"We're champions, we're champions!"
"That Ao Shin line from Brother Infinite Borders was so extreme! Scalescorn couldn't slay the dragon—Set 7 TFT is still a Dragonmancer meta."
On China's official broadcast, compared to the other two, Hong Lian was way more emotionally invested. The moment the title was secured, he roared.
"Brother Infinite Borders is insane. He can win championships in League, and he can also win TFT Worlds!"
"All I can say is his tactical thinking is crystal clear. From the start he planned how to play it: take a first early, then stabilize top-four to activate championship points. That way he wouldn't get targeted too hard. And later he straight-up went for the ultra-high-cap Ao Shin line. He really held it in and forced level 9. That's impressive," Xun Ge let out a long breath and adjusted his mood. After all, he got eliminated—what else could he do? Skill issue.
"True. I've watched most of Brother Infinite Borders' games—his thinking has always been good."
"And the funny part is, he just won MSI and then won TFT Worlds too. A true double champion."
Chat went completely crazy—dense and nonstop.
"Brother Infinite Borders is absurd. Two months ago I was imagining him winning as a pro. Two months later I don't have to imagine—reality already happened."
"Reality is often more ridiculous than imagination. If a pro can 'slack off' into other games and still win a world title, everyone here bears some responsibility."
"Alright, next we can look forward to TES dine winning Naraka: Bladepoint's Star Cup 1v1!"
"Damn—stretch your imagination. CSGO when? PUBG too. It's been a while, right?"
"Recommend unlocking new projects! Honkai Impact 3rd is fun."
"Stop. Brother Infinite Borders is zero-spend in Genshin. You want him to invest in Honkai cards? Dream on. Go find Xiao Zao."
"Xiao Zao doesn't even do quests. His Genshin characters have zero build. He can't even clear three floors of Abyss at level 50."
"Games like these need Brother Infinite Borders. Other pros haven't learned the essence yet. He even won TFT Worlds—straight-up two-bloom."
"Then I'm waiting for three-bloom, four-bloom."
…
Weibo threads popped up one after another.
"Brother Infinite Borders: double champion! Two world-level trophies—MSI and TFT Worlds. Highest honor holder in the LPL!"
"Careful saying that. The current Grand Slam player is Meiko. Next is JackeyLove. What JackeyLove still lacks is this year's Asian Games title."
"Damn, you saying that almost made me forget—Asian Games season is coming. Have they announced the Hangzhou Asian Games roster yet?"
"Still early. The Asian Games is on September 10—over three months away. I glanced at the schedule. It's before summer split, so if they choose players, it'll probably be after summer ends?"
"That's way too late. But if TES keeps this momentum, JackeyLove really might make the roster. Then the second Grand Slam player is on the way."
"Bold prediction for Asian Games roster: top Bin, jungle Wei, mid Xiaohu, ADC GALA, support Ming."
"Bro, you just copied RNG's lineup, didn't you? But honestly, nobody really flames RNG anymore, right? TES won spring, TES won MSI…"
"Yo—go check TES's official Weibo."
A lot of people ran to TES's official account.
Right away they saw the celebration announcement.
"Congratulations to dine (Lin Fan) for winning the 3rd TFT Worlds championship!"
Below it was a poster, and they tagged a bunch of sponsors.
In just a moment, the comments passed 3,000 and kept climbing fast.
As one of the sponsors, Lehu hurried to comment too: Congratulations to Brother Infinite Borders for winning TFT Worlds. Next, we'll draw 100 lucky fans to win a box of Lehu drinks!
It shot straight to the top. Replies piled up underneath too.
Lehu was laughing their head off.
Esports really is a traffic market that still isn't fully developed.
Meanwhile, Eastroc Super Drink's side regretted it to the bone.
They sponsored RNG.
But RNG wasn't delivering.
Spring runner-up, and now basically no one mentions them except to step on them.
Even Eastroc's ads were hard to do.
This was a huge loss—and Lehu got to pick up the bargain.
Watching a competitor thrive felt awful.
But there was nothing they could do, except hope RNG performed in summer.
Back at the TES club—
"Holy crap, Fan-ge, you're actually insane. You can win this too?" JackeyLove looked shocked.
The past three days, everyone was basically watching on their knees.
Recently they'd all learned a bit of TFT too. Fan-ge was competing, so the players all tried it a little.
Otherwise, they'd watch the matches and understand nothing.
They'd joked before: if Lin Fan wins, he has to treat everyone.
But no one really believed it.
Then reality hit like a sledgehammer.
He won.
Everyone was happy, but their brains were also numb.
Fan-ge… you can really smash people who've been grinding TFT forever?
League mid-lane slaughter, sure—you're a League pro. Even if you don't train and just rely on your old foundation, you can understand it.
But TFT? You play a few games, grind a bit, and you're suddenly world champion?
That's ridiculous.
"Fan-ge is actually getting rich. Riot hasn't even paid out MSI yet, and now they owe him TFT prize money too."
MSI's base prize pool is only $250,000. The champion gets $75,000.
But there's also 25% of the MSI skin revenue—global revenue.
That can exceed a million dollars.
And the club isn't taking a cut, so each player can get around $200,000.
Add it up—Lin Fan played two events, and the total payout is about $350,000… which is over two million RMB.
That's basically two months' salary.
Not even counting hidden traffic money—just livestream gifts alone were already over 200,000 RMB.
And that's only MSI. Worlds would be even more terrifying.
Of course, that's just money—the honor can't be measured.
"Just remember how those lines pivot, then pivot based on your own ideas. As for what you roll, leave that to luck," Lin Fan said.
"So there's no secret? I don't believe it's all luck," Mark asked.
"Yeah. I've always been a lucky streamer. They're right. I play TFT purely on luck. No matter how good your macro is, if the units don't come, there's nothing you can do."
"For me personally, luck matters way more than macro, so I pick all gambling comps."
"Now it's just a question of when Riot pays."
"If it's fast, maybe a month. If it's slow, it'll drag forever. I heard GimGoon still hasn't gotten his prize money. S9 champs—two or three years already," Zoom said.
"Tian, did you get yours?"
"About a year."
"Then Riot is really targeting people, huh? Why hasn't GimGoon been paid? Top lane has to absorb pressure, so they don't pay him either?"
"No way. I think ours arrives in two months. My prize money always came after about two months. Worlds skin revenue also came about two months after the sales period ended," JackeyLove said.
"Then GimGoon really is miserable. I heard he can't even afford living right now."
"…"
"Mark, stop focusing on gossip. You're already world's number one support."
"That's still far. Fan-ge should first lead us to a summer title, then we'll push further toward Worlds."
"Speaking of that, I heard summer is when they'll select Asian Games players. This year's Asian Games is different—League of Legends is an official medal event. Winning counts as a real gold medal."
"We really have to play summer well. Let's get everyone selected."
Zoom nodded, but he didn't think he had much chance. Domestic tops: Bin is #1, Ale is right behind. As for Breath—after transferring to BLG and tanking his value, even his nickname is wrong…
"So next, train hard and find form. The schedule says we're playing the season opener. We've gone six splits without a first opener win." At some point, Luo Sheng pushed open the lounge door.
Hearing everyone talk about the Asian Games, he spoke up.
"Then we need to schedule a scrim, right?" JackeyLove said.
"We don't need to schedule one. The moment Lin Fan finished TFT Worlds, several teams came to us. He knew we'd have time."
"Not EDG. They target me nonstop. Zero training value."
"The more they target you, the more training value. Practice pressure resistance, practice teamfights and finding output. Don't just run forward and donate yourself."
"Anyway, EDG thinks we play too loosely, so they stopped looking for us," Luo Sheng said, glancing at Lin Fan a few times.
"No, I was really playing at full strength. It's just that the champion wasn't suitable. Darius mid can work, but it's too clunky. It needs specific comps to reach its best power," Lin Fan quickly explained, seeing the fire spreading his way.
Otherwise everyone would think he was sandbagging in scrims.
His proficiency might be maxed, but Darius really isn't great mid.
A better version is just Nasus mid, stacking Q in the short lane.
Simple logic: mid lane is short, you're not easily zoned. During the period Nasus got buffed, he was rarely played top, but often appeared mid.
Against mid mages, buy MR and stack Q mindlessly. With passive, you can stay in lane forever.
Then you need to pick Akali to teach Nasus a deep lesson. Otherwise once Q stacks, you get the hellhound from hell.
"Anyway, mid Darius is sealed for now. We're planning to scrim BLG first. Mainly to practice top and see how their new roster looks."
"Top?"
Seeing everyone's confusion—
"BLG signing Uzi probably cost a lot. How much inside story is there, who knows. But in summer, Bin is returning to BLG, and Breath is going to RNG."
"So I'm planning to let Qingtian and Wayward get some reps in scrims."
Luo Sheng was already preparing for Worlds.
Zoom holds top steady, then they pick one substitute top between Qingtian and Wayward. The substitute has to be different in style—steady when steady is needed, aggressive when aggression is needed.
So he wanted to give the younger players chances. Use scrim performance to decide, then give stage time when it won't affect regular season results.
But after the playoffs scare, he wasn't planning to ever pop emergency heart pills again.
Qingtian and Wayward were both excited hearing that.
Finally—time to show something.
Scrims meant stage time might come. That was good.
As for Wayward, he didn't even take Qingtian seriously. How could a chubby kid compete with him?
Wayward also felt Zoom didn't have much.
Top lane always playing pressure-tank champs—if not for Fan-ge smashing mid every game and dragging tempo, the starting top would've been Wayward already.
Then MSI would've been his title too…
Thinking about it made him annoyed.
But now that an opportunity appeared, he had to seize it.
The coach obviously knows a top laner who only tanks pressure is useless.
"Scrims start tomorrow. The tempo is packed. No problem, right?"
"No problem!"
"Before that, Fan-ge should reimburse tonight's late-night snack, right?" Luo Sheng raised his eyebrows at Lin Fan.
"Yeah. Not KFC, not Wallace."
"The hotpot place nearby."
"Fine. Hotpot it is." Lin Fan wasn't stingy. Winning TFT Worlds was worth celebrating.
Zoom swallowed, then patted his belly.
Coming to TES, he'd gotten even bigger. He really needed to control himself.
Later he'd just eat some beef and tripe. Staying disciplined at night was victory.
Lin Fan packed up, said goodbye to chat, and ended stream.
They ate hotpot until after 11 p.m. before heading back.
The next day everyone got into gear and began preparing for summer.
Summer starts June 10. Time is tight.
Even as MSI champions, in a brutal league you never know what comes next.
If you don't even qualify for Worlds, that would be a joke.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup