Honestly, the summer split schedule this year was pretty good—right after the college entrance exam.
Senior-year students finally didn't have to worry about studying anymore. They could watch to their heart's content.
Some even spent huge money, paying extra to scalpers for tickets, just to watch offline.
After all, TES had just won and was at peak popularity. Plenty of people wanted to catch a live match now, and the opponent wasn't some random fodder either—it was EDG, the S11 Worlds champion.
MSI champion versus Worlds champion.
Just imagining it was already a fun picture.
You had to admit the league knew what it was doing. The schedule was arranged perfectly—maximum topic value.
After TES versus EDG, the next match was IG versus Weibo Gaming.
It was pretty entertaining—traffic fully maxed out.
"Tomorrow it's 'little junior' vs Brother Infinite Borders. World champions facing off. Sounds hype."
"TES is going all out—fighting for that first opener win!"
The moment someone said that, a lot of people couldn't hold it in.
"LMAO. Who would've thought? Six straight splits without an opener win. TES's summer goal: beating EDG counts as victory."
"Let's see how Brother Infinite Borders adapted to the patch. Lately you can see him ranking every morning—pressure is huge. Without realizing it, he climbed into CN server top 50."
"Yeah. The moment I saw him start training, I felt uneasy. Like the sky fell."
A lot of people resonated with that.
Before, Lin Fan was carefree and didn't care about anything, waking up to play other games. It looked like he wasn't doing his job, yet it made fans more confident—like matches would be easy, no problems.
But Patch 12.10… Brother Infinite Borders openly said scrims got him smashed. Suddenly it felt grim, and fans started worrying.
"You guys are insane. When he didn't train you complained nonstop. Now he's training and you're still unhappy? Easy verdict: you're pure fried cakes!"
"Hahaha, if Brother Infinite Borders knew you were this conflicted, what would his face look like? Would he just fully sandbag and play nothing to soothe your psychology?"
"Why are you worrying about this and that? The match is tomorrow—just watch. With this time you should be telling Tencent to handle scalpers."
"Exactly. I still couldn't get tickets and had to pay a fortune."
"Damn, couldn't get tickets either. You guys are ruthless. I started waiting at 6 a.m. and still couldn't beat you."
"It hurts. Inner seats are 360, outside is 80. In scalper hands it triples. Damn it! When are scalpers going to die?"
"It's only because tomorrow's match is that good that you can slaughter people. After this, try scalping and see if there are still idiots willing to buy."
"Your mom's kiss—disgusting."
"When is the official going to deal with scalpers?"
"In the end it's all about money. Normally, one account buying tickets—how could scalpers buy this many? There's more money here."
Online discussion turned into wave after wave of narratives.
Meanwhile, at the TES base—
Luo Sheng was nervously doing the final prep work, arranging tomorrow's game plan.
On this patch, mid tempo starts slower, so early-game details matter even more.
So he rewatched EDG's past match VODs repeatedly. Even though he'd already done a ton of this work, he still had to redo it close to match day.
And with such a huge patch change, tomorrow's match would be a key study point for many teams—they wanted to see how everyone understood the meta.
Especially TES. As MSI champions, their understanding should be higher…
Meanwhile, Lin Fan was happily playing Goose Goose Duck with Xiao Zao and the others.
A lot of people entered the stream and felt dizzy.
Didn't they say Brother Infinite Borders was training hard?
What is this—why is he playing Goose Goose Duck again?
Were all those Weibo discussions just fake?
Chat flew.
"Damn, who spread the fake info? Brother Infinite Borders is clearly having fun in Goose Goose Duck. What pressure?"
"We got baited."
"But he really did climb into CN server top 50…"
"But if he's like this, what about tomorrow? Is the opener going to flop again? TES has gone six splits without an opener win."
"Why are you guys so anxious? Did you forget how many times you got slapped in the face before? And earlier you were yelling for him not to play League. Now he's happily playing Goose Goose Duck and you're yelling again?"
June 10.
Hongqiao Tiandi Performing Arts Center, Shanghai.
The match was at 5 p.m., but before 1 p.m. people were already heading over. By 1:30, a huge crowd had gathered at the entrance.
Their idea was simple: if they happened to catch the TES team bus, they could ask for photos and signatures.
In the past, TES usually agreed, and even picked a few lucky fans to come up and interact for photos.
Since that's how it worked, they wanted to be that lucky one.
The earlier you came, the fewer people there were, and the higher your chances.
If it can be them, why can't it be me?
Simple logic.
And sure enough, this really was TES's arrival window.
A 5 p.m. match meant: eat lunch, get on the bus, arrive around 1:40.
At that moment, the excited fans swarmed the bus.
The players got off like it was routine and started greeting everyone.
It was fun at first, but after too many times it got a bit annoying…
Guo Hao had experience. Smiling, he started dispersing the crowd and guided the players into the player tunnel.
Then he picked two fans who looked "pleasant," and they got Lin Fan and JackeyLove's signatures and photos.
Under everyone's jealous gaze, the two fans carefully put the signed items into their bags like priceless treasure.
…
As it got closer to 5, more fans checked tickets and entered. The venue filled up—look anywhere, it was heads.
On the official stream, viewership quietly broke 20 million.
That was terrifying. In previous season openers, you never saw numbers like this.
That showed TES's terrifying popularity. "Traffic team" was absolutely accurate.
And that was exactly what TES wanted.
Win titles, get traffic. And with how wealthy they were, they were willing to pay bonuses.
Especially after MSI, they had even bigger ideas for Worlds.
5 p.m.!
The stream and the arena screen both changed.
The 2022 Summer Split promo video began!
To film it, TES even spent a full day cooperating.
The opening shot showed 17 pillars.
Clearly representing the 17 teams.
In the center sat the summer trophy.
JackeyLove appeared first in the center spot—only for a moment—with Kai'Sa behind him as his signature champion.
Then Meiko led EDG running toward the city.
In the city center was JDG. On a skyscraper, V5 observed them.
Then RNG's five stood with arms crossed…
Team after team appeared. In the end, 16 teams ran forward.
The camera pulled up, and the direction they ran toward… was JackeyLove.
At that moment, Tian pulled Zoom and Mark, strolling toward JackeyLove.
"Where's Brother Infinite Borders?"
That was everyone's question.
The director didn't disappoint.
A dazzling sequence burst onto screen!
With flashes of light, Lin Fan appeared.
Champions popped up one after another behind him—Syndra, Vladimir, Akali…
Then the video ended.
Instantly, chat filled with discussion.
"Holy crap, Brother Infinite Borders is the final boss!"
"What is Brother Infinite Borders even doing?"
"Big prestige, big prestige!"
"I thought this big prestige should go to JackeyLove. He even has a Worlds title. Didn't expect it to go to Brother Infinite Borders instead."
"It's just traffic and topics. Giving him the spotlight is normal."
As the promo ended, Yu Shuang came on stage. With white flames blasting behind her, she raised the mic and announced loudly:
"The long off-season is over. The 2022 LPL Summer Split officially begins! Every team has adjusted and returns to welcome the new season—let's look forward to their performances!"
The stage crew pressed the ignition button at the perfect time.
White flames blasted so high they almost touched the ceiling.
"The next team entering is TES!" Yu Shuang announced.
"Top Zoom, jungle Tian, mid Dine, ADC JackeyLove, support Mark!"
Screams and shouts mixed together. The venue atmosphere was maxed out.
"TES! TES! TES!"
"Brother Infinite Borders! Brother Infinite Borders! Brother Infinite Borders!"
Hearing Yu Shuang, Zoom led everyone out to stand beside Auntie Yu Shuang.
"The next team entering is EDG!"
"Top Flandre, jungle Jiejie, mid Scout, ADC Viper, support Meiko!"
EDG's fans were loud too. The noise almost matched TES—truly evenly matched.
Once both teams took their seats, the director cut to the caster desk.
Wawa and Miller sat there smiling, with Tongxi beside them.
"Hello everyone, I'm Wawa."
"Hello everyone, I'm Miller."
"Hello everyone, I'm Tongxi."
"Both teams have taken the stage. I'm sure both are familiar faces and old friends to everyone."
"Summer patch changes are pretty big, especially tankiness and turret damage increases. Early tower dives are much riskier. We know TES's identity is early-game tempo, so their pace will be affected a bit."
"Right. TES just won MSI, and now they have to adapt all over again."
"Hahaha, but that's part of being a pro. Adapting to the meta is what makes you truly strong, not waiting for the patch to hand you an opportunity."
"So today I'm really looking forward to Dine's performance. What champions will he pull out to surprise us? This patch has some champs that thrive—Ahri, Taliyah, Twisted Fate. People say TES can't start tempo early anymore, but I think the level-six tempo still matters.
Aggression went down, but not that much. Meanwhile EDG—spring form never recovered. We don't know what their summer form looks like," Tongxi said.
That got Miller thinking.
"What you said is true. During the off-season, Brother Infinite Borders has been grinding like crazy—he even hit CN server top 50. That shows how seriously he's taking matches. It's not like people say, that he's fully invested into other games."
"Noticed his shortcomings and immediately trained. Maybe MSI made him change a lot… realizing he has to keep pushing for higher honor. He's clearly reduced how often he plays other games."
Wawa couldn't help laughing.
Miller looked over, confused.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Miller, you definitely didn't watch his stream yesterday. The entire day… Brother Infinite Borders played Goose Goose Duck all night and didn't end stream until 1:30 a.m."
"Huh?" Miller was stunned. Is he tugging me back and forth?
At that moment, the director cut to TES on red side.
First thing on screen: Lin Fan yawning, eyes half-lidded, looking tired.
Seeing him like this going into a match made people worry.
Scout is a champion mid laner. His form should be fine. EDG's problem is team coordination, and after so long, maybe they adjusted back.
In that case, patch not fitting, plus playing other games before the match—whether TES can get the opener win is a question mark.
"GG! One word: just because!"
"Go raid Uzi and Crystal and those guys. After you go hard once, they won't invite Brother Infinite Borders to Goose Goose Duck anymore."
"That's a good idea—curse them harder, then they won't ask him to play."
"Don't rush. As long as they lose the match, we'll raid."
Seeing chat like that, some haters finally came out and started talking.
Brother Infinite Borders has high popularity, sure—but if these fans turn into a GSL-style mob that runs around flaming people and offending big streamers and pros everywhere, Dine's reputation will eventually stink.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup