The moment Group A's second game ended, the other groups' results started coming in as well.
Back home, the official stream chat immediately turned into a noisy debate.
"Brother Infinite Borders double first! Sixteen points. I think he should be #1."
"Didn't watch the other groups—did anyone else double first?"
"Seems like no… Japan's first seed, Title, only got one first plus a third—fourteen points."
"So no other group has a double first. Brother Infinite Borders is actually overall #1!"
"Too strong!"
Right after that, the official broadcast displayed the current standings. Dine sat at #1 with 16 points, two points ahead of second place, Title.
"Brother Infinite Borders is ranked first right now. With the next format, they'll reseed using snake seeding by points. In Round 2, he'll probably get targeted a bit," Shen Chao said, with obvious worry in his tone.
Because with snake seeding, Lin Fan's new group would include the 5th, 9th, 13th… and even the 29th.
Players near the bottom, thinking they have no hope of making finals, might start messing around.
And as #1 out of 32, Lin Fan was way too eye-catching. Especially since this was still a regional event—annoying an opponent was the same as helping your own region.
"But he got targeted hard in Game 2 and still handled it really well. I don't think everyone needs to worry too much," the host immediately followed Shen Chao's point.
Shen Chao went quiet for a second.
Turning Game 2 around after getting targeted that badly… really did feel a bit lucky.
Hot Shot gifted him a Tristana, then the shop gave him two Corkis.
That's not something ordinary people run into.
That's how he hit three-star Tristana and a two-star Corki, stabilized at the edge, upgraded his board quality, and still took first.
Game 2 could happen—but what about after that?
Still, now that he was first overall, there was no point saying anything that killed the mood.
As soon as Riot posted the overall rankings, "Brother Infinite Borders ranked #1" shot onto trending.
"Hahaha, where are the people who said Brother Infinite Borders can't do it? Why so quiet now?"
"I already said it: winning a domestic title is personal skill. And there are still haters flaming nonstop. 'You'll show your true colors in a small domestic tournament'—so what now? Worlds?"
"It's only two games. I'm still worried about the rest of the schedule. Being first makes you easier to target…"
"Yeah, it's annoying. We're not at 'guaranteed to advance' yet. We need to see Round 2. If he's still top three after today, the pressure is much lower."
"Brother Infinite Borders, go forward—mom follows forever."
After about ten minutes of reorganizing, Lin Fan entered the new Group A.
The first thing he did was scan the opponents.
Japan's third seed konda1 was now #5, and Heiweigou was #9.
This time, Group A wasn't a solo mission. If there was a chance, he could coordinate a bit with Heiweigou.
The more Chinese players who made finals, the higher the region's chance to win.
No matter what, he'd already taken one seat. He couldn't just hand China's trophy away.
Soon, after a short prep, Round 2's first game officially began.
At the Attack Speed carousel, Heiweigou was already pressing up, and Lin Fan had four people around him too.
After thinking, Lin Fan chose to trust Heiweigou's 1-1 ability and ran downward for the rod.
"Brother Infinite Borders' choice here is to let Heiweigou take the Attack Speed. Let's see—nice! He got it. That means his opener will be smooth. And for Brother Infinite Borders, a rod isn't bad either—lots of lines open up," Shen Chao said.
Chat exploded again.
"Holy crap, Brother Infinite Borders is so warm."
"Both are Chinese players. Helping out is normal."
"This is what I like about TFT—regional cooperation. That move is a huge fan magnet."
"But is Brother Infinite Borders still going Cannoneers?"
"Maybe."
"Depends if he drops Attack Speed."
While everyone was talking, the PvE rounds ended and dropped a Tear plus Magic Resist.
Almost instantly, he combined Archangel's and slammed it onto Vladimir.
That shocked everyone.
"Don't tell me he's gambling Vladimir?"
"Can Vladimir even work in this set?"
"If you hit early, it's fine. If you hit late, it's miserable."
Even Shen Chao couldn't find words.
Vladimir's cap depends on late-game five-costs. If you hit Zoe, Yasuo, Bard, your odds of taking first are high.
In other words: Mage 9-5.
But it all depends on Vladimir getting going smoothly…
And honestly, three Mages really is strong.
With Archangel's, one bite heals a huge chunk, and he even clutched out a reversal kill.
Stage 3-1, Lin Fan shoved all his gold in and successfully hit three-star Vladimir, while also assembling what he needed: two-star Skarner, six Heimerdingers, two-star Nami, and one Lulu.
Traits: 3 Astral, 3 Mages, 2 Trainers.
With Vladimir fully built, he wouldn't lose before 4-4 at the earliest.
"He gambled successfully again! Most of the comps Brother Infinite Borders plays are gambling lines. I haven't played this Vladimir comp much, so I can't say how strong it is," Shen Chao said.
"But the decision was actually really clean. One-costs are hard to block early, and he chose the low-risk Astral gamble. Solid idea."
As the win streak continued, plus a level augment that also gave Mage Emblem, his cap got extremely high. If he could hit Ao Shin, Mage-emblem Ao Shin plus Vladimir front line would basically lock it.
After beating Heiweigou, Lin Fan leveled to 8 at 4-4 and added 7 Mages.
Now the board wasn't weak, but taking first still meant upgrading five-costs.
TFT late game is always a fight between five-costs.
Even with safe HP, he still kept 20 gold to roll, increasing room for error.
And sure enough, level 9 odds really are better.
He found a Zoe and an Ao Shin. Once he swapped them in, the board fully came online.
Ao Shin's backline damage is still terrifying.
Pee-pee dragon online!
One spray and even at one-star it shreds the backline. With Zoe's laser follow-up, the board gets cleared in one wave.
Once two-star Ao Shin hits, you can basically declare the win.
Still, even after all that, Lin Fan only relaxed a little. With the rules being 32 players competing overall, to advance you basically needed top two every game.
Heiweigou placing third this game was actually great—six points—and it even bumped his overall rank up by one.
Heiweigou was grateful for that Attack Speed.
After all, Lin Fan being the 1-1 god wasn't hype. If you try to fight him for items, you lose. Just watch his old games and you'll see.
After a short break, Round 2's second game began.
This time Lin Fan went straight for Attack Speed.
The first game was a surprise—he stabbed in from nowhere and gambled Vladimir. Copying that again would be hard, so he went back to mainstream lines.
Attack Speed was still key.
No surprises—he secured it.
But this game he was slightly short on luck. The critical two-star Xayah only appeared after he was completely bled dry, so the cap wasn't high.
He ended up taking third place.
Even so, with 30 total points, he was still #1 overall.
On the NA caster desk, Johnson's grin practically split his face.
At this pace, unless Lin Fan somehow went 7th–8th every game later, advancing was basically guaranteed.
Mike's face, on the other hand, was miserable.
At this rate, he might really have to kiss donkey face.
In today's final game, PvE dropped a Volibear.
Even though Lin Fan couldn't speak on stream, you could tell from his smile that he was up to something.
This game was probably going to be a meme—Shimmerscale, here we go.
Stage 2-1 he started searching. Luck was decent: two gold found Kayn, plus a free Aatrox, and he had 3 Shimmerscale.
Shen Chao stared at the screen, face serious.
Shimmerscale's strength is… so-so. Playing it like this adds a lot of pressure.
First place is unlikely, and he might even get no points. That would dump pressure onto day two.
But Brother Infinite Borders always liked Shimmerscale. He had his own understanding.
There had to be a reason…
Mike finally showed a long-missed smile.
That's how pros are—once they get results, they start doing dumb stuff. Even in TFT, they can't change.
If Lin Fan goes 8th here, his ranking will crash.
Then if he slips even a little on day two, he might not advance.
But as time passed, Mike's expression got more and more distorted.
"Are we even playing the same game?"
Not only did Lin Fan hit level 9 with Shimmerscale—he still had 50 gold.
What is going on? Why is nobody pressuring him?
Even crazier: he already had seven Yasuo copies.
Three-star Yasuo was only two away.
The only person holding a Yasuo had just been eliminated by Heiweigou—and then sold it.
No one else was blocking Yasuo.
So Lin Fan started roll-down like crazy.
Ten gold in, and the eighth Yasuo appeared.
Then twenty more—
In the sudden-death round, he found the ninth.
Three-star five-cost online!
"My god!" Johnson was dancing around, as excited as if he'd hit it himself.
Mike went blank, slumped in his chair.
"Beautiful—three-star Yasuo!" Shen Chao even stood up from his seat.
When Lin Fan first hit five Yasuo, Shen Chao had the thought… but he never expected it to actually happen.
Chat went completely insane.
"Brother Infinite Borders is too strong!"
"Sister Wu! Real Sister Wu! He might actually win the title!"
"Just this Shimmerscale line alone is worth studying."
Once three-star Yasuo hit, there was no suspense.
First he sent Korea's fourth seed, newt, out the door. Then in the final duel, he easily took down Heiweigou.
With the flashy result screen, he took first in Game 5.
Day 1: four firsts plus one third.
Total: 38 points, a full 8 points ahead of second place.
That massive gap made his dominance obvious.
At that moment, Lin Fan reopened his stream so he could interact.
In an instant, a flood of viewers poured in.
"Three-star Yasuo was so satisfying."
"Holy crap, I thought Brother Infinite Borders came to 'see the world.' Turns out you came to eat people."
"Two-bloom! Two-bloom!"
"TFT's unit pool is just League champions, so playing well is normal, right? …Nah, I can't sell it. Two words: invincible."
Chat was so dense it triggered trypophobia.
"Hahaha, I didn't expect today to be this smooth either. Three firsts plus a third, then because I had enough points, Volibear dropped and I gambled. Hitting three-star Yasuo proved I didn't gamble wrong," Lin Fan said, eyebrows dancing in excitement.
"Damn it—Brother Infinite Borders wasn't even this happy when he won MSI."
"True. Fair point."
"So this means advancing should be very likely."
"Bro, still talking about advancing? Just say champion."
After five high-intensity games, he really was tired. He chatted briefly, then ended stream and rested.
But the real discussion peak was after midnight.
Everyone was free, lying in bed unable to sleep, and naturally kept arguing online.
That pulled in an even bigger wave of people who didn't normally watch TFT—now they wanted to see whether day two would still look like this.
Day two.
The matches started at 6 p.m., but by 5:30 the official stream was already over ten million.
Everyone came to watch Lin Fan perform.
Even though he got targeted heavily today, the results still didn't disappoint.
Round 1: Adventure Xayah took first, then a small Ao Shin board took third.
Round 2: Jade 9-5 got second, Shimmerscale Cannoneers got second, Swiftshot Yone took first.
Day two wasn't as insane as day one, but he still scored 36 points.
Two-day total: 74 points.
No suspense—#1 overall advanced to finals.
China also had Heiweigou and Huanmie in the top eight.
Across so many regions, getting half your players in was already great. And with Brother Infinite Borders far ahead in points, China's odds to win the title this year were huge.
Worth mentioning: the moment day two ended, the NA broadcast director literally led a donkey onto the desk.
Under everyone's laughter, Mike slowly leaned in and kissed the donkey's face with his eyes closed.
Then the donkey stuck its tongue out and licked his mouth.
"I'm ruined! I'm not clean anymore!" Mike's eyes even watered.
Johnson, enjoying every second, looked into the camera and said, "Viewers, don't miss tomorrow's finals. Let's witness whether Dine can create the final miracle!"
That clip got reposted by chaos goblins and instantly hit over five million views.
"Hahaha, I'm dying. Mike is a hater who didn't believe. This is the price. That donkey-face kiss was perfect."
"A Barkley remix."
"Every hater ends like this. But two days ago, who believed Brother Infinite Borders could be #1 with 74 points?"
"I thought advancing would already be great. Didn't expect him to be this insane."
That night, "Brother Infinite Borders: 74 points" topped Weibo trending.
Reads passed 150 million.
And you could see the topics everywhere: "Brother Infinite Borders is awesome," "Three-star Yasuo appears in tournament for the first time."
For this stretch, basically the entire Chinese esports audience was following TFT Worlds.
Because everyone knew: tomorrow was the real show.
June 5.
China's TFT official stream had 500k viewers staring at the countdown, waiting for finals.
Total viewership had already broken 20 million—way higher than earlier stages.
When the countdown hit zero, the stream switched to the caster desk.
This time, the three invited casters were all super popular: Hong Lian, Xun Ge, and Kou Rou.
They started pre-show warmup.
First thing: hype Brother Infinite Borders.
After all, for a League pro to play TFT to this level was honestly not easy.
"I have a feeling Brother Infinite Borders is going to explode today!"
"I just checked his stream. Just like MSI finals, he's sitting there with his eyes closed. The moment I saw that, I knew it was stable!"
"Hahaha, that confident?" Xun Ge sounded a little sour.
He got eliminated and couldn't attend Worlds. Of course it hurt.
EU caster desk…
"Let's cheer for Noel. Believe he can create a miracle."
NA caster desk…
"Dine, charge! I think he can create a record. Of course, if Kyivix performs better, I'll be happy too."
KR caster desk…
"Cheer for our players. Let TFT bring SKT back their pride! In chess, our players are still stronger. Charge for the championship."
Japan's casters kept it low-key.
"Title doesn't have a clear advantage over Dine. Dine is truly shocking. If nobody told me he's a League pro, I'd never guess. Most outrageous of all—he won MSI just a few days ago! Incredible. An absolute powerhouse."
Japan's culture respects the strong. If you're strong, you're right.
…
The big screen switched to carousel.
TFT Worlds Finals officially began!
Eight players, five of them sprinted for Attack Speed.
Before the first round even started, the gunpowder was already thick.
Ding!
Winner decided. The little legend with ID: dine was dragging Attack Speed behind its tail.
"Beautiful! Brother Infinite Borders still has that clean opener—he gets Attack Speed." Kou Rou was hyped.
With one Attack Speed secured, finding the next is less stressful. And with Treasure Dragon later, if he plays Adventure Xayah, the second Attack Speed is very doable.
And based on these past games, Adventure Xayah is still the strongest meta comp.
Then PvE dropped Olaf.
An Olaf this early stacks attack easily—direction naturally points to Scalescorn.
Especially since the first augment was Combat Training. If he could three-star, even without Assassin Emblem, the damage would still be terrifying.
Other players also glanced at Lin Fan's board.
Seeing Scalescorn Olaf, they memorized it immediately—time to block his pool. Scalescorn units are easy to block.
"Brother Infinite Borders' idea is good. Even with Combat Training, he specifically slotted a strong Olaf to stack the bonus."
"The trouble is Scalescorn is easy to get targeted. The pool is fixed. At level 7, he might have to all-in. If he misses three-star, it's miserable," Hong Lian said.
The casters analyzed nonstop, while the game sped forward. In a blink, they were in PvE again.
Since Lin Fan was loss-streaking, his HP was down to 72. That was still acceptable, mainly because Sett was holding the board's base quality.
But Olaf was still only one-star, and trying to "free-roll" copies at low level is hard.
"Brother Infinite Borders' items look a little doomed…"
Then Lin Fan sold Olaf.
Everyone's heart jumped.
What's happening?
Then they looked at his shop.
Six Sett copies. The "fist god"!
He'd faked everyone out.
With 50 gold, he looked for the last three Setts. And his luck wasn't even bad—he only spent ten gold to hit the remaining three.
A shiny gold three-star Sett appeared.
He slammed Guinsoo's, then Quicksilver.
Two core items online.
With 3 Ragewing, he flipped into win-streak mode.
Three-star Sett's base attack is 147. With Combat Training, it rose to 161.
Guinsoo's plus Quicksilver started letting him beat opponents into paste. Three punches per kid, and the attack just kept stacking higher.
"This pivot was beautiful. Everyone was still confused and he already hit three-star Sett. Next, he levels and finds 3 Dragonmancer, then win streaks into high Ragewing. At 72 HP, he's actually very healthy—this game has something."
Sett can force a top finish, but Combat Training raises his ceiling dramatically.
Later he can hit Shyvana plus Yasuo and Pyke. If he rolls into 6 Ragewing, 3 Dragonmancer, 2 Assassins, the cap is huge—far stronger than making Xayah a secondary carry.
In simple terms, the board is: Kayn, Swain, Sett, Shyvana, Yasuo, Pyke, Bard—eight units. At nine, add Soraka to finish.
Shyvana and Pyke delete backline. Yasuo and Sett crash through frontline. Bard provides CC and Soraka heals.
Usually, gambling Sett is hard because you don't have enough gold for all the five-costs.
But Lin Fan's tempo was perfect—he had both gold and HP.
He even free-rolled a Yasuo at level 7. The plan became extremely clear.
He leveled to 8, forced the roll-down, and with 10 gold left, he assembled the whole core.
Now first place only required upgrading those five-costs to two-star.
But combat power was already high. With good positioning, he started deleting players.
One round was 10+ damage.
"Should be stable. Save up, go 9, and find two-stars. HP is healthy, no real pressure," Hong Lian judged.
"Yeah. Those capped Adventure Xayah boards might threaten him, but with Shyvana and Pyke, if you hit the right positioning and jump in, you can cut them all."
While the desk analyzed, Lin Fan ran into a capped Adventure Xayah.
The enemy frontline was paper in the face of a 200+ attack Sett. The backline got erased by Shyvana and Pyke at the perfect time.
Once backline died, everything left was just Sett's attack.
Bam-bam two punches—gone.
Watching him throw fists made everyone itch.
In this set, Sett is normally only an A-tier line. Without the right augment, it's hard to play, so people hadn't "thrown fists" in ages.
Seeing the Yasuo and Pyke idea was eye-opening.
So Sett can be played like this?
But TFT's core is still leveling and pivoting into 9-5. The more five-costs, the easier it is to win.
Once Lin Fan went 9, added Soraka, and hit two-star Yasuo plus two-star Pyke, the ending was basically decided.
In the final phase, he eliminated Title and took first.
"Here it is again—this familiar tempo!"
"Brother Infinite Borders' first game is perfect again. With 18 points activated, he only needs top four for the next two games."
It was such a beautiful start that Chinese viewers were hyped.
The stream filled with 666 spam.
"Don't tell me… don't tell me…"
"Stop 'don't tell me.' It's already stable!"
"Two-bloom! Two-bloom! Two-bloom!"
On the Korean desk, the casters wore pained expressions.
"Dine is too sly—he used Olaf to bait everyone."
"But now that he's shown it, taking first will be hard. He'll definitely get targeted."
Everyone understood: as long as he got top four in the next two games, he'd be fine. No need to force first every game.
So he didn't overextend. In games two and three, he played steady and took second and third, activating championship eligibility.
Title and Heiweigou also activated eligibility.
Now there were three targets.
Lin Fan had already prepared to muddy the waters.
This game, he didn't go for Attack Speed at all—he went for Belt.
The highest cap for taking first is Ao Shin, so this game was about Ao Shin.
To win with Ao Shin, you need strong frontline to keep a win streak.
He slammed items immediately. With two-star Tahm Kench, he stabilized early.
At 2-2 he started feeding Frog Princess.
Everyone knew the plan.
Ao Shin is hard to target because the main carry is a 10-cost unit.
So the best you can do is break his early win streak.
But he had already built early items specifically to keep that streak.
And new drops got slammed without hesitation.
He was clearly planning to find Ao Shin's items from Treasure Dragon—if he couldn't find them, it's GG.
Through the win streak he hit 8 at 4-1. He lost one round and dropped to 89 HP, but that was still fine. He could keep pushing levels.
He held interest and kept rolling, since his augments were stacked: Axiom Arc plus Jeweled Lotus.
As long as he hit Ao Shin, he would stabilize.
Everyone watched nervously.
Especially as Lin Fan's HP kept dropping, while the Japanese player's HP stabilized and the board was already online.
At this pace, they could keep leveling and raise their cap.
Scalescorn was clearly built to counter Ao Shin, and worse, they had Assassin Emblem—Ao Shin targeting was maxed out.
"In this situation, Brother Infinite Borders has to find two-star Ao Shin, and he has to position perfectly."
"And because of Assassins, Ao Shin positioning becomes really tricky. With low HP, one full slam and you're done."
The three casters were worried.
At 5-6, Lin Fan was down to 27 HP. Finally, he started to spike.
The director moved the camera onto him.
You could see him rolling like crazy.
Under everyone's prayers, Ao Shin finally appeared.
Not only that—he filled other pieces too, but quality was still a bit low.
One-star Ao Shin, one-star Ornn, one-star Bard.
Frontline Sylas could still tank. Ao Shin had two completed core items: Spear of Shojin and Archangel's.
The board looked mediocre, but it was strong in practice.
Ao Shin shifted left, then shifted right, successfully baiting the Assassins.
Damage was still a bit short. Against Scalescorn Assassins he got slammed, and Title laughed arrogantly.
Wasn't suffering through groups for this moment?
Lin Fan wasn't nervous. That positioning bought him more time.
He rolled again and found a second Ao Shin.
Next, the board could hit two-star Ornn and two-star Bard, and later add Evoker Sona to control Olaf—then Scalescorn Assassins would be less scary.
The other boards weren't threatening. He'd already fought Scalescorn Assassins once, so the pressure was lower.
By 6-3, the lobby was down to three: Heiweigou, Title, and Lin Fan.
Now Ao Shin was fully online. Every key unit was two-star.
Title started tracking Ao Shin's position.
If he could catch it, he could delete Ao Shin instantly.
Lin Fan didn't go to the corner. He positioned forward instead, then placed Ornn and Sylas at the bottom to draw aggro.
This round would decide the champion.
A fully online Ao Shin is a different beast.
The moment it started up, pee-pee dragon began spraying like crazy!
Bzzzzzzz!
Three-star Olaf swung his huge axe and started chopping.
Sylas tanked long enough. Ao Shin's shots were critting hard. With Axiom Arc, the second cast was coming.
Spray again!
Three-star Olaf ate a full cast and couldn't withstand the damage.
Scalescorn or not—
It didn't matter!
The moment that scene happened, countless viewers started hammering their keyboards.
"It's real! Champions! We're champions!"
"Brother Infinite Borders is TFT Worlds champion!"
"Damn it—seriously?!"
Far away, across the world, Johnson's face was red as he screamed into the mic:
"Dine!"
"He's the champion—he really created a miracle!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup