The audience watched the five TES players win the match and bow to everyone.
They were so excited their bodies trembled.
Back when TES was on a five-loss streak in Spring Split, everyone was guessing who could stand up and save the team.
At first, people thought it would be JackeyLove, and then later… Knight.
The "Water Hand duo" would work together to drag TES out of the pit.
TL: Originally was Shui Shou, Shui(water) from JackeyLove's name, Shou(hand) from Knight's nickname Golden Hand.
But what happened was basically: JackeyLove pulling the cart up front, while Knight kept loading trash onto it—more and more, heavier and heavier—
Until JackeyLove couldn't even move anymore.
One big, fat "it's doomed."
Everyone thought TES had no chance this year.
But no one expected that Brother Infinite Borders—the one getting flamed nonstop—would appear as the substitute mid laner and shoulder the banner.
In the regular season, he surged with an incomparable momentum, forcefully hacking out a ten-win streak.
After winning the Spring Split title, he even kicked Knight out of TES.
If someone said that at the start of Spring Split, nobody would've dared believe it.
Pure absurdity.
And now in Summer, TES's momentum looked even fiercer than Spring.
People originally thought the patch shift would hit TES hard.
But it didn't. Not at all.
That level of dominance was hard to believe.
They even set the shortest match-time record in the entire league.
Casting TES games was every caster's dream—because you got to clock out early.
Imagine: two twenty-minute games and you're home.
Seven or eight hundred yuan of caster fee, just like that.
Isn't that sweet?
Compare that to other teams: slower patch meta, slower tempo, dragging games to 30–40 minutes—pure torture.
But the reason TES could stay this stable…
Was Brother Infinite Borders.
This mysterious man.
He looked like he ate, drank, and played all day without ever working or training—
Yet he was undeniably a savage.
People kept saying his form would drop.
Drop? Like this?
A true ocean of champions mid laner.
And he just pulled out mid Vel'Koz.
That champion hadn't appeared in pro play for three whole years.
People truly couldn't see through what Lin Fan was.
At first glance, the thought was simple:
Savage.
An absolute savage in pro league, with no rival.
But watching him perform in league, and then listening to his interviews, you couldn't help feeling worried:
How long could this form last?
No one knew.
So everyone stayed trapped in a contradiction…
But one fact stood in front of them:
Under Brother Infinite Borders' leadership, TES had already taken a six-win streak.
And they were charging straight at the all-time record.
"Thanks to TES and UP for the wonderful match. TES has now created a six-game win streak. We look forward to them going even farther. Next round, TES will face their old rival: RNG!"
…
Douyu and Bilibili had reached a cooperation intent.
On July 3, staff on both platforms were incredibly busy.
Because they wanted to run a huge event.
First: a platform alliance tournament.
They wanted League streamers from each platform to participate.
The champion team would not only get traffic support, but also a 200,000 yuan prize.
Five people in a team means 40,000 each—pretty good, honestly.
Of course, the money was small.
The real prize was the platform traffic boost.
Win the title and you take off.
Especially since there were even some former pros in the mix.
Beating a pro team would be a chance to become famous overnight.
The most interesting part: streamers from both platforms could freely form teams.
A team could be all Douyu, all Bilibili, or mixed.
In the end, it was all laying the groundwork for "interaction."
If a team was only from one platform, how could you do cross-platform interaction?
So it was all planned, and being rolled out steadily.
Once the two platforms partnered, ads went everywhere.
And since Huya wasn't included, they immediately felt pressured.
These two were already pulling stunts off Brother Infinite Borders' traffic alone—how could they do this?
Urgent…
So they activated every connection they had, trying to get involved.
After all, they had plenty of League streamers too.
Bilibili was happy to see it.
More platforms meant more total traffic.
They didn't have many League streamers anyway, and big streamers were especially rare.
Douyu, of course, didn't want to bring Huya along.
But the problem was: they shared the same big boss, and at one point they even wanted to merge into one company.
If adding Huya could increase influence, the big boss would obviously welcome it.
His word was: balance.
After all, Douyu signed TES—MSI champions—traffic maxed, topics maxed.
It even looked like they might surpass Huya.
So this gave Huya's execs room to maneuver.
Even if Douyu's upper management didn't want it, they got forced to agree.
With Huya joining, the heat instantly skyrocketed.
So all three platforms started pushing together.
After this news fermented for two days, a lot of streamers wanted to pull Lin Fan into their team.
—
But none of them could reach him.
Lin Fan's identity was special too: an active pro player.
Usually, active pros wouldn't join this kind of event.
It was a waste of time.
But everyone knew Brother Infinite Borders was different.
He had tons of free time…
If you could invite him, you basically had a championship ticket.
Among streamers, who could possibly outplay Brother Infinite Borders?
Forget streamers—most pros can't either.
So in the first moment, Xiao Zao and K-god messaged Lin Fan on WeChat.
Both wanted him on their teams.
Fans watched closely, waiting to see who could "land this pick."
Some people even dreamed of a fantasy lineup:
Top Letme, jungle Mlxg, mid Brother Infinite Borders, bot Uzi, support Zzitai—RNG reborn.
Sadly… Season 8 didn't win.
Others strongly opposed it.
"What's so fun about camping bot lane? You want Brother Infinite Borders to play four-protect-one?"
"Honestly I still want to see Brother Infinite Borders paired with Uzi."
"I don't know what Brother Infinite Borders' attitude is. Feels like he'll probably team with Uzi."
"Hard to say. Brother Infinite Borders is also really close with K-god. Both are inviting him—he's in an awkward spot."
"I think you're all overthinking. Outside of matches, does Brother Infinite Borders even play League on stream? He's always playing other games. He'll refuse everyone. He's not joining."
"Damn, that actually makes sense. Brother Infinite Borders always treats League like work. After clocking out, why would he keep doing 'work' with a platform tournament? They probably can't invite him."
"So the scene you want won't happen. These three platforms are idiots for hosting a League tournament. They might as well do a Go tournament—Brother Infinite Borders would definitely join."
"Uh… your analysis is fine, but the Go tournament thing is crazy. Hardly any streamers would join. Only a few Go streamers…"
"Your reasoning is sound, but you still have to pick the right game. Apex could be good—but those streamers don't have high heat. If Brother Infinite Borders joins, he'll join for sure."
"For platforms to farm heat, they'll pick the hottest game. In China that's League. They can't exactly do Honor of Kings, right?"
"Honestly… that could be fun too."
"Let's see tonight. The Goose Goose Duck squad is reuniting—maybe we'll hear some inside info."
"Yeah. It's been a long time since we had Goose Goose Duck fun."
"Brother Infinite Borders is streaming late today. Wonder what he's doing."
A lot of viewers discussed this in Uzi and Crystal Brother's streams.
That was the whole point of running the tournament: traffic and hype.
Bilibili, Huya, and Douyu all saw their app downloads spike in the backend. The effect really showed.
Of course, for Douyu, Huya joining made things slightly less perfect.
Finally, amid everyone's waiting, Lin Fan went live.
At the same time, his stream's popularity broke 15 million!
And it kept climbing.
"Which team is Brother Infinite Borders joining? I think teaming with Uzi is great. LUL squad—guaranteed champions."
"Better if he carries a pure streamer team. A pro doesn't need to play with pros. That'd be more entertaining."
"Team with Xiao Chaomeng. His top lane is fierce. Family pressure kept him from going pro."
"LMAO, Xiao Chaomeng? What does top lane have to do with mid? If you ask me, team with Shali. Shali's jungle is the real deal. Strong-strong combo—you could even kill your way into Worlds!"
"Just play with Crystal Brother…"
A lot of people were basically trying to help the streamer they supported win Brother Infinite Borders.
But Lin Fan spoke bluntly:
"No. What's the point of joining a League tournament? I must have something wrong with my head. Pro league already never ends. Where do I find the time for this stuff?
"No time. No time."
"I'm not joining this tournament. And… whether I win or lose has nothing to do with me. The level is kind of low. Doesn't feel challenging."
Chat spammed nonstop.
"Hahahaha, I called it. Brother Infinite Borders would never join. Like he said: the level isn't enough, and it eats into his life time. Who spends their off-hours doing more work? Nobody."
"True. Totally understandable."
"No wonder Uzi and Crystal Brother asked and then had no follow-up. They got rejected."
"Yeah, unlike us they actually have his contact."
"Then this tournament's hype drops a lot. Might as well just watch Brother Infinite Borders stream."
Hearing Lin Fan refuse to join the platform League tournament, everyone got disappointed.
But that was also fine.
If he didn't join random events, it wouldn't affect the domestic league.
At this point, Summer Split was reaching mid-season.
And Summer directly determined Worlds slots.
Most importantly, the Asian Games roster would be selected after Summer ended.
So maintaining league performance was the top priority.
…
Soon a 16-player Goose Goose Duck lobby filled up.
A goose holding a big hammer was the most eye-catching.
No choice—his exclusive skin launched early.
That's what a spokesperson deserves.
"Brother Infinite Borders, you really won't join the tournament?" Jiezou asked.
"Not joining… come on, come on. Hurry, start a round first. It's been ages since I played with you guys."
"Go, go, go!" Crystal Brother shouted in voice.
This round, Lin Fan was Mimic.
He started running around looking for people.
But honestly, if he just said it and then stabbed someone, he'd get cut down instantly.
So Lin Fan didn't do that.
Instead, he sprinted around yelling "true heart for true heart,"
then ran alone toward the Generator Room.
The moment he entered, he saw three people circling around.
He glanced at the IDs overhead.
"K-god, Xiao Zao, General Yu."
What were these three doing here?
"A meeting?"
Xiao Zao jumped in shock.
Because when Lin "Big Hammer" walked in, he saw three red names.
That meant among them, there had to be a Mimic.
But they'd already verified identities and none were duplicates.
So this Big Hammer had to be Mimic!
After this time, Uzi had gotten really skilled. If he was a good guy, his logic was crystal clear.
But he was far away—he could only cough as a warning.
The others also reacted a beat later and prepared to knife Lin Fan!
"I—damn, those three are wolves…"
Lin Fan saw Black-Skin KunKun walk over.
He bolted instantly.
"Xiao Zao, K-god, General Yu—three wolves!"
"Xiao Zao, K-god, General Yu—three wolves!"
Right out of spawn, he hard-called three wolves.
"Insane. Even though Brother Infinite Borders hasn't played in a long time, his brain still works. One glance and he understood."
"Variety show value maxed! I just ran from Uzi's stream—his expression had me dying."
"He was totally confused. Did nothing and still got exposed."
"Honestly, three people grouped in that spot is super obvious."
Without stabbing anyone, he still called out three wolves immediately.
Even if people didn't fully believe Lin Fan, the three got bound together as a trio.
So there was no surprise:
Coward wolves… finished tasks and won easily.
But what really drew attention wasn't that game's process.
It was what Lin Fan said when people asked him earlier.
He wasn't joining the platform tournament.
That meant the three platforms' biggest heat source was gone.
So the moment management got that news, they panicked.
We're hosting this tournament… isn't it basically for you?
Brother Infinite Borders, how did you not notice that?
How can you just refuse?
Pro matches are work, sure—but isn't a platform tournament just "relaxing with friends" off-hours?
Douyu had already started reaching out, hoping Brother Infinite Borders would change his mind…
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup