Backstage at TES.
Knight's whole face was flushed red—"red hot" was the most accurate description of him.
Every time Akali got a kill—especially with Hecarim standing nearby—his face would twitch.
You dog—weren't you "depressed" after getting cursed a couple times?
How did you reset your mentality so fast in Game 3?
Perma-helping mid?
Why didn't you come mid even once in the first two games?
You're doing it to disgust me, aren't you?
His blood pressure skyrocketed.
If Jarvis's voice could play beside him—warning, warning…—it would've been perfect.
Meanwhile, in the front row, Luo Sheng was smiling like a flower.
Lin Fan really was TES's savior.
Every move was calculated. From start to now, V5's mid-jungle had been completely controlled.
This tempo was exactly what TES wanted.
So comfortable.
Everyone knew what they should be doing, instead of looking like headless flies like the previous games.
Back then, nobody could find their role, and they got hung up and beaten by V5.
Now? Swap the mid laner, and the tempo instantly took off.
That immediate effect made Luo Sheng even more certain:
Lin Fan was the correct mid laner for TES.
At this point, the gold lead was already 4,500.
With the current patch tempo, V5 making a comeback was basically impossible.
So relaxed that he even hummed.
Those first two games should've been like this.
Damn it—those first two games should never have started Knight.
Now his market value was gone, and they might even be forced to burn their revival life…
Even though the in-game situation was great, a reverse sweep was never easy.
Sigh. One wrong step, and every step after is wrong.
…
Ryze died again to a Hecarim gank, and Wawa shouted as he watched:
"Tian is so decisive! The moment he hits level six, he goes mid again. With Akali's insane damage, Ryze gets melted instantly—zero chance!"
"Three deaths in a row. Mid lane is completely blown open!"
Ryze was slightly buffed this patch, sure, but the Q damage buff only let him transition more smoothly into his roaming window.
It wasn't enough to survive getting killed three times and still stabilize.
And there wasn't any champion in this patch that could.
Gugu was even more excited—she'd fully admitted it: she was a Brother Infinite Borders fan.
"This is Brother Infinite Borders! Even after five mid bans, even after spending half a month playing TFT, he still uses an off-meta Akali to carve out a sky in mid."
"Going back, he should already have Night Harvester. Eight or nine minutes Night Harvester—too brutal."
"Akali's current mid win rate is 41%, but once you drag past 35 minutes, it rises noticeably." 957 shook his head.
"That alone shows Akali is a very item-hungry champion. From here, Brother Infinite Borders is going to play completely without restraint. Once ult is up, it's see-you-delete-you!"
"I can't see anyone on V5 who can stop Akali."
"TES's Akali pick is so clean. V5 just can't deal with her, so funneling all early resources into Brother Infinite Borders was the smart play."
"Right—now it's harvest time!"
Chat was exploding too.
"The moment Brother Infinite Borders got subbed in, I suddenly found my spiritual pillar."
"I'm a JackeyLove fan. The moment I saw a trustworthy mid, I knew we won this game."
"I lived in Brother Infinite Borders' stream for half a month. This guy is absurd. Genshin or TFT every day. I came today just to watch the chaos—didn't expect him to actually hard-carry!"
"Yare… I'm a diehard PUBG fan of Brother Infinite Borders. This is Brother Infinite Borders Square now. Everyone stand up!"
"They're back. I feel like they're all back!"
"TES's most correct five people—this is the championship roster."
"A love story with five people has no room for a sixth. Knight should just find a pit and bury himself."
"At this point, Knight really can't stay anymore."
"Stay my ass. He's obviously packing his bags and leaving. He sits mid with a sour face—Tian doesn't even want to help him."
"No matter what, Brother Infinite Borders is godly!"
…
Just like 957 said, after Lin Fan recalled, he immediately bought Night Harvester.
He was already at the point where he could one-shot whoever he saw.
At this stage, he didn't even need to think about farming passive—see a person, dump skills, done.
But since the opponent was Rookie, letting Ryze free-farm was unacceptable.
So Lin Fan pinged mid, planning to keep compressing Rookie's space.
Tian, who had just taken Rift Herald, instantly ran over.
Mid-jungle dove again without explanation.
This time it was even easier.
Hecarim only needed to add one kick, and Lin Fan didn't even use his ultimate—Ryze, with more than half HP, got deleted.
Karsa was numb.
He'd been hovering to countergank because mid kept getting targeted.
But by the time he EQ'd in, only Ryze's corpse was left.
TES mid-jungle laughed.
They didn't expect "buy one, get one" deals in pro play.
Akali turned on ult and sliced forward. One strike and the movement speed proc hit.
Full HP Jarvan instantly dropped to half.
EQ already burned—whether he flashed or not, he was still in Akali's execute range. Struggle was pointless.
Karsa made the call quickly:
No need to flash.
Lin Fan was waiting too. If Jarvan flashed, he'd R2 execute instantly.
But since Karsa wasn't flashing…
Then it was time to swing the blade.
Jarvan died.
Akali was already nearly legendary, and her name echoed through the Rift.
Everyone on V5 stiffened.
This bastard was killing everything.
Photic was already imagining getting "bird-walked"…
Akali was every ADC's nightmare.
Mid-to-late teamfights—once she locks you, your only path is death.
At 9:30, TES dropped Rift Herald mid and, together, took down mid outer turret.
At 10:00, mid-jungle linked and went bot again.
With a super-fed Akali, they didn't even wait for the wave—Hecarim ulted straight under tower.
In the chaos, Lin Fan's Akali tagged with Q, stuck close, Q–auto procced Electrocute, and poor Xayah vanished from the map.
Poor Photic didn't even get to press ult or heal.
He knew Akali's damage was insane, but he didn't expect "touch once and you're gone."
The three casters didn't even know what words to use—going back to basics? Or just screaming "WAH WAH!" felt more appropriate.
TES fans in the arena screamed in excitement.
The first two games were that depressing—this one felt that satisfying.
Of course they'd seize the chance to vent.
But to a lot of people, those screams were "annoying"… so they tried to attack them.
Doesn't matter.
This arena belonged to TES right now.
Rookie originally wanted to TP down, but after seeing the scene, he silently moved his finger away.
He'd rather use that window to eat more waves and camps, keep scaling.
The chance felt slim, but he still had to try.
Akali's damage was simply too high. This at least prevented a buy-one-get-one on V5's side.
Still, the losses were massive.
Bot outer turret fell.
The gold gap stretched to six thousand.
TES accelerated the pace and gave V5 zero breathing room.
At 10:30, Karsa was clearing jungle camps.
But with both mid and bot outer turrets gone, doing that was extremely dangerous.
Karsa was hyper-alert.
But then Akali suddenly appeared on top of him.
He didn't even react.
With only HP items on him, Jarvan went instantly grayscale.
"Hmph. Another one who doesn't know his place."
Then Akali used E and vanished from vision.
Staring at the darkened screen, Karsa sighed.
How do you play this? He genuinely had no idea.
The pressure was too much.
Rookie immediately retreated under inhibitor turret.
Karsa dying in the jungle meant Hecarim was nearby too.
Even if Akali had no ultimate, with Hecarim ult, a tower dive was still easy.
Only under inhibitor turret did he feel safe.
Rookie's read on Tian's pathing was accurate.
Seeing Ryze under inhibitor turret, Tian felt tempted, but Lin Fan thought it was too risky.
Charging inhibitor turret this early was too dangerous.
So they chose the safer route and took mid tier-two.
The crowd was still replaying the image of Akali one-shotting Jarvan.
An assassin who answers to no one… is truly the scariest.
Brother Infinite Borders looked like he'd been holding it in for too long—once he got on stage, his hand was ruthless.
Karsa must've wanted to curl up.
He was just farming one camp, and suddenly he was dead.
"With Brother Infinite Borders' Akali showing like this, it feels like teams will need to add another ban when facing TES."
"You can't ban them all. V5 banned five mid champions, and Brother Infinite Borders still pulled out Akali out of nowhere. His pool is a question mark. Where did he even practice this?"
957 asked the question everyone wanted to ask.
Yare—this guy never trains, and he streams the most of any pro.
But every time you enter his room, he's playing PUBG or Genshin. And when he's having fun, he plays Goose Goose Duck with the hard-mouth guy's squad.
Content is maxed out.
He's made a lot of friends too—go to Gangzi's stream and you can hear him roaring:
"Nice kill!"
"If I had a mid like that, I'd go completely lawless!"
"Heh. Wait until Tank cracks your head open."
"What are you talking about? I'm talking about you, Erzi. Back then you ran to Snake and played mid, totally useless."
"I'll crack your head open with one slap. Were you ever my teammate?"
"Yare—if those ten BO5s didn't break me, we would've been teammates for sure!"
…
TES kept the tempo rolling.
After taking mid tier-two, bot lane rotated top and took top outer turret with no pressure.
At 14 minutes, V5's remaining outer towers were only top tier-two and bot tier-two.
The gold deficit hit 7,500.
Their comp had no answer to a massively fed Akali. Even if they wanted to stall, they couldn't.
Especially because TES gave them zero windows.
Under Lin Fan's calls, everyone left base with a control ward—JackeyLove included.
Five control wards out. V5 couldn't create any numbers advantage plays.
When the winning side lights up the whole map, it's pure despair.
And the pressure Akali created was the biggest reason.
Can't find her on the map, and once you meet her, you die.
Jarvan was the proof—hyper alert, yet still died instantly.
At 15:37, Jayce got caught in side lane by Akali.
Rich did E to knock Akali away, but with R2 in hand, that didn't matter.
And the moment Akali touched him, his HP dropped to fifty.
Same as always: touched equals dead.
R2 executed.
Rich's face was horror-struck.
Before this, he'd been peacefully farming against Gnar, slowly upgrading from "Xiaomi and a rifle" toward "fighter jets and cannons."
TL: The Xiaomi here refers to drones made by Xiaomi, a Chinese company.
He never expected the opponent to skip jets and cannons and go straight to a nuke.
While top lane bloomed for TES, bot duo didn't idle either.
They caught Leona warding in the jungle. Mark immediately ulted and chained the CC.
Leona got locked down hard, and JackeyLove's Aphelios followed with explosive damage.
Leona's W only let her survive two extra seconds.
Aphelios might not have many kills, but he'd been eating the team economy and his items were luxurious—his damage was naturally high.
With two deaths back-to-back, V5 could only turtle under inhibitor turrets and give up both side tier-twos.
TES still didn't push high ground yet.
Call it returning the favor.
After all, last game V5 had such a huge lead they could've ended at twenty minutes.
TES waited until 20 minutes and started Baron.
It looked like a Baron-to-end push.
V5 couldn't see anyone on the map and knew they were on Baron.
They used blue trinket and confirmed it, but still didn't walk over.
On blue side, stealing Baron is hard—the terrain is against you.
And even if you stole it, it would only delay your death and increase your suffering.
No need.
Better to let them finish and just go next.
At 21:30, TES pushed with Baron buff.
Hecarim ulted in first, blowing apart V5's defensive formation.
Lin Fan seized the opening, ulted onto Jayce, auto–Q procced Electrocute, and Jayce dropped to low HP instantly.
R2 + Flash ended Jayce's life and splashed extra damage onto Ryze and Xayah.
Another "pain of untouchable life."
Two squishies instantly lost half their HP.
TES piled in and cleaned up, wiping V5 under inhibitor turret.
Lin Fan collected Jarvan and Ryze too—three-kill curtain call.
With no one left to defend, TES ended V5's base in one wave!
TES pulled one back.
The score became 1–2, and the suspense carried into Game 4!
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup