As soon as TES won the MSI title, it immediately shot up the Weibo trending list.
At this point, any tag that even brushed against TES was the kind that exploded with traffic.
On Bilibili, just a "Dine MSI highlight compilation" would casually pull in over a hundred thousand views.
Mainly because the plays were clean. And after winning the title, every single one of those plays became an iconic moment—watchability skyrocketed.
Especially when the title was exaggerated enough, even more people clicked.
[Brother Infinite Borders dual-tasking: conquering in Infinite Borders while hard-stomping Faker in the MSI finals!]
Click in and everyone was laughing their heads off.
The video kept cutting back and forth—one moment he's fighting in Infinite Borders, the next he instantly swaps back to League of Legends, and right on cue LeBlanc steps on Azir's face and completes a no-explanations combo for the solo kill.
"Damn, if it's Brother Infinite Borders, he might actually be able to do that."
"Hard stomp Big Fei Teacher. We need more videos like this—so satisfying!"
"Did you guys watch the SKT interview video next door? Those guys' mouths are hard as hell."
"What happened? What's up with SKT's interview?"
"What the coach said made me want to puke. 'We lost the coin toss, couldn't get blue side so there was no tactical plan'—what kind of nonsense is that?"
"Not just the coach—the players' mouths are hard too. Big Fei Teacher said MSI ping had a huge impact."
"Does SKT even have a 'Big Fei'?"
"Not before, but now they do. We used to call him the Demon King. Now we can call him Big Fei Teacher—same tier as Big An."
"Faker only lost one match. At his age, it's already not easy to still be playing. Do we really have to come over and flame him?"
"If you lose, we'll step on you once, sure. But if you love being stubborn and making excuses, that's truly disgusting."
…
"So now we finally understand who Kkoma's old line was aimed at—'When you lose, everything you say is an excuse.' Obviously it was aimed at Big Fei Teacher."
"Exactly. And I don't know who spread it so wildly that it became 'Big Fei Teacher' who said it. That guy's inflated as hell. He just had the results buff before."
"If you go dig up what he said in the past, it's basically always: when he wins, 'the opponent tried hard'; when he loses, 'I have no impression of the process.'"
"Faker hasn't been the old Faker for a long time. Ever since ShowMaker knocked him off the pedestal, he hasn't been able to hold it together. Today he just got his mental broken by Brother Infinite Borders. Post-match was nothing but impotent rage."
"Yeah. I don't even know how he dares to say TES didn't have any impressive players with those trash stats."
"Brother Infinite Borders was killing him like a dog, and selective amnesia is impressive."
"Do we really need to fixate on Faker? We're happy we won, sure, but there's no need to attack mids from other leagues."
Under that video, there were so many comments. A lot of people originally wanted to see everyone praising Brother Infinite Borders' mechanics and how funny the dual-tasking bit was.
They didn't expect the comments to turn into this.
So people went to see what actually happened in the post-match interview.
There was original audio, with simultaneous translation. The meaning was crystal clear—so what was said in the interview was basically true.
"Damn, this coach is actually disgusting. Everyone knows blue side has an advantage, but then why didn't they win Game 2?"
"Did TES hold a gun to the referee's head and force them to pick blue side? Losing and blaming luck now?"
"But it's also true—this patch's blue-side advantage really is big. Besides Ban-Pick, the terrain and vision are easier to control."
"Big Fei Teacher got beaten like a dog and still says 'no impressive players'?"
"Stop forcing it. He always says that in interviews—'no impressive players.'"
"I watched it once. Isn't that a normal interview? Why say Faker's being stubborn? Are some people's hearts just black?"
"Don't be disgusting. At the start of MSI, they were the ones blocking visas, and they were also the ones begging us to come back and play. Now they're being gross in interviews too? Don't forget—before the match even started, Gumayusi straight-up said he'd shit on our heads. Forgot? Is it because you've been kneeling too long that you can ignore what they did?"
"Zeus is the only kid who's obedient. Ping had no impact on him. The other five didn't dare say a word."
"Three-plus minutes of dead silence, and the kid had to break the stalemate. Big Fei Teacher probably also felt that question was hard to answer."
"Of course. The last question was whether ping affected the match. Everyone went silent—silence is the best answer."
"Zeus really narrowed his own path. When he goes back, is Big Fei Teacher going to bully him?"
Right then, a content creator reposted Korean forum comments to ride a bit of heat.
[Faker was stubborn after the match—here's what Korean fans think.]
"Now SKT embarrassed themselves all the way to China. Really miss Coach Kkoma—back then a loss was just a loss. Now there are so many excuses."
"Damn it, Faker. Can't win so you blame ping?"
"Poor Zeus—such a young kid and he has to bear so much pressure. With that one sentence, didn't he just narrow his own path inside the club?"
"Faker can't do anything to him. His background is too deep. If Zeus doesn't bully them, that's already kindness."
"Lost the match and still want to be stubborn—then why didn't you pull the plug? Just reverse the match by yanking the cable."
"Being stubborn after the match isn't as good as having stiff hands in the match."
"It's honestly ironic. Dine gave Faker a high evaluation, and then Faker turned around and said 'no impressive players.' It's funny."
These videos fermented rapidly online.
Soon they reached several big streamers. Erzi, smelling the heat, rushed in immediately.
He found the original video and watched it right away.
After a long eight minutes—
Zzitai sat there without saying a word.
He looked like he didn't know what to say.
After a while, he closed the video and finally said, "Honestly, his mouth is even harder than Gangzi's."
Chat instantly went wild.
"Stop forcing it—Gangzi's mouth isn't as hard as Big Fei Teacher's."
"Yeah. At least when Gangzi gets smashed, he'll say 'Damn it,' not 'no impressive players.'"
…
On Weibo, caster Miller charged first with a simple sentence:
"Thanks for the planes from those still being stubborn."
So beneath the "TES wins MSI" trending topic, another one popped up: "SKT being stubborn."
It fermented fast, and discussion kept growing.
There was also a pretty fair comment:
"Not trying to stir narratives, but do you remember in S8, when SKT didn't qualify for Worlds, he said on stream that there was nothing worth watching that year?
No strong teams, no strong players. And he's said multiple times in interviews that he can't remember any LPL opponents—at least five times. I don't know why people domestically keep saying we have to respect him.
His honors are solid—history's number one mid. But no matter how strong you are, if you don't respect opponents and won't face yourself, then I can only say: good death. Big Fei, good death."
"At least Brother Infinite Borders wouldn't act like this after winning. He gets along fine with other pros domestically."
"In interviews, what he says is acceptable. Faker's honors are world number one, but right now he's indeed just a 'world T1-tier' player—he doesn't rank among the very top anymore."
A lot of people agreed and followed up.
Meanwhile, TES was holding their celebration banquet.
Winning wasn't it the proof of their hard work?
Especially since the moment they won, bank texts came in.
TES was insanely generous—they wired each person's 500,000 bonus to their card immediately.
Even Da Huang and Qingtian, who didn't play, still received a 100,000 encouragement bonus.
Qingtian's chubby face stretched into a huge grin.
He'd thought he could only mooch dinner tonight—he didn't expect to get bonus money too.
That just meant he had to work even harder in training going forward.
Right now, Zoom's champion pool still seemed more suitable to start, but maybe later he'd get a chance.
Qingtian stayed optimistic.
A pro player has to learn to endure loneliness. Don't start self-destructing on the bench just because you haven't gotten stage time yet.
MSI title plus bonus money hitting the account—how could they not celebrate?
Pro players' menu is still simple: there's nothing a hotpot meal can't solve.
This time they even splurged—expensive, good stuff. They were so inflated they didn't even go to Haidilao. They went straight to Shangfang Hotpot.
Eight or nine hundred per person. If you go with a full group, you probably can't leave without dropping nearly ten grand.
While Lin Fan was eating happily, JackeyLove quietly handed him his phone.
"Fan-ge, you're huge now! The moment you open Tieba, it's all your discussion threads."
"But the interesting part is SKT's big press interview. From the translation, SKT is being stubborn—saying not getting blue side is why they lost."
"And Faker even brought up ping. Honestly, it's kind of funny."
Lin Fan glanced at the phone.
"Normal. His professional attitude is good, but when you lose, you can't say things the same way you do when you win.
Like when the Roaring Emperor asked me for my evaluation of Faker.
I could've said 'a pile of crap.' Even if it was extremely aggressive, domestic fans would call it 'true temperament' and wouldn't think it was wrong—that's the halo of winning.
Now he lost, but he's still using the same old script. Then I can only say he hasn't realized he's already on the decline.
Same for us. The moment we lose, our halo disappears too.
So to avoid that day, we have to win every match going forward. If we ever reach the day when we're powerless in every match, then yeah—it really is time to retire."
Lin Fan saw it clearly. He'd watched Faker be stubborn, then later T1 3–0 RNG at Worlds and public opinion flipped instantly.
People don't care what you said.
They only care whether you won.
No doubt—after Faker lost MSI, the Korean scene would have people defending him, desperately attacking SKT for "being stubborn" and embarrassing themselves overseas.
It's all emotional venting, plus media chasing hype and clicks.
That kind of narrative is easy to start.
JackeyLove nodded.
True. The year he won Worlds, he had endless glory—anything he said or did was "right."
Pros don't chase public opinion.
They chase wins.
"But we still need to respond," Lin Fan's lips curled. Otherwise this MSI title would feel pointless.
He pulled out his phone and logged into Weibo, ignoring the sea of red dots. More than a hundred thousand people left comments every day—he couldn't read them all.
He found the post box with ease.
0 > 3?
He finished editing and sent it.
JackeyLove was curious what Lin Fan would do, so he stared wide-eyed.
The more he looked, the more he felt Lin Fan was wild.
Salt in the wound, huh?
Fine. I like it too.
He opened Weibo as well and posted the same:
0 > 3?
Then he tossed his phone aside and ate happily.
Expensive food has its reasons. Tastes good—no complaints.
"Damn it, those crab legs were put in by me—stop stealing!" JackeyLove shouted.
Lin Fan had just fished crab legs out of the pot into his bowl.
"What'd you say?"
Right now plenty of people were already camping on Weibo. Lin Fan went to the banquet and didn't stream, so his million viewers poured straight into Weibo.
With everyone refreshing nonstop, someone spotted Lin Fan's post immediately.
0 > 3?
"Holy crap, Brother Infinite Borders really is a straight shooter."
"Beautiful. I've been waiting for his response. I camped the stream and he didn't go live, and then he shows up on Weibo."
"No impressive players, huh? He even taught us 0 > 3. How could that not be 'impressive'?"
"Hahaha, Brother Infinite Borders is engaging. Match ends, and the internet fight continues."
"Where are Brother Infinite Borders fans? Start with likes and comments."
"What does this mean? I don't get it. *snicker* *snicker* *snicker*"
"0–19–3, stubborn as hell."
"Feels unnecessary. Everyone loses eventually, and then he'll get rubbed in the face too."
"Damn it—SKT has no shame. If they lose and talk like that, if we don't respond, did we win the title for nothing?"
"Water Ghost Sister? I get it if you say that, but you should check JackeyLove's Weibo—he charged in with Brother Infinite Borders too."
In just a few hours, the trending list kept shifting.
TES dual carries respond: 0 > 3?
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup