After Week 3, Round 2 concluded, TES sat at the top of the entire league with a five-win streak.
It sparked a ton of discussion among streamers.
A segment of what Uzi said was clipped and spread online:
"Brother Infinite Borders is really TES's stabilizing pillar. In pro league, when a team that keeps winning suddenly starts losing, it usually means they've been figured out.
"Like that time when Dan came up from LSPL. He went on a win streak in the LPL, and everyone was shouting 'the wolf is coming'—saying they'd be champions this year. But once people studied them thoroughly, they started losing nonstop… and then they got sent back to the secondary league."
"So the moment TES dropped that game, I had this feeling they were in huge trouble. LNG had studied really deep—they even had Tian's jungle routes mapped out. They knew at what minute he'd show up where, and what he'd go farm afterward."
"If not for Brother Infinite Borders' Yone in Game 2—him singlehandedly tearing through the entire LNG team—TES could've gotten 0–2'd."
"So having a mid like that is genuinely a blessing. You can tell those teams definitely started by studying Brother Infinite Borders first. But they couldn't figure out anything, so they had to start from Tian instead."
"And honestly, LNG's limits were very good. What Brother Infinite Borders said in the interview wasn't just politeness. LNG played really well—but even while playing that well, they still lost. That tells you how terrifying he is."
"When teammates get targeted and don't look great, he can still stabilize and carry the whole team forward. That's absolutely what a qualified core mid laner looks like."
"In that category, you've got S3 Faker, S8 Rookie, then S10 ShowMaker, and now Brother Infinite Borders. Across so many players and so many seasons, there've only been four."
"Xiaohu?"
"Xiaohu is strong, but he's not at that level."
That clip drew a huge wave of comments below it.
"Honestly, there's nothing wrong with most of what he said. From Spring to these five Summer games, Brother Infinite Borders really has looked like that."
"That's too much. I admit Brother Infinite Borders is extremely strong, but he doesn't deserve that kind of evaluation yet. The three above all have Worlds trophies. Brother Infinite Borders only has an MSI trophy."
"People are going to study him to death. Feels like other teams will start beating them soon. If you hype him this hard now, then when they lose and get slapped in the face, that'll be funny."
"Can't tell—didn't he get bullied into retirement? Why is he still analyzing matches?"
"Damn, Brother Infinite Borders has already made all these pros submit, but he still can't make you little haters submit?"
"Don't force it. Teacher Faker didn't submit. After matches, he still talks like he's never met an impressive mid. How is that 'submitting pros'?"
"Joking. How hard are Korea-biased fans' mouths? From S8 to S11—four years—we won three Worlds titles, and in the end we're not even allowed to praise an LPL player? Ridiculous. Someone who doesn't know would think last year's Worlds champion was from LCK, or SKT."
"Honestly, these people are all forcing hate. They latch onto one point and keep barking. What did Brother Infinite Borders even do wrong? Nothing. His existence just means people can't flame JackeyLove anymore, and can't use 'press JackeyLove down' to prop TheShy up."
"Believe it or not—if Brother Infinite Borders really went to Weibo, this batch of haters would worship him like a dad."
"Please. I saw their true nature ages ago. The second Brother Infinite Borders joined their favorite team, they'd instantly climax."
"Overthinking it. TES will never let Brother Infinite Borders go. Didn't you see? His contract keeps climbing step by step—so they can keep him with the best benefits."
"Right now it's still top lane issues. Zoom is better than the worst, worse than the best. Against aggressive tops, once he's targeted, he can collapse—he's older…"
"Bot lane has hidden problems too. Everyone jokes about 'eating Q,' but what it exposes is reaction. Stop washing it. Not seeing skillshots clearly is a huge problem."
"I said it earlier—losing isn't necessarily a bad thing for them. It helps them see the issues clearly, then fix them. Tian adjusted fast—he took a huge detour to gank. That warning bell was good."
"I also checked ranked these past two days—the volume really is huge. It's a bit crazy. Looks like White Moon chewed them out."
"But the one who shouted the loudest about training harder… is addicted to other games and can't stop."
"I just came from Brother Infinite Borders' stream. It was so absurd I was dying laughing—he duo-queued Naraka with Zhan Ying. Full-on variety show."
"Seriously? Isn't Zhan Ying a Go player? How is she playing Naraka too?"
"With that logic, Brother Infinite Borders is a LoL pro, and it didn't stop him from winning the TFT World Championship… then winning Naraka cup solo and trio."
…
After the TES vs. LNG match, there were about five days of rest.
Lin Fan naturally planned to relax. These past few days, between all the matches, the pressure had been heavy.
He didn't expect Zhan Ying to proactively reach out and ask him to review the Go game.
It wasn't a match day, so reviewing a game was no big deal. He agreed.
After the call, he went live to do the review.
Zhan Ying hadn't expected Lin Fan to agree so easily.
Her expression startled viewers.
"We're on different platforms—are we okay?"
"No big problem. I just can't watch your livestream. You send me the game record, and I'll talk while looking at it."
"Oh, okay."
Seeing her viewer count rising nonstop—despite having experienced it once already—she still got shocked.
This top-tier traffic was just ridiculous.
"Came from Brother Infinite Borders' stream."
"Zhan Ying is the first female streamer Brother Infinite Borders ever interacted with—does that mean anything?"
"No idea. Zhan Ying isn't even that pretty, is she? Probably not. Maybe it's just that an 'amateur' beat a pro and it made her lose face, so he's compensating with traffic."
"I remember Brother Infinite Borders said he likes women three years older. How old is Zhan Ying?"
"Yeah, he really said that. Did he already investigate privately?"
"No way."
"How old is Zhan Ying?"
"How old is Zhan Ying?"
A wave of people from Lin Fan's stream began spamming in Zhan Ying's chat.
Zhan Ying saw it and, possessed by some impulse, replied:
"Zhan Ying is three years old!"
That expression, plus the soft voice, made the entire chat freeze.
What is this?
Why is it so ridiculous?
Lin Fan's expression also shook—he didn't understand, but he was deeply shocked.
So this is what Go people are like…
Then it makes sense why Ke Jie once went to war with Chu Yuxun on Weibo.
It's tradition. Absurd to the extreme.
But playing with a goofball like this was honestly pretty fun.
"Why are you all spamming question marks? Is it wrong for me to say three years old? It's three years old. I can't lie, right?"
As she spoke, she puffed out her chest and put her hands on her hips.
Then she leaned her head closer to the camera, looking like she was staring you down.
"Holy crap—wealthy yet stingy."
"??????"
"Wait. I've been lurking in her stream for two or three months. How did I not notice this?"
"Was she always like this, or did she become like this after losing to Brother Infinite Borders in Go?"
"Accidental, or on purpose?"
"Damn, now that you mention it… Brother Infinite Borders is also absurd. A few days ago, that line 'I did it on purpose' keeps echoing in my head."
"Cough… I can't hold it either. Top-tier, honestly."
"Brother Infinite Borders and Zhan Ying are total opposites. I saw a post—Zhan Ying spent eight years trying to rank up, and only succeeded in 2014. Brother Infinite Borders comes out and he's just a genius youth: MSI champion, debut peak."
"Bro, sometimes I can't tell what role you people are playing. Brother Infinite Borders was a substitute mid before, and only this year switched to support. Then started with a three-loss streak and got 'water ghosted' off the stage. Then Mark came, and he became substitute support. It wasn't until TES's fifth loss was about to become a sixth that he finally heroically appeared and led the team into the Northern Campaign and Western Expedition."
"So every pro needs time to marinate. Brother Infinite Borders went through that time, and that's why he became this absurd—and stopped training."
"So… Zhan Ying got infected by Brother Infinite Borders, huh?"
"Hahaha. But I really can't hold it. Fine, I'll follow. Watching sometimes for fun isn't bad."
In just that short time, Zhan Ying's follower count exploded by another thirty to forty thousand.
Streamers on other platforms were jealous to death.
Brother Infinite Borders' heat…
After this, Lin Fan and Zhan Ying got a bit more familiar.
When the Go review ended, they discussed it a bit. Since Zhan Ying could play Naraka, they decided to queue a couple games together.
Lin Fan figured it would be easy.
But once they actually played, he realized he'd overestimated himself.
From landing to fighting, his headset nearly exploded—start to finish it was "save me, save me, save me."
And since they were duo queue with no extra teammates, the pressure doubled.
They even created a classic highlight scene:
They landed and got a Primordial Relic Bone.
From start to finish, Lin Fan fought nonstop, and then still had to pull Zhan Ying.
Under double pressure, he lost focus for a second, got hit from the side by poison mushrooms, and then the Dark Zone arrived—HP dropping nonstop.
"Hey, what the hell is this? We're stacking buffs now?"
"Can you save me?"
"I'm about to die myself!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Fire Mage charged him with ultimate on.
Lin Fan couldn't even finish using a heal—he could only brute-force trade into a full combo.
But his HP kept ticking down.
"Fine—come on!"
Fire Mage kept chasing. Lin Fan didn't indulge him—he raised his blade and cut back, killing him with a combo.
But then his remaining HP got eaten by the Dark Zone.
"…"
"…"
Their voice chat fell silent instantly.
Meanwhile, chat spammed nonstop.
"Hahahaha, I never imagined Brother Infinite Borders would die tragically in Gold/Silver. This is a double champion."
"This is way too much variety show value. I declare it the most classic performance. How do you even stack triple buffs?"
"Dead. Today was the most fun day I've had watching streams. Brother Infinite Borders and Zhan Ying duo is something else. I can't tell if Brother Infinite Borders got worse or if Zhan Ying really can't carry."
"This is the first time I've seen something this classic. You can die like that? You can tell Brother Infinite Borders is trying to outplay, but unavoidable HP loss is impossible to handle."
"Today I declare: Brother Infinite Borders + Zhan Ying = the Absurd Duo!"
…
Bilibili headquarters.
Traffic had been exploding lately.
And they knew exactly who was driving it.
In the executive meeting room, a table was placed in front of each director.
"On the possibility of cooperation with Douyu: discussing a further win-win plan…"
This proposal had been raised for a long time, and today, it was formally approved.
On the big screen in the room was Lin Fan's livestream…
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup