In these two games, aside from Game 2 being a bit harder, the overall tempo was still completely in TES's hands.
"Congratulations to TES for winning their first match of the Summer Split. Before this, TES had gone six straight seasons without winning their opening match. Now that record is finally ended—and that's definitely worth celebrating," Wawa said.
The moment he finished, the arena burst into laughter.
If you look at each season, the opening match had basically become TES's curse. What kind of team fails to win its opener for six consecutive seasons?
Even WE doesn't have a record like that…
It was brutal.
Across all major leagues, it was basically one of a kind—especially since TES also had the halo: 2022 MSI champions, 2020 Mid-Season Cup champions.
Sure enough, after winning titles, the whole team's spirit changed. They really did defy fate.
The livestream chat scrolled nonstop.
"Hahaha, TES was seriously prepared today. EDG got stunned as a whole team."
"EDG is finished. Don't you know Flandre's level now? Giving him Kayle to carry? Might as well surrender."
"Maokai got completely outclassed. Never thought the tactical gap could be this big. Domestic coach vs domestic coach is truly night and day."
"Did Crescent Moon get possessed?"
"A coach's draft is closely tied to players' champion pools. Look at that S7 RNG video—at the end, Feng asked Xiaohu whether to ban Galio, and Xiaohu didn't say a word. You know what that means, right?"
"Exactly. Like S5 SKT—top and mid were both advantages, so draft became easy. Brother Infinite Borders plays the same role."
"No matter what, Crescent Moon discovering Brother Infinite Borders and kicking out 'that guy' is a massive achievement. If TES wins Worlds this year, Crescent Moon deserves top credit."
"In that case, I'm really looking forward to TES vs JDG. Is it Yagao or Knight mid… who's Pingxiang's #1 mid depends on JDG's starter."
…
After Wawa finished, Tongxi smiled and said:
"Even though the patch changed massively, from these two games it looks like Brother Infinite Borders wasn't affected much.
"In Game 1, Comet Chemtank Galio got absolute lane priority in lane. In teamfights, Turbo Chemtank successfully replaced Predator and also provided tankiness. Overall, one item equals Aftershock plus Predator. I think that understanding is really good.
"With everyone tankier in this patch, Turbo Chemtank Galio might become mainstream."
"As for Game 2's Ahri, in every key fight, he hit E on the key target, helped the team stabilize, kept snowballing the advantage, and then ended."
"Right. But in these two games, Brother Infinite Borders didn't pick lane-bully champions. Instead, he leaned toward shove-and-roam. And EDG gave Kayle to Flandre. On this patch, roaming and scaling has a lot of value—at least that's how teams understand it. So Brother Infinite Borders' raw lane suppression is still affected."
At the very least, LeBlanc probably won't show up.
"Dine has been grinding these past few days. You can tell he takes Summer Split seriously. As for playing other games before matches, maybe that's just his personal 'get in form' process. Remember how he looked after spring? And he's said on stream before that he plays League just so he can play other games."
Miller called it out directly.
Countless haters got slapped in the face.
Chats across platforms started flooding.
"This is Brother Infinite Borders' real state. If he feels comfortable playing other games, we really don't need to worry about matches."
"Don't doubt adults' judgment. Everyone has a scale in their heart—they know what to do and when."
"We already noticed the haters have no brains. We told you: trust first, then doubt. The match wasn't even finished and you were panicking—weren't you just offering your face to get slapped?"
"Where did these scripts even come from? 'He's inflated!' If he were truly inflated, would he still be playing pro League?"
"Haters get slapped and then play dead. Before the match they stir up narratives. Once it starts they're nowhere to be found. It's funny."
"Before the match, I saw people say he was inflated. Honestly, with this skill, if it were me I'd be even more inflated. Play games till 1–2 a.m. before a match and still hard stomp. Absolute domination."
"When Brother Infinite Borders is smiling and happily playing other games, that's when we truly don't need to worry—TES is stable. But if he's streaming League every day, then things might actually be scary."
"Those haters' narratives aren't even worth reading. They're pure comedy."
…
TES winning made a lot of people put on pain masks, but more people were in a great mood, mocking the haters who had been stirring narratives.
Of course, some trolls also pretended to be EDG fans and started flaming EDG hard.
As S11 Worlds champions, falling to this state really did make people emotional.
After all, spring split didn't even reach top four… eliminated immediately.
In the post-match interview, Lin Fan and JackeyLove were invited to the interview desk.
Interviewing two players together wasn't rare, and these two were traffic kings. Since it was the season opener, even more people came to watch.
Plenty of viewers who planned to leave after the game stayed when Wawa said TES's dual carries would be interviewed—just to see if they'd do shenanigans.
Xiaoyu and JackeyLove were old acquaintances. The moment she lifted the mic, both smiled.
"Hello, dine, jackeylove. Say hi to everyone."
"Hello everyone, I'm TES mid laner dine."
"Hello everyone, I'm TES ADC jackeylove."
Lin Fan and JackeyLove waved to the crowd, and cheers erupted instantly.
"First, congratulations on a strong start. How are you feeling right now?"
Then the mic suddenly went to JackeyLove's face.
JackeyLove froze.
He didn't expect Xiaoyu to pull that—there was even Lin Fan standing between them.
His brain froze. He stared at the mic in silence for five or six seconds, then smiled.
"I'm… pretty happy."
"Pretty happy… what about you, Brother Infinite Borders?"
"I'd like to call out JackeyLove. He's clearly a little absent-minded. As for me, spring split started with a bad memory, so getting the first win to start summer makes me very happy. For me, winning any match is worth being happy about."
"Oh—winning any match is worth being happy about. Brother Infinite Borders is very pure."
Xiaoyu pulled the mic back.
"As Spring champions and MSI champions, what goals do you have for this Summer Split?"
This time, she didn't ambush JackeyLove. She calmly handed the mic to Lin Fan.
Lin Fan thought for a moment and answered seriously:
"Summer just started, so talking about goals might be a bit early. And this patch change is pretty big. We need to adapt well first. Before that, we just want to win every match. In spring we won ten straight—this summer, let's see if we can tie that record."
Chat exploded again.
"He said a lot, but also nothing."
"Wait—tie the record? Isn't that 16 straight? 16 straight and then fourth place?"
"Aren't you forgetting EDG's 16 straight? Summer champions, but Worlds top 16."
"Hahaha, JackeyLove just standing there grinning like an idiot. I'm dying."
"Joking aside, Xiao Zao was insanely jealous on stream. If he had a mid like that, he'd have two or three titles already."
"Honestly, even if Uzi had Faker mid, he still wouldn't win Worlds. That playstyle: vampire ADC. I eat three lanes. In teamfights I deal zero damage."
"Stop. Uzi already said he's not playing summer. Why is he still being discussed? He plays Genshin all day now, only occasionally League, and Goose Goose Duck at night. He's obviously not coming back to pro."
"Honestly, retiring then was fine. No need to return."
"RNG is rotten to the core. Graveyard club."
Then Xiaoyu shoved the mic to JackeyLove again. JackeyLove picked the simplest, most convenient answer.
"Uh… same as Fan-ge."
That's the downside of interviewing two people. If the second guy says "same," the topic doesn't develop.
"I can't hold it in!"
"Me too!"
"JackeyLove is always like this. He never has anything interesting to say."
Xiaoyu laughed brightly.
"As expected of Yu Wenbo. We also know dine did a lot of training in the off-season. How does this patch feel? How does it affect you?"
That question made everyone perk up.
Because the common view was: TES mid-jungle early tempo is hard this patch.
"From my match experience, the impact isn't big. Because our team has always won through bot lane. Bot lane strong, I'm arrogant. Bot lane wasn't affected, so TES is still strong."
Finally—the line people wanted.
With the dual carries together, the audience knew there'd be jokes.
Everyone laughed.
Backstage, TES also laughed.
"Compared to Fan-ge, JackeyLove is still too young. He couldn't find a chance to output for so long. Fan-ge instantly seized the opening."
"Hahaha, look at JackeyLove's face."
…
"So you win through bot lane—yeah, that is TES's strategy. JackeyLove has carried a lot of pressure. Your performance today was very bright. You got a quadra kill, but the last kill was taken by dine. Anything you want to say about that?"
"OHHHHHH!"
The crowd started cheering. Nothing is more fun than stirring drama.
JackeyLove paused.
"I feel very sorry for stealing Brother Infinite Borders' pentakill. Next time I'll try to kill nobody and let him 1v5 for the pentakill. So from this, you can see I still have many things I didn't do well. After today I should reflect on how to play better."
Lin Fan scratched his head.
"Stealing JackeyLove's pentakill really made me feel a little bad…"
But the grin on his face betrayed him.
"So I already said in-game, I'll compensate JackeyLove with hotpot. Order whatever you want."
"…" Remembering the referee's fine notice, JackeyLove looked dead inside.
"So tonight I'm eating until I get hospitalized!"
"Game 1, we also noticed Tian gave you Scuttle Crab. How did you two discuss that?"
"Actually, at first I didn't plan to take it. I was moving over to help Tian secure double Scuttle. Then Tian told me to eat Scuttle. He said he already took one, no need to take two."
"Later he said he was worried the enemy jungler would come, so I should hurry and eat it. I thought it made sense, so I took it."
"Heh…" JackeyLove rolled his eyes. He wanted to eat Scuttle too.
"LMAO. Tian really widened the road."
"Mid daddy. If I were the jungler, I'd know what to do."
"And that 100 gold wasn't wasted. Brother Infinite Borders ate the resource and immediately carried tempo."
Because there were still Weibo Gaming versus IG matches next, Xiaoyu didn't drag the interview long and ended it.
Everyone still wanted more.
Mainly because the interview atmosphere was great. You could tell TES had strong team vibes and the dual carries had a good relationship.
Only with good internal vibes can you even think about results later.
7 p.m., Weibo Gaming vs IG.
WBG still fielded the old roster. IG was all rookies.
Everyone thought WBG would win easily, but "the Richest" being "the Richest" means he loves doing nonsense.
With a huge lead, Viego walked into their faces, then didn't even ult—donated a game to IG. WBG started down 0–1.
Fans got nervous. Were they actually going to lose the season opener?
Luckily, TheShy's Gnar found a key fight and killed Zeri, winning one back.
After that, "the Richest" found rhythm in the jungle and connected the team tempo—but he still didn't help top.
TheShy got camped and collapsed.
Teamfights exploded later. Game 3 lost to IG!
WBG season opener ended 1–2, losing to IG…
You could see WBG's faces were as black as the post-game screen.
After handshakes, TheShy didn't even wait for teammates and walked alone into the player tunnel.
WBG top-jungle is always like this—god one game, ghost the next.
Day 1 of summer split ended.
And across platforms, everyone started discussing today's games nonstop.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup