Brother Infinite Borders hitting trending is nothing new to everyone at this point.
As the new generation esports star, you can question his form or skill, but you absolutely can't question his fan count.
As long as a clickbait account uses his ID in the title—or his widely known nickname, Brother Infinite Borders—it can scam a ton of clicks.
Especially since TES had just won today's match and was already trending.
The most iconic interview moment was him facing the camera and saying TES wins through bot lane, so the patch change doesn't matter much—bot lane strong, I'm arrogant!
And then there was JackeyLove's "pentakill" getting stolen…
Brother Infinite Borders and JackeyLove…
That was purely shippers stirring trouble. Don't think the esports scene doesn't have that—it really does. There are people who "ship-lock" pairings.
But basically, all those trending topics were still related to today's match.
So when this new trending topic suddenly appeared, it caught a lot of eyes.
"I'm not even a TES fan, but I have to admit Brother Infinite Borders is hilarious. The pro league just started and he's already thinking about entering other tournaments?"
"Hahaha, yeah, but as a TES fan, I think that's part of his unique charm. I like a player like this, at least he tells everyone in advance instead of quietly signing up.
Just like the earlier TFT tournament—he said clearly on stream that he was going to compete, but nobody took it seriously.
In the end, the result proved we were the real clowns. Brother Infinite Borders forced his way into his second world title."
"That's true. He really treats everyone like his own people—if something's happening, he says it. That's a plus.
But you also can't deny he's still a League pro."
"He's an independent person. He'll do whatever he wants. Just like TFT—no matter how loudly you yell, he won't drop the tournament. I suggest you save your energy."
"As long as results are guaranteed, I don't see a problem with developing a side hustle. Brother Infinite Borders entering a Naraka tournament sounds fun. I'm looking forward to it."
"Relax—sign-ups haven't even opened yet."
"I said it before: once he entered one tournament, he'd definitely want to enter others. It's like he couldn't control himself from the start…"
"Support whatever Brother Infinite Borders wants to do. As a pro player, does that mean you can only play pro matches?"
"Naraka's schedule doesn't conflict with the pro league anyway. I think it's fine to relax a bit. Who knows, he might even win a title."
"Brother Infinite Borders playing other games—shouldn't you be excited? It means he's confident in the patch. You should be happy. TES summer split is stable."
Compared to the earlier TFT situation, there were clearly more supporters this time.
Besides fan trust, there were also haters pushing narratives—what used to be suppression turned into "support."
In their thinking, the more "support" he gets, the more inflated he'll become.
If TES loses later, the backlash from fans will be even more terrifying—see S8 RNG as a reference.
After getting eliminated by G2, they got flamed so hard domestically they couldn't lift their heads.
So the play here was simple: follow the fans and join the disgust.
Domestic wins and losses don't matter. What matters is Worlds.
Wasn't EDG the most criticized for being a "domestic-only god"?
Eliminating every domestic team at Worlds, then handing the advancing slots to other regions…
But look at it another way: if you get eliminated by EDG, why assume you can definitely beat whoever eliminated EDG?
Nobody "owes" anyone a championship. If you can't win, it's purely your own lack of skill.
Those supposed "counter relationships" are mostly fake.
"Naraka even made an Elite Cup? If Brother Infinite Borders joins, it might be worth watching."
"Too bad you need more people, so he can only do solo. If he could play trios, it'd be even more fun. But he really can't find teammates.
And if he did trios, he'd have to practice coordination too. That's too much time and would affect the league. He still has a scale in his heart."
"Haven't followed Naraka in a long time. If Brother Infinite Borders is joining, I'll keep an eye on it."
"Ever since Naraka made a pro league, it's felt boring—everyone just plays for placement. I haven't watched in ages. If it's still like that, I'll just watch Brother Infinite Borders get eliminated. No point watching after."
"The format changed a lot. Kill points matter much more now; placement points aren't that high. It's more balanced—no more 'you can stall for points and still win.' It's actually pretty fun to watch."
As the internet got noisy and started discussing the Naraka event, NetEase's paid posters finally made their move.
They'd been waiting for this wave.
The tournament logistics were mostly ready, but once people mentioned an "Elite Cup," and if Brother Infinite Borders actually joined, it would pull huge attention.
Naraka has always been a solid game with high production quality.
It's just that the designers were too trash at operating it, plus cheats were rampant, so players kept leaving.
It got worse day by day, and going trending was extremely rare.
But today, because Brother Infinite Borders said on stream that he was interested in the Elite Cup, it hit trending again.
NetEase wasn't going to miss this perfect opportunity. Paid posters started spamming comments on Weibo.
Looking at all the posts, the team even started looking forward to tomorrow's sign-up opening.
And as they watched the backend logins climb, DAU started rising again.
That's the effect…
It's hard to imagine that a League pro could raise another game's active users.
After TFT Worlds ended, League client DAU rose by several notches—likely because TFT and Summoner's Rift share one client.
You can see why Riot was willing to wait back when they launched TFT tournaments—this kind of revenue is tempting.
So for everyone else it doesn't matter. But if Brother Infinite Borders signs up, Naraka might actually return to peak this year…
This event needed good planning. It couldn't be sloppy like before.
June 11.
Week 1, Day 2.
TES didn't play today.
The matches were AL vs RA, and JDG vs BLG.
The first match had lower attention, but with Le Yan there were still topics.
The second was a small "focus match."
First: who is Pingxiang's #1 mid—Knight or Yagao?
Second: now that Bin is back on top for BLG, will BLG change?
A lot of people still hoped BLG would lose, mostly because they felt Bin was being wasted there.
That morning, Lin Fan knocked on the coach's office door.
When Luo Sheng saw Lin Fan's face, his mouth twitched slightly.
Yesterday's Weibo was in an uproar. If a coach didn't see it, that'd be incompetent.
He knew exactly why Lin Fan came.
"You're going to enter the Naraka tournament and play the pro league at the same time. Can you handle the workload?"
"No problem. Naraka's schedule doesn't conflict with the league at all. It won't affect matches."
Luo Sheng thought it was strange how perfectly it didn't conflict, but Lin Fan always had a sense of boundaries.
If he said it wouldn't affect matches, then fine—let him go relax a bit.
"Of course, I won't say more. But if league results start having problems, you must withdraw from Naraka."
"Of course. You don't even have to say it—I'd withdraw on my own," Lin Fan nodded firmly.
"Alright. Go sign up."
"Got it!"
Watching Lin Fan leave, Luo Sheng let out a long breath.
Having a player like this really is love and hate.
But right now it was good.
After Lin Fan joined, TES reversed their slide and won spring split plus MSI—TES's best results in two years.
In pro esports, results speak.
If you have results, you get special treatment.
Others on the roster could do the same—but only if they have the confidence to keep good form like Lin Fan.
Luo Sheng then returned to organizing recent scouting material, looking for promising rookies.
TES's roster is already strong, but bench depth still matters.
Lin Fan got the coach's approval, so he submitted the sign-up immediately.
Solo isn't as exciting as trios, but it was the best choice.
If the team ever produced another Naraka player, finding teammates wouldn't be hard.
After signing up, he went live right away and told everyone.
People who genuinely cared about TES and hoped Lin Fan would focus fully could only shake their heads once it became official.
They could only hope Lin Fan performed poorly and got eliminated early, so he'd have to focus fully on League.
If Naraka's schedule conflicted with TES matches, that would be perfect—then there'd be a reason to stop him.
But now there was no reason at all. Even the coach was on Lin Fan's side—what could they do?
At least the event wasn't too long, so it probably wouldn't affect TES in the short term, right?
June 14, Week 2, Day 2.
7 p.m., TES vs WE.
WE's roster was: top Biubiu, jungle Beishang, mid Xiye, ADC Xing, support PPGod.
New season, WE kept the mid spot open to let Xiye try again.
Looks like they wanted to make a push.
The idea was good, but reality was cruel.
Because their opener was TES—bad news.
And the result proved it.
After two games, Xiye almost retired on the spot.
Game 1, Lin Fan played Twisted Fate.
In lane, he used movement perfectly to suppress Xiye's Ahri. Xiye's form and skill had already declined badly. Being able to hold lane at all was "not bad."
So at four minutes, Lin Fan coordinated with Tian's Vi and dived bot.
The turret damage was high, so they traded Mark's life, but with the wave crashing, TES's dual carries got two kills—still a win.
Then tempo came in waves.
At 5:30, Twisted Fate flash-gold-card stunned Ahri, and with Vi, they killed her before level six.
That was the moment WE was officially in deep trouble.
This mid-jungle linkage made fans very satisfied.
"TES mid-jungle is still in great form. Synergy maxed."
"Looks like Brother Infinite Borders wasn't lying in the interview. This patch doesn't really affect them—mid-jungle is still strong."
…
With two kills, Twisted Fate's items were already absurd. One combo couldn't one-shot Ahri, but it could still take a third of her HP.
He pinned Xiye under turret.
When Ahri dropped to about one-third HP, Lin Fan deliberately didn't fully stack E.
He wanted to avoid tipping Xiye off.
Plus, under turret, you'd assume Twisted Fate can't tower dive.
So Xiye planned to eat a wave and run.
That plan got him killed.
Instant gold card, Q-AA, and he died.
A solo kill—mid fully exploded.
After that, Twisted Fate had no leash.
He roamed and grabbed lanes nonstop.
Five minutes later he'd already visited bot five times.
Xing's mind was gone.
His Kai'Sa at 15 minutes was 0–6.
PPGod wasn't better—1–5.
Bot lane donated 11 kills…
Even so, WE held on until 23 minutes, which was impressive.
You could tell WE really tried this season, but the gap was too big.
Game 1 ended 24–3.
Game 2 was what everyone wanted at the start of summer: Syndra finally appeared.
Against Xiye's Twisted Fate.
Two Dark Spheres and Twisted Fate couldn't move.
After constant trading, at 5:39, QE hit, W slammed, auto finished—solo kill.
After level six, Tian started hovering mid.
Twisted Fate already isn't a laning champion. Now he didn't even know how to use ultimate.
At 10 minutes, five-kill Syndra started cashing checks everywhere.
One ultimate and Xing's screen went grey.
Damn it.
Staring at 6–0 Syndra, Xing clenched his fist… then remembered he fed nine deaths last game and immediately softened again.
"Brother Infinite Borders is still strong."
"…"
Game 2 ended at 22:46 with WE base exploding.
TES 2–0, taking their second win cleanly.
This opening was very solid.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup