Ucal's pupils shrank instantly. He mashed Flash, trying to create distance once the stun ended and dodge the follow-up damage from the ultimate.
The good news was that Flash did go off.
The bad news was that he had already been locked onto by Syndra's ultimate.
Just as Syndra herself would say—her power was endless.
All four spheres slammed straight into Zed's body.
Faced with black stockings and flying spheres like that, what man could possibly endure it?
Naturally, Zed collapsed right in front of the turret.
An astonishing solo kill!
First Blood!
"Holy—" JackeyLove was laning bot when the system announcement suddenly rang out, making his heart jump.
Don't tell him Brother Fan failed to stabilize mid and got solo-killed instead?
The other three teammates wore similar expressions.
They immediately shifted their cameras to mid lane.
And there it was—not Syndra lying on the ground, but Zed.
Only then did it sink in.
Their mid laner had solo-killed the opponent and secured first blood.
"Brother Fan is insane. He solo-killed him just like that—and didn't even use Ignite."
"I really didn't expect your Syndra to be this good," Tian shook his head. This mid-lane swap actually seemed pretty solid.
At the very least, Knight's recent games had all been net negatives.
Mid–jungle synergy, mid–jungle synergy—there hadn't been any.
Instead, the pressure had all fallen on him.
If this kept up, who knew when he'd snap.
Like last game—he'd really wanted to point at Knight and ask: you were already chunked that low from ganks, so why were you still standing under tower? The enemy was LeBlanc!
Where did that confidence even come from?
That solo kill made his jungle clear feel faster.
The other lanes perked up as well.
After all, when the coach subbed Lin Fan in, everyone had their doubts.
Could mid lane really hold?
But now, not only could it hold—it had even produced a solo kill.
"I told you my Syndra is strong. Zed doesn't have Flash—he used it at 6:12."
"Got it." Mark immediately began noting down Ucal's Flash timer.
Because of that solo kill, the entire team's morale changed dramatically.
Every lane started playing more aggressively.
This game could be won.
"I really didn't expect dine to have… such a hobby. Cough." Wawa cleared his throat, trying to cover his lack of words.
This was the first time everyone had seen a solo-lane player ignore his own lane to watch teammates last-hit minions.
Didn't that just waste his early advantage?
Once level six hit, with Ignite and a full burst combo, Syndra shouldn't even be able to withstand it.
As for the livestream chat and the audience, curses flooded in.
What kind of substitution was this?
Even Sister Shuigui, who usually avoided trouble, couldn't hold back when she saw mid lane seemingly throwing, her fingers clattering across the keyboard.
But at that exact moment—Syndra flashed forward, shoved, instantly learned her ultimate, and deleted Zed under the tower.
Many people hadn't even pressed Enter yet and froze in place.
A solo kill?
What the hell—was that real?
Can that even happen?
Wawa was stunned for a second, but his professional instincts kicked in.
"What we're seeing here is a truly shocking solo kill."
It really was shocking.
One moment ago, Syndra looked like an idiot—especially in first-person view. Who spends lane phase staring at teammates' tower CS?
And just when everyone thought he was a liability, he completed a solo kill.
That level of reversal was absurd.
"You can tell now—dine was completely pretending to be a noob. He's actually a pro."
"No, he's still a noob. But isn't there a saying—noobs counter pros?"
"Syndra's kit is just simple. You just dump damage—nothing fancy."
"But that Flash shove was clean. I think dine really has something."
Everyone was watching first-person view, so it was even clearer.
The director quickly replayed the moment from a god's-eye perspective.
"dine was actually paying attention to mid lane the whole time, tracking his own lane state. He calculated that he was one minion away from level six, flashed without hesitation, shoved Zed, stunned him, and hit level six at the same time."
"The damage was calculated perfectly. The ultimate spheres cleared out Zed's remaining HP—and he didn't even use Ignite."
"In fact, we can see that Ucal was prepared. He knew Syndra was about to hit six. But the earlier movements were too deceptive. That sudden Flash forward really caught him off guard."
"So decisive. dine looks like a completely different player in mid—so confident." Tongxi sighed. Before, when casting dine's games, the impression was always that he'd rather do nothing than make a mistake.
So he looked dull.
But those plays just now… were incredibly sharp.
Everything was calculated to the decimal. He left Ucal zero room.
From Ucal's expression, he was clearly stunned by the solo kill, then immediately frustrated.
Which was normal.
Flash shove to the grave—wouldn't that annoy anyone?
And with a huge wave crashing into tower, plus Ignite instead of Teleport, he was guaranteed to lose a massive wave.
The lane was basically blown open.
First blood plus ten CS down—about a 600 gold gap.
For Zed, that hurt badly.
When an assassin can't kill and instead gets killed by a mage, he becomes useless.
Still, there was no choice. His first item had to be Hexdrinker to avoid getting one-shot by Syndra.
Unfortunately, this wasn't a clean recall—his gold was still short.
He could only grab a Null-Magic Mantle and a Long Sword.
That should at least ensure some safety.
He shouldn't get caught and deleted in one combo anymore.
Once he had some magic resistance, he could look for a comeback.
Ucal was experienced. He quickly adjusted his mentality.
Lin Fan, on the other hand, recalled with a massive 1700 gold.
After thinking it over, he decided to go for Crown of the Shattered Queen.
For Syndra, damage would be a bit lower, but survivability was much higher—especially against the enemy lineup.
Diana. Zed.
Their instant burst was terrifying.
So he directly bought Lost Chapter and a pair of Boots.
With the remaining gold, he could only add a small health potion. There wasn't enough left for wards.
"Tian, later can you drop a Control Ward near mid? I don't have Flash anymore—they might gank."
"Sure. I'll finish this camp, recall, and buy one for you."
Mid lane had started off smoothly this game. If the enemy jungler came and handed the advantage back, that would be a disaster.
Placing one or two wards was no problem.
A mid laner who could build an advantage deserved that kind of treatment.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup