Watching the replay of that four-man bot dive that just killed SKT's bot duo, Uzi finally calmed down. Still wrapped in his bath towel, he wiped at his still-damp hair.
"If I were Gumayusi in that play, I'd be completely stunned. Under normal circumstances, TES's mid-jungle tempo should at least wait until Nocturne hits level six."
"But now they four-man dove before four minutes. No matter who you are, you can't react in time. Unthinkable—really unthinkable. Especially Ryze. He had a little over a hundred mana left after clearing the wave. It looked like he was about to recall for Tear of the Goddess, but instead he went bot to gank."
"Gumayusi's mental has to be exploding right now."
"Mainly because JackeyLove picked Draven on the back end. Gumayusi first-picked Caitlyn, didn't build a lane advantage, then got ganked once—and now Draven is growing this well. But honestly, I've played Caitlyn into JackeyLove's Draven before. It's hard. Really hard." As he spoke, he even laughed.
"Damn Ning, that bastard… I still remember how he didn't give me that pentakill."
Seeing Caitlyn versus Draven in lane made Uzi think of that old match—Vayne versus Draven.
As SKT's bot duo recalled to update items, Uzi gave his wrap-up.
"JackeyLove went straight for Sheen. He's got an extra Long Sword and even Boots. Caitlyn only has two Long Swords. Combined with how lane went earlier, I don't think SKT's bot lane can handle the pressure anymore."
Now they'd caught them—lane kills were absolutely possible.
As for Lin Fan, he completed Tear of the Goddess and Dark Seal, and even had enough left for an Amplifying Tome. With levels coming in, his skills were starting to show real power.
Plus, with these items coming online way ahead of schedule, if Faker dared step up like he did earlier, one full combo and the next wave would be a tower dive.
So Faker needed a clear understanding of his Twisted Fate's role.
Oner scanned the map, took a look, then honestly went back into the jungle to farm.
No choice—there really wasn't a good angle.
Top lane Kennen had an advantage, but trying to coordinate and kill Gwen was basically impossible.
Especially since TES's top laner was slippery as hell and hadn't given any openings.
TES felt almost flawless.
Mid was unbeatable, sure—but top lane wasn't even that strong in lane, yet they knew exactly how to win. They "duo-queued with the turret," went nowhere, and what could you do?
Rather than risk dying, top lane would rather get zoned off CS.
Damn it!
The situation on the map was so tricky it left him not knowing what to do.
Viego really is a trash champion.
Zero tempo in the early game.
Then his camera shifted to mid.
"If only Dine were my teammate…"
His daily time of envying the enemy jungler.
SKT couldn't find a solution, so the game state remained firmly under TES's control.
With no sign of SKT breaking the deadlock, the Korean crowd's emotions started to rise.
They began cursing loudly.
What the hell are they doing? They drafted this comp and now they can't play the game?
But this kind of volatile emotion exists in every region—it's not unique to any one place.
Take the LPL, for example. The moment a team's advantage turns into a disadvantage, chat will explode with vicious insults.
Sometimes you can't even tell whether they're fans of the team or fans of results.
Because usually when a team loses, people are just furious that they "failed expectations," rather than attacking the players and club like lunatics—though RNG's management is the one exception, for those who know.
Mid lane returned to standard laning. Lin Fan had completely seized lane priority.
Ryze could just toss out spells. With Spell Flux from his E, a hundred-plus mana and two autos cleared an entire wave.
Now that he had Tear of the Goddess, plus the mana from runes stacking up, he wasn't nearly as mana-starved as he was at the start.
More importantly, Faker didn't dare step up and be annoying.
He understood his Twisted Fate very clearly.
With the wave constantly being shoved in, his Twisted Fate was forced into prison lane.
That was not the intention when they first drafted Twisted Fate.
Twisted Fate's whole value was to roam and help teammates build advantages through superior mobility—but in this situation, he was pinned mid and couldn't move at all.
Especially as the clock ticked closer and closer to level six.
Five minutes, thirty seconds.
Kennen held the wave top. If he couldn't solo kill, he'd at least try to deny as many minions as possible.
But the Ruined King had already farmed down toward bot.
There was no opportunity top.
So Zeus became extremely aggressive.
He stood right beside the cannon minion—clearly declaring: if Zoom stepped up for the cannon, Zeus would immediately run a full combo. It was also setting up the trade pattern for a level-six all-in later.
Anyway, if you want that cannon, you pay the price.
When Gwen stepped forward, Zeus sneered.
No one could resist the temptation of a cannon minion.
He walked up and autoed once.
It didn't hurt much, but it applied a passive stack. He also inched forward, trying to keep a chase angle.
But at that exact moment, danger pings slammed onto his face.
"Ryze! Ryze!"
Faker was screaming in voice.
But by the time he reacted and pinged, it was already too late—especially since Lin Fan had looped around through the tri-bush from behind, then "took the bus" on foot to cut off Kennen's retreat.
At that speed, there was no way Zeus could run.
And Gwen immediately popped Ghost.
TES's killing intent was absolute.
You like bullying Duke, huh?
You won't even let him take the cannon, huh?
Then you die.
The Ryze who appeared behind him raised his hand and fired off QWQEQ, landing the root. A moment later, follow-up damage poured in.
Then EQ to finish.
No matter how Zeus struggled, he couldn't escape the outcome.
This kill went to Lin Fan's Ryze.
"Beautiful! The timing on that top gank was perfect. Tu Bro's Ryze is played really well too. With two kills in hand and Kennen's Flash forced, Zeus definitely won't dare pressure Zoom like that anymore. The game feels opened up," Wawa shouted.
"Exactly. A Ryze that's this fed—SKT has no way to deal with him. Their comp has nobody who can go toe-to-toe with Ryze."
"White Moon drafted this comp perfectly—especially the Ryze."
"These two tempo plays before six minutes… it feels like SKT got stunned. They can't even react."
"True. Tu Bro once said that compared to laning, he prefers roaming. This match perfectly shows that trait—one tempo play top, one bot!"
For SKT, this was clearly going off-script.
After Lin Fan ganked and killed Kennen, he went back mid to clear the wave, then took the freshly spawned blue buff. Now he truly didn't have to worry about mana.
Ryze's next ultimate still had three minutes of cooldown, so if they wanted to make the next play, they'd need to wait.
But with constant wave pressure mid, Faker still couldn't use his ultimate.
And once Nocturne hit level six, any Twisted Fate ult could easily get punished on the counter.
So Faker could only sit in prison lane.
Naturally, Lin Fan had no intention of sitting there with him.
After clearing the wave, he rotated toward Rift Herald.
They took Rift Herald easily.
And because bot lane was losing, SKT didn't dare touch dragon either.
They just had to eat the loss.
On the LCK caster desk, they kept yelling "smida, smida," their pitch rising and rising—you could tell they were panicking.
But around nine minutes, it looked like there was a turn.
Viego caught the timing of Ryze clearing a wave and wrapped behind, looking to force something.
At that moment, all the Korean fans clenched their fists.
If they wanted to turn it around, it would have to be by shutting down Ryze here.
But the next second, Summoner's Rift went dark.
Fear.
Nocturne ulted. In that moment, SKT's mid-jungle hesitated.
But Lin Fan didn't hesitate at all—his hands flew into a full combo, no questions asked:
QEQWQEQ!
Explosive blue damage numbers popped nonstop above Viego's head.
That combo chunked the full-HP Viego down by two-thirds.
Nocturne flew in from afar and kept hacking.
His claws spun insanely fast, pounding Viego's skull like he was about to crack it open on the spot.
Faker looked at the gold card in his hand. After thinking, he still stunned Ryze.
In this situation, he could only try to make Ryze miss some gold…
But what happened next made him want to complain nonstop.
Nocturne had clearly feared Viego, but he didn't deal damage afterward—he just chased forward.
It was obvious the kill was being donated.
When the gold card's stun ended, Ryze tossed out an E and casually collected Viego.
Killing Spree triggered, the sound effect echoing through the Busan Esports Arena.
In the next second, "Damn it!" rang out across the entire venue in waves.
The better Ryze looked, the worse it felt to watch.
Weren't they supposed to have found their form again? How are they getting crushed like this?
After taking two turret plates, Lin Fan recalled and bought Everfrost.
Now the crowd control was maxed out—ganking became even easier.
As long as the spells connected in lane, you could just kill.
On top of that, his waveclear was ridiculous.
One wave, and Ryze vanished from mid.
For a long time, no one saw him.
Under pressure, SKT made a move that shocked everyone.
Faker used his ultimate just to check where Ryze was.
He discovered Ryze was already running bot—with Nocturne beside him…
SKT's bot duo immediately retreated.
But the moment TES pulled the trigger, Ryze "drove" behind bot turret and cut off the escape route.
Seeing Ryze and Nocturne pop out, Gumayusi's heart filled with "damn it."
Faker hesitated, then kept moving toward bot, trying to see if he could make it in time to save them.
But TES moved even faster.
Nautilus ult locked on. In the next second, Gumayusi's Caitlyn was knocked into the air.
When she landed, a storm of skills smashed into his face. At this stage, with these item timings, the damage was simply obscene—overkill.
Easy—he got deleted.
Faker glanced at bot and, very sensibly, turned his Twisted Fate right back toward mid.
Then JackeyLove finally got the second kill he'd been dreaming of, smiling as he cashed out again.
After that, the four of them shoved bot. With Rift Herald summoned, they took bot outer turret.
TES's gold lead had already stretched to 3,500.
Top lane Zoom was even more decisive—he recalled immediately.
Twisted Fate kept trying to tug at him, but SKT's other players had a clear idea.
The jungler had disappeared from the map for a while. And with Kennen pressing aggressively, it was obvious SKT's top-jungle had something in mind—Zoom didn't believe otherwise.
So the safest move was simply to go home. Perfect timing to buy items too.
Zoom always understood his role clearly.
With two carries in mid and bot, all he had to do was not die. In teamfights, step forward to tank damage so the carries could output, and the game would be easy to win.
That was how they'd been winning all along, so there was no need to force changes.
In the official stream, the chat exploded.
"Damn, I'm crying. Zoom has endured so much for the sake of winning."
"Zeus is stunned. If you won't take it, fine—you just run away. This is wild."
"The last guy who played like this was a Brazilian, but even he only sat in the safe bush for three minutes. Zoom is crazier—he straight-up leaves lane and stops laning."
"This is the kind of top laner that makes you feel safe. All that fancy stuff—if you can't win lane, you can't win lane. Just know yourself. Isn't that enough?"
"The most annoying are the ones who are bad but don't realize it—and still love to act tough."
"But Duke really is that steady. With such a good top laner, why didn't JDG want him?"
"No one's noticing Faker whiffed his ultimate?"
Since the lead was huge, the discussion stayed light and cheerful.
At fourteen minutes, mid outer turret fell. TES started applying pressure top.
The poor little mouse could only abandon the turret and run.
At fifteen minutes, SKT had already lost three outer turrets. On top of that, Rift Herald was gone again. In this situation, mid tier-two couldn't be defended either.
All of SKT had no choice but to turtle under their inhibitor turrets.
Stepping one foot outside was a horror story.
But even that didn't help!
Nocturne ult activated—SKT's vision disappeared.
But Ryze's ultimate ring was already glowing right beside them.
Combo technique! Hidden in plain sight—slipping in through the door!
In that instant, SKT's five players were exposed to TES's full firepower!
This was Ryze's favorite moment—everyone clumped together.
Spell Flux exploded, the damage splashing endlessly.
Draven's ultimate carved through at full stacks!
The sudden strike left SKT in total chaos.
They tried to fight back, but the "electric hamster" couldn't even get his ultimate off.
They'd lost their only real chance to counterpunch.
Draven and Ryze went berserk, taking a double kill and a triple kill respectively.
With TES at the gates—and an ace on top of it…
SKT, realistically, could just leave the game.
Ace!
The "ACE" sound echoed in their headsets.
Along with inhibitor turrets, nexus, then nexus turrets, then the base…
When the base had just a sliver of HP left, Zeus slammed the "Leave Game" button.
On the big screen, the system message appeared crystal clear.
The Chinese viewers watching instantly burst into laughter.
"Hahaha, Zeus is about to smash Faker's head in!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup