.
The advantage was just that outrageous. Azir under turret was already a buffet.
Unlike traditional mids, Azir lacked strong self-peel—at least against Vladimir, he had no answers.
Watching his HP plummet, Angel dumped a pile of skills into the Blood Pool.
Fans couldn't hold back anymore.
"What kind of brainless play is this?"
"Are you trolling?"
"Suggestion: the richest man and Trash Angel should retire together after today, at least preserving the dignity of being world runners-up."
"I knew from earlier he'd be treated like a toy by Brother Infinite Borders. But watching the process… I'm dying laughing."
Mid tier-one fell a bit slower than earlier turrets, but it was still taken at sixteen minutes.
Watching his mid turret collapse, Angel felt like he was about to mentally break.
From the god's-eye view, TES's gold lead had reached five thousand. Huge—but not completely unplayable for Weibo.
Because Kennen was well-farmed. With a well-placed Heavenly Thunder ultimate combined with Huanfeng's Aphelios, they might still defy fate and turn it around.
The upcoming dragon pit teamfight was their chance.
TheShy didn't want to give up yet. He pinged to call everyone over.
His position was extremely tricky, hidden on the flank and not yet discovered by TES.
But under Lin Fan's command, they were already consciously searching for Kennen's position.
TES fans in the arena were extremely nervous—TheShy's Kennen successfully flanked!
The moment his teammates appeared, TheShy placed all his hopes on them.
Flash in—Heavenly Thunder! Four members caught!
Lin Fan reacted instantly, activating Blood Pool.
But his heart sank halfway.
The four teammates failed to react in time. Aphelios was invincible in these tight-space fights.
This was going to explode.
He immediately tried to salvage it—while in Blood Pool, he pressured straight toward Aphelios!
Intimidation!
As long as Aphelios' output was delayed, even if Kennen's ultimate hit full value, it still wouldn't be enough to instantly wipe them at this point.
And once that window passed… it would be TES's time.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup