Last night in scrims, JackeyLove got chopped up so hard by Bin's Fiora that he was left depressed. When he went to bed, his blanket was full of Fiora. Honestly, not everyone gets to "enjoy" that kind of treatment—but JackeyLove was still sulking.
"Bin's Fiora is way too insane. Just wait—during the match I'm going to play Twitch and camp top lane! If I don't gank him seven or eight times, I won't call myself JackeyLove."
Hearing his bro on the lower bunk muttering, Mark couldn't hold it in. The longer they spent together, the more familiar they got—and the more he realized JackeyLove was a total goofball.
"Stop dreaming. Hurry up and sleep. This patch, bot lane matters way more than before. If we can't build an advantage, it's a pain. We've got scrims tomorrow too. If we keep losing scrims, the pressure for the season opener against EDG will be huge," Mark said, hearing JackeyLove tossing and turning below him.
"Who are we scrimming tomorrow? Looks like I really need to chop someone up."
"Coach said it's JDG."
"Why is it always a strong-as-hell team right out the gate? Can't we find someone like TT or WE? Before summer split, we need to build confidence."
"You think WE has the face to scrim us?" Mark rolled his eyes.
One is dead last in the league, the other is MSI champion.
No matter what, WE wouldn't come looking for TES scrims.
It wouldn't help training; they'd just get stomped unilaterally. Scrims are also a circle—if your results are bad, you can't fit in.
As long as your results are good, even if you don't ask people for scrims, they'll come to you—like TES right now.
But this patch's huge changes really did hit TES hard. At least these two scrim sets hadn't felt good at all—especially against BLG's monstrous top lane.
Of course, that also had something to do with TES fielding Qingtian and Da Huang in scrims.
Those two wanted to impress Luo Sheng, so they played extremely aggressive in lane.
But right now, who can actually go toe-to-toe with Bin on top?
Ale can't. TheShy can't either.
At least based on spring's head-to-head results, Bin is the LPL's clear-cut, one-of-a-kind top laner.
With no help, he still knows exactly what to do. With help, he plays even more aggressively.
You can't help but wonder if that was forged back in his Suning days.
TheShy is basically just walking the path Bin already walked. If he can endure it, maybe he really can return to peak.
"True…" Mark yawned. "By the way, do you think JDG will start Knight or Yagao?"
Scrims were genuinely tiring today, and the game experience was bad. Lying in bed, Mark's eyelids quickly got heavy.
One night passed in silence.
Early the next morning, after breakfast, Lin Fan hurried to the training room and started his stream.
In no time, the stream filled with people.
It was hard to imagine this kind of viewership in the morning, but everyone was used to it by now. This was what a top streamer's numbers looked like.
"Morning, everyone. We've got scrims again tonight, so I'm streaming early to make up hours. I've got to dip at seven again—ten hours should be about right, yeah?"
Chat scrolled like crazy.
"I'm crying. Brother Infinite Borders is too warm. A big streamer like this is a first."
"I want to know what happened in scrims yesterday."
"How were scrims yesterday? Ahem." Seeing the comment, Lin Fan rolled up his sleeves. "Don't ask. Ask and the answer is: we got smashed. So today's scrims, we really have to play seriously."
"Try to adapt before summer starts. Playing EDG in the opener is so much pressure."
"For real, this isn't a smokescreen. Yesterday's scrims, Bin alone smashed us. Bin is insane."
"Well… it's Bin."
A monster like that—if he's on BLG, summer split is probably still only a playoffs team, because the other roles are too messy. Relying on top lane alone is easy to get targeted.
If a team depends on top lane to carry, it won't go far.
Unless it's the warped S5 meta where bot, mid, jungle—four lanes—were all dogs for top.
That warped meta is long gone. Now the game is much more balanced.
"Queue popped. I'll play a couple League games this morning and gain some LP. My teammates are Master/Grandmaster/Challenger. Me being Platinum I is embarrassing."
Seeing that, chat finally felt a real sense of tension.
Lin Fan had never voluntarily played League before.
Looks like scrims really did put pressure on him.
"First time. Looks like yesterday's scrims really did get smashed by BLG."
"BLG is that strong? Stronger than H4T and Big Dog? They can beat TES, the champions?"
"It's Bin. You clearly didn't follow the 'Contract God' news. BLG originally bought Bin. To swap for Uzi they sent Bin to RNG, and after spring ended they swapped him back."
"Damn, Bin had a real shot to make Worlds on RNG. Going back to BLG—forget points, those teammates… how do you make Worlds?"
"What a waste. If BLG still has ambition next year, Uncle should buy Brother Infinite Borders. Traffic would explode, and the roster would be fully upgraded."
"TES has already tasted how good Brother Infinite Borders is. No way they let him go. After Worlds, the second max salary has to appear."
"If they can make finals, I think… he has to make five or six million more than that shit hand, right?"
TL: Shit hand is Knight if you forgot, cause his nickname was originally Golden Left Hand.
"Holy crap, fifty million a year? That salary cap is terrifying. The whole TES roster is over a hundred million."
"But honestly, if that shit hand can get max salary, and Brother Infinite Borders can't next year, that's discrimination."
"Still, Knight has been training hard lately. CN server even climbed into top 10."
"Top 10 on CN server is easy if you've got hands. It's just whether people want to grind."
Chat went into full debate.
Lin Fan, meanwhile, focused completely on ranked.
And honestly, with tankiness buffed this patch, LeBlanc got hit hard. Something that used to be a level-two solo kill got dragged to level four before he finally killed the enemy Orianna.
From that alone, you could tell LeBlanc's pick rate in pro play was going to drop.
Mid lane would lean more toward supportive, scaling champions.
He ended Game 1 at 20 minutes and immediately queued Game 2.
This time he picked Kassadin.
Early game felt surprisingly comfortable. And since he was mostly matching into Master/Grandmaster players, you could really tell—this rank range is made of people who actually know how to play.
Still, it was too low. He had to keep climbing.
But without Rod of Ages, itemization was awkward.
First item didn't even have to be Mythic—you could rush Lich Bane, Zhonya's Hourglass, Rabadon's Deathcap, then later add Riftmaker.
If you're ahead, you can even skip Zhonya's and go straight into Rabadon's Deathcap.
Seeing Kassadin made Lin Fan feel like Riot was doing nonsense again. A perfectly good champion got benched forever—maybe in Season 13 there would be another rework.
After all, Ryze could still build Everfrost.
Kassadin building Everfrost was terrible. And with Archangel's losing its shield, plus mana no longer converting into AP, Kassadin got nerfed hard.
Level 16 being a meme… truly.
But once the champ gets rolling, it's still terrifying. With blue buff, you chase people down and sit-kill them.
He won Game 2 easily.
Since he'd already played two games earlier, he triggered a promotion series.
He glanced at the time—nothing urgent—so he decided to finish the promotion series before stopping League.
"Kassadin still isn't that good. If you want to use him to climb, I suggest you don't overthink it. The gap is huge—even I can't fully guarantee it," Lin Fan told chat.
"You saw it—early game I basically did nothing. I just got hit under turret. If not for the tankiness buff, I might've even been solo-killed."
"On this patch, I think better LP picks are Ryze and Galio. Those two are better for duo queue. If you're climbing solo, Viktor and Azir are good—Viktor first, since he's simpler and low pressure."
"If you want to take advantage of this patch, spam those. And since Viktor is back, some assassins are back too—Akali, Sylas. Practice a few, and climbing won't be an issue."
As he spoke, he started the next game.
Kassadin needs the right comp and needs the game to stall, and the jungler has to do a lot.
Tian's form wasn't great right now…
Once Tian recovers, it's not impossible to try Kassadin mid.
That champ puts huge pressure on enemy carries in mid-late game.
Game 3, Lin Fan locked Akali.
Her W now gave 100 bonus energy, which is a massive buff.
At level four, you can do three QA rotations. With Electrocute and Ignite, early solo-kill pressure is maxed out.
So he snowballed fast.
When assassins get ahead, their ability to end games is terrifying.
At 21 minutes, Lin Fan's Akali sliced right into the enemy base.
He casually took a triple kill, and the enemy surrendered on the spot.
No choice—they couldn't see any path to winning. Playing on would just be mental torture.
Once he secured the hook, he immediately started the next game.
Even though the average rank was high, it really didn't affect Lin Fan much.
It was like cutting vegetables. He easily won the next two and completed the promotion.
Because it was a super account, he skipped divisions and jumped straight to Diamond II.
If he kept queueing now, he might start matching Challenger.
But Lin Fan had no intention of continuing.
Once rank is higher, queues get longer. Even after five games, it was only a little past nine.
Not many people were awake—hard to get games.
And besides, it was time to slack a bit.
Today's reward was pretty funny: he got Ivern, and the slacking time was only four hours.
From the system's intent, it was clearly pushing him deeper down the "little hater" path.
No choice—because Ivern plays basketball.
Same with Darius earlier.
How can you not love these dunk masters?
TL:
"Playing basketball" here is slang for champions with dunk/slam animations - basically champions who have abilities that look like they're dunking on opponents basketball-style.
Ivern - His Q (Rootcaller) creates a tether, and when he or allies dash to the rooted target, it has that "slam dunk" feeling of crashing into the enemy.
Darius - His ultimate (Noxian Guillotine) is a literal dunk/slam down on an enemy's head. It's one of the most iconic "dunk" abilities in League, and in Chinese League communities, Darius is heavily associated with dunking/basketball metaphors.
With the remaining time, he logged into Infinite Borders and farmed Merit Points.
Now the Nomad army had surrounded Chengdu. Getting one partition ending was basically guaranteed. Anything more depended on overall operations.
But with so many Nomads, they weren't unified at all.
Lin Fan's goal at first was to break five million Merit Points. But unexpectedly, the previous alliance just shot the main city and ran it down.
Forget five million—ten million became easy.
Infinite Borders isn't about fighting.
It's social maneuvering.
Lin Fan stuck with the alliance leader. Even when the environment was bad, he didn't betray.
And in the end, he got rewarded.
As for the guy in Xuzhou who kept flip-flopping, trying to sneak a big partition ending—he got forced up the mountain.
TL: Forced/sent up the mountain is either eliminated or hit so hard you can't do anything
Lin Fan's old Jingzhou alliance had already negotiated with the Conquest Alliance, and they secured a three-partition ending. Overall, it was great. Everyone wins.
Nomad Merit Points farming felt amazing. Other alliances got their partition endings too.
As for the small group that came back, under Lin Fan's "schemes," they all got sent up the mountain. Nobody helped them farm Merit Points.
They could only force fights against the Conquest Alliance.
And honestly, Conquest Alliance's lineup pool was good. Especially since those guys got forced up the mountain before fully developing.
So besides the top players getting fed, the rest were basically starving.
It was miserable.
After refilling troops, they waited for the bros to deliver meat.
In Infinite Borders, unless you're truly smurf-stomping, most Merit Points are farmed.
If you fight for real, your fortress gets smashed. Rebuild, move, repeat—it takes too long.
Same logic: if you demolish the enemy fortress, you have to wait for them to rebuild before you can farm again.
Midday he ate lunch, then came back to stream.
After the slacking period ended, he got today's system reward: Ivern.
He immediately logged in and bought the basketball skin.
That single move filled chat with question marks.
"Stop forcing it. I'm not a hater."
With laughter, the stream time passed quickly, and in a blink it was scrim time again.
Scrimming JDG… TES didn't want to lose.
First Zoom, then Lin Fan—both cared.
So everyone played extremely seriously.
The result didn't disappoint: 4–3.
The funny part was, all three JDG wins were Yagao hard-carrying…
After scrims, Knight's face was black.
He felt targeted. Like his teammates were trolling him just to help Yagao secure the starting spot.
But it didn't matter.
In the next scrims, he would slap them in the face.
…
Days passed, and summer split was just one day away. TES's adaptation to the new patch got better and better.
And online, a flood of season-opener discussion threads appeared.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup