TL: Int means to be a useless player who just dies to enemy
After recalling, Tian bought a Control Ward and immediately placed it in the lower half of mid lane.
Lin Fan himself had already placed a trinket ward in the upper half.
With both halves of mid lane fully lit up, the area was completely covered in vision.
With vision secured, Syndra could suppress Zed without restraint.
Even without her ultimate, she still had Ignite, plus an absolute item advantage.
Seventeen hundred gold versus eight hundred.
And on top of that, a pair of Boots.
Those twenty-five bonus movement speed gave Lin Fan much more reaction time. He didn't need to dodge every skill—just lowering Zed's hit rate was enough.
Combined with Syndra's superior auto-attack range, she could kite perfectly.
Ucal was being tormented to the point of misery.
The trades between the two sides weren't even on the same level.
He couldn't push the wave, couldn't contest mid at all—this was pure imprisonment.
Even though Zed had his ultimate, engaging first on Syndra was simply stupid.
The moment he landed, he'd eat full crowd control and burst, with no damage to show for it.
Regret crept in.
Why had he picked Zed in the first place?
He'd trusted the coach's plan—win lane, then endlessly target Lucian in teamfights.
But now, not only had he failed to gain an advantage, he'd already been solo-killed once.
At this rate, another death felt inevitable…
Where was the jungler? Come help!
Beichuan wasn't without ideas, but every time he made a move, the enemy reacted instantly.
It was obvious that mid lane vision had been carefully set up.
They were suppressing while leaving zero openings.
For a laner to dare play this aggressively without backup, it meant confidence.
From a jungler's perspective, if you showed on lane and didn't get anything done, it was a loss.
Viego hadn't shown on the map for over six minutes.
That clearly meant mid lane didn't need help—he just needed to maintain vision and keep farming.
And in teamfights, Viego paired with Syndra's single-target burst made it incredibly easy to pick up resets.
As long as Tian focused on farming, he'd have room to perform.
Beichuan, on the other hand, had to find opportunities to create advantages in mid or bot.
Otherwise, this game would still be hard to win.
Even if Lucian could be deleted in teamfights, a fed Viego and Syndra would still be impossible to deal with.
So Beichuan was even more anxious than the laners.
"Shit!"
Ucal ate another Q.
Even with a bit of magic resistance, he still couldn't withstand Syndra's heavy damage.
One Q reliably took over a hundred HP.
At level six, Zed only had the extra eighty HP from Doran's Blade—no other health items.
Every blast felt like it hit straight to his heart.
The worst part was that Syndra's Q felt scripted.
This was ridiculous.
Up to now, he'd only dodged a single Q.
Absolutely numb.
Watching his HP steadily drop, he had a sinking feeling—he was about to get solo-killed again.
A fed Syndra wasn't just talk.
If Lin Fan could hear Ucal's thoughts, he'd definitely give him a thumbs-up.
Yep—your sixth sense is pretty accurate.
Zed was pinned under tower, and in such a cramped space, dodging was nearly impossible.
Three consecutive Qs landed, with autos mixed in for extra damage.
Zed's HP dropped below half.
From the audience's perspective, it was almost comical.
Zed twisted back and forth under his turret.
Step—Q.
Another step—Q.
A champion that shouldn't be eating skills walked straight into them.
Absurd.
Absurd for the viewers.
Deadly serious for Zed.
Once the HP threshold was reached, Lin Fan moved.
He didn't want to give Zed room to use his ultimate, nor any time to react.
Flash.
EQ shove.
Zed was stunned under his own turret.
An auto.
W pulled the nearby sphere.
Slam.
Zed's already unhealthy HP cratered.
Lin Fan calmly applied Ignite.
Another auto followed.
Ucal reacted quickly, pressing R to dodge the auto damage.
He reappeared under the turret.
But Ignite continued to burn his HP away, second by second.
Ucal could only watch in despair as his health ticked down.
Utter hopelessness.
Last game had felt incredible.
This game was pure suffering.
The reversal had come far too fast.
As Zed fell once more beneath the turret, Ucal's mouse kept moving, his mind going blank.
If the first solo kill could be chalked up to luck…
Then what was the second one?
Many didn't want to admit it, but the facts were undeniable.
Dine could play mid.
And his Syndra was very, very good.
"Another solo kill! And this one's under the turret!" Wawa exclaimed. "This Syndra is incredibly clean. Those Qs are so accurate—I feel like his Karthus wouldn't be bad either."
No one had expected him to come in and deliver two solo kills on Ucal.
Of course, Zed being the pick mattered a lot.
If it were another mid champion, it wouldn't have been so easy.
But TT chose Zed themselves.
If they thought it could work and it didn't, that was on them.
The once-deflated Top Esports fan section now had fire in their eyes.
Cheering sticks waved wildly.
"TES!"
"Let's go!"
"TES!"
"Let's go!"
After six straight losses, Top Esports desperately needed a win.
This game finally gave them hope.
Mid lane had an early advantage.
Looking back now, the previous losses really hadn't been dine's fault.
He was just a support—how much impact could he have?
The real culprit had been Knight.
As a mid laner, he didn't roam, couldn't teamfight, and dealt no damage.
He soaked up team resources and did nothing with them.
He should've been benched earlier.
Maybe they'd already be on a three- or four-game win streak by now.
Nice.
Mid lane was completely stabilized.
Zed had been solo-killed twice and lost another massive wave to the turret.
He was down a level and a half.
There was no way he could keep laning.
Once Syndra's ultimate was up again, it'd be an instant kill on sight.
Over on TT's side, they were completely stunned.
If the first solo kill could be blamed on carelessness, the second one told the real story.
The suddenly-subbed-in mid laner had substance.
They'd thought Top Esports had given up.
In reality, they'd prepared Plan B.
Looking at that Zed pick now, it felt like a clown act.
This Syndra… had utterly crushed Ucal in lane.
How could they have thought teamfights were that simple? Just kill Lucian and it's done?
In the backstage lounge, Luo Sheng slowly let out a breath.
"Damn it… I knew you could do it."
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup