In Lin Fan's Douyu livestream room, even though the stream hadn't started yet, its popularity was already sitting in the top ten across the entire platform, with the bullet comments constantly scrolling by.
"So this is Rise of Kingdom Bro's livestream room? Didn't expect so many fellow cultivators squatting here today."
"Mostly here to wait for him to go live so we can flame him. Yesterday TES won their match, it was a festive day, so we held back."
"Exactly. This guy is way too ridiculous. From nine o'clock until twelve on the dot—three full hours—and he didn't even touch League of Legends once!"
"Never trains, only plays all that random junk. Isn't he just dragging JackeyLove down?"
"He probably won't be dragging anyone down anymore. I just checked Knight's match history—his form seems to be back. He played four games this morning, all MVPs. If nothing unexpected happens, Rise of Kingdom Bro is getting pressed back onto the bench again."
"Then all I can say is, good. Yesterday I was grinding my teeth in anger."
"When is this inflated guy streaming?"
"Sometimes he streams for an hour or two in the morning, usually starting at 9:30, helping us build lineups."
At this moment, a little lamb mixed in among the wolves typed into the chat.
"Build lineups?"
"Damn, has his entire pro career really been completely taken over by Rise of Kingdoms?"
"Can't hold it in anymore. I have to flame him today."
"Isn't it just 9:30? It's almost here, just wait it out."
"I'm not sure. He might stand us up."
As time ticked by, even after passing the 9:30 mark, Lin Fan's livestream still hadn't gone live.
"Damn, I just checked—this guy didn't even play ranked."
"Bro, are you dreaming? How could Rise of Kingdom Bro possibly go play rank…"
"I'm out, looks like he won't be streaming this morning."
Quite a few people decided to leave for now and come back in the afternoon.
But right at that moment, the previously dark livestream room suddenly lit up.
On screen was the Rise of Kingdoms login interface, and in the bottom-right corner was Lin Fan with his webcam turned on.
"Brothers, the usual morning lineup-building is back. You can scan the code—first come, first served."
"Build your head! Go train already!"
"Why can you not train at all as a pro player?"
"Look behind you—JackeyLove has already queued three games with Mark this morning. Even though they lost them all, he's worked hard enough."
…
The bullet comments went completely crazy, but Lin Fan didn't care at all and gave no response.
He was fully focused on his own business.
"Hey, this brother is S1 like me. His card pool is pretty decent. Being able to field Lü Meng means he's pretty lucky. He's short on tactics, but those can be drawn later. Once you level up things like the Command Platform in your main city, it'll be fine.
Start with a Han Bow lineup, then add a Wu Bow lineup. Playing S1 like this is basically no pressure."
This left the viewers in the livestream completely stunned again.
What does this mean? After retiring, does this guy really not plan to cash in on traffic at all?
We're basically his bread and butter.
In the pro scene, having a huge fanbase also represents commercial value.
But his current attitude inevitably made people suspicious.
"Ah, so annoying!"
Just then, JackeyLove's shout came through the stream. You could clearly feel how furious he was.
"What's going on? Why are there so many Heimerdinger supports in bot lane? Did the ranked environment change this much all of a sudden?"
—
"But I really don't think Heimerdinger is suitable as a support. Still, you just can't beat him in lane." Mark also sounded helpless.
This game, they had picked a Caitlyn–Lux bottom lane.
Yet they still couldn't win lane.
Once three turrets were set up, it was basically five versus two, and they were pushed under their turret.
Later on, this Heimerdinger's damage was outrageously high.
One teamfight dealt a massive amount of damage and ended the game.
They played four games this morning, and three of them were crushed by Heimerdinger.
No wonder JackeyLove was so depressed.
"Fan-ge, in my impression, you were the first to use Heimerdinger as a support. How do you play against him in bot lane? What champions can deal with him?" A Shui suddenly asked.
At the same time, the bullet comments in the livestream suddenly paused.
Heimerdinger support really had become popular during this period.
Not just on the Korean server—even the Chinese server had a lot of them.
It was just that very few of these Heimerdingers were played well. Most people picked him purely to grief their own ADC.
Most of them only thought Heimerdinger support looked fun and wanted to try it, without understanding the fundamentals at all.
Of course, there were also some players who played him well and immediately started releasing guides on various platforms.
Lin Fan hadn't expected that after only playing Heimerdinger support a few times, he'd actually spark a Heimerdinger-support craze.
Of course, this also had something to do with running into Uzi.
After all, his popularity at the time was very high. As long as he streamed, a huge crowd would show up.
"Heimerdinger support has very obvious advantages. First, by relying on turrets, you can quickly stack Spellthief's Edge and secure early vision control.
If you pair him with an ADC like Ashe, there's basically no combination that can contest lane priority with you."
Lin Fan continued helping his little fan build lineups while explaining things to JackeyLove.
"Yeah, it's seriously disgusting."
"As for Nautilus, Thresh, and Blitzcrank, these three just can't deal with Heimerdinger. You've seen how I play against them—just place your turrets in front of you and they'll never be able to hook you."
"Generally, it's better to pick long-range champions into him."
"You picking Caitlyn and Lux is barely playable in lane, but it's really hard to get an advantage."
Listening to their exchange, the bullet comments stopped attacking Lin Fan and instead started offering suggestions.
"Would Syndra support be better? Take W at level one and just throw."
"Zyra. Heimer drops mini-turrets, Zyra drops plants—perfect counter."
"But there's actually one hero who can just casually beat him."
"What hero?"
Even Mark perked up his ears.
He'd seen Lin Fan operate Heimerdinger in scrims. That kind of thinking was something ranked Heimer players couldn't compare to at all.
Ranked Heimerdingers purely relied on champion mechanics, yet even that was already extremely annoying.
If Lin Fan explained how to beat Heimerdinger, there should be a pretty good solution.
"Ying Zheng can beat Heimerdinger. Drop your E skill and he can't push anymore."
"…What?"
At that moment, the livestream was flooded with question marks.
"Holy crap, Honor of Kings!"
"Something's wrong—this is like a husky mixed into a pack of wolves."
"No wonder Dine felt off. He's not just Rise of Kingdom Bro—he's also an Honor of Kings addict!"
"There's no Ying Zheng in League of Legends," JackeyLove rolled his eyes.
"If there's no Ying Zheng, then there's nothing you can do. Either join it or ban it," Lin Fan shrugged.
Mark didn't say anything, but he was clearly tempted.
From these recent laning experiences, it was obvious that Heimerdinger support wasn't weak at all.
It was definitely something worth learning…
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup