Once both sides' compositions were locked in, as long as their ideas aligned, the game was naturally headed straight toward the thirty-minute mark.
After thinking for a moment, Lin Fan decided to start with Cull.
There was no helping it—the Orianna pick was something he hadn't expected either.
Since Xiaohu clearly didn't plan on giving him any openings, then they'd just farm it out. Once Cull stacked to 100 CS, that was an immediate 450 gold.
Which meant Cull was basically free money—you could even sell it afterward for another 180 gold.
Add in the free boots from runes, and the gold optimization was pushed to the extreme, not to mention First Strike.
After all, Corki's Q has longer range than Orianna's Q, plus Corki's attack range is longer too. When Orianna casts abilities onto Corki, she'll eat damage in return, triggering First Strike.
So this game, the rune value was completely maxed out.
Before laning even really started, he was already nearly a thousand gold ahead. It was honestly hard to imagine how he could lose.
When Xiaohu saw Corki's starting item, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Isn't this great? Mid lane just farming it out, then settling it in mid-to-late game teamfights.
Nice. Very nice.
The pressure dropped instantly.
…
At one minute thirty, the mid wave arrived.
Lin Fan piloted Corki and slowly began pushing forward.
Xiaohu felt immense pressure and kept backing up—clearly not wanting to trade.
Lin Fan didn't continue forcing. First, he wanted to read Xiaohu's mindset. Once he figured out how Xiaohu planned to play, dealing with him would be easy.
That retreat alone showed a lack of confidence in the lane, meaning Lin Fan could effortlessly take control of lane priority.
He wasn't in a rush. Corki stayed around mid lane, not eager to cash in First Strike right away.
There were plenty of chances. No need to rush the investment—the early damage wasn't that high anyway.
Seeing Corki's movements, General Tiger finally relaxed.
What if it was a bait? That would've been troublesome.
At least based on how things looked now, Brother Infinite Borders didn't seem to have any ideas for him, so Xiaohu started watching the minions and looking for last-hits.
As the timing for the second wave approached, Lin Fan suddenly activated E—Gatling Gun—linking it with auto attacks and went straight at Orianna.
Xiaohu reacted fast, using his shield to absorb a chunk of damage before pulling Orianna back.
But Lin Fan refused to let go, chasing and firing two more autos.
He even crossed the minion wave… stepped in for another auto!
Then Lin Fan simply stayed there, standing at the angle between RNG's mid turret and the raptor pit.
He turned back to auto a minion, hit level two, and brazenly blocked Orianna's path, denying her experience entirely.
General Tiger started panicking, but staring at a level-two Corki, he silently conceded.
What else could he do? Just endure it…
At that moment, Corki's Q flew straight at his face.
Xiaohu hurriedly sidestepped and dodged the Phosphorus Bomb, but what followed was Corki's auto attack.
He took damage—and since he was near his turret, the mid lane minions wouldn't help him hit Corki.
Alone and isolated, how could a level-one Orianna fight a level-two Corki?
His HP dropped below half.
When the camera cut back, Guan Zeyuan almost couldn't accept it, shouting out loud:
"Huh? Mid lane is already at half HP?!"
"What is going on here?"
With E still active, Corki continued spraying bullets.
Orianna under tower clearly couldn't handle this tempo.
Her HP plummeted.
It dropped all the way down to 173.
A terrifying, miserable health bar.
Both potions were chugged instantly—check the time, 2:14. All consumables gone.
The pressure was unimaginable.
She didn't dare step forward at all.
No one expected mid lane to be denied experience like this.
She still wasn't level two.
XiaoSan quietly said, "I have a question… why does Orianna only have two CS? She's still level one?"
"The pressure Brother Infinite Borders is giving is insane. If this was a Doran's Blade start, it honestly feels like he might've gone for a solo kill."
"Ahem… that would be a bit too crazy. Not that far. Not that far."
Meanwhile, the chat was exploding.
"Xiaohu is such a fraud. I don't get why people used to hype him up."
"There really were no good mids back then, otherwise no one would've spent forty million to sign trash."
"I now declare: domestic all-time number one mid—Dine! Number two—Lu Benwei!"
…
"Holy shit, I think that's completely valid. Everyone stand up!"
"I honestly don't understand… how does a level-one Orianna get forced out of the XP zone? She's trembling under tower."
"Pure cowardice. From start to finish he ran. After throwing out one E, he didn't even auto once—just ran away. Absolute nonsense."
"Mid lane is completely blown… and the jungle can't play either."
In RNG's back room, Tabe watched the game, his expression growing serious.
He hadn't expected Orianna to look like she was about to die just laning against Corki.
Being pushed in was one thing—but missing experience and CS was disastrous.
From just two mid-lane shots, he saw Xiaohu miss two minions' worth of experience.
Is the pressure really that high? Really that high?!
Fine if you're under pressure—but playing like this means every other lane is doomed too.
Especially when he saw Tian's Viego heading straight toward blue buff.
Mid lane was getting crushed… holding blue would be extremely difficult.
They could only pin their hopes on the bot duo. Aphelios and Renata still had lane control and push, meaning they could rotate first.
3:09.
As the mid wave crashed into tower, Xiaohu finally cracked and recalled at the second turret.
He lost a massive amount of experience—still only level two, with under 100 HP.
Meanwhile, Corki was level three, healthy, half mana, and immediately moved toward blue buff.
"Their bot will arrive first. We're slower. Kite it out. Even if Orianna TPs, she has to come from mid. We can force this fight," Lin Fan commanded.
After hearing that, Tian immediately stopped hitting the camp.
But he looped around, planning to approach from the river to link up with his team.
Unexpectedly, he ran straight into the enemy bot lane, who blocked him completely.
The situation changed instantly.
Wei didn't hesitate and charged in with Q.
Behind him, Ming rushed to follow up with CC.
Tian reacted quickly, flashing immediately.
Seeing Viego's HP drop rapidly, the RNG trio went bloodthirsty. There was no way they were letting this kill go.
In an instant, both Sejuani and Aphelios flashed forward.
Seeing this, Lin Fan activated W—Valkyrie!
A trail of scorched flames was left behind in the narrow choke point.
Then a Q landed cleanly on both Sejuani and Aphelios.
Their HP bars visibly dropped.
Tian knew he wasn't getting out, so he dumped as much damage as possible.
Even though he gave up First Blood, with the two of them working together, they still killed Sejuani—despite her being healed.
Zeri's laser arrived before she did, sliding in and opening fire!
It looked like a 2v2, but Yuumi was dealing damage too.
One Yuumi Q exploded, and Aphelios' HP plummeted.
"Kill them! Kill them all! No one gets away! Everyone except Renata has no Flash!"
Tian shouted angrily in comms.
You want to kill me? Then everyone's paying the price.
Originally, it was just going to be a blue invade and back to farming.
Who told you to resist so desperately?
If you can't resist, just enjoy it obediently.
Mid lane was already forced back—yet you still insisted on taking a disadvantaged skirmish. Isn't that just accelerating your loss?
The casters were yelling at the top of their lungs.
"GALA and Wei both flash! But Brother Infinite Borders is here! Both of them are burning in the W! JackeyLove has arrived too! Corki takes Sejuani's head, Aphelios has no Flash and can't escape—now they turn on Renata!"
Corki's triple kill flashed across the big screen.
Guan Zeyuan looked like he was emotionally synced with RNG, his face twisting.
"Bad, bad, bad! After this fight, RNG is done! A three-kill Corki—I don't even know what that means!"
"My god, at just four minutes, Brother Infinite Borders already has three kills. That fight was way too rushed."
"Look at his items—Tear of the Goddess, Blasting Wand, and an Amplifying Tome. The pressure is absolutely maxed out."
"That item pressure is insane," XiaoSan said, already imagining Orianna's prison-like laning phase.
Especially since the wave was now pushing back.
You could picture how horrifying that would be.
In fact, when Xiaohu heard the triple-kill sound, his face twisted, looking like he was about to cry.
Mid lane prison. Hardcore prison.
Seeing Corki land, he immediately piloted Orianna backward—only then did he feel safe.
But Lin Fan didn't hesitate at all, instantly W'ing straight at his face.
With this kind of itemization, Corki hitting Orianna was dimensional reduction.
The slow and burn from W caused Orianna's HP to visibly evaporate.
Q—Phosphorus Bomb—hit directly. With two points in Q plus AP scaling, Xiaohu couldn't handle it at all, not to mention E constantly shredding magic resist.
In the blink of an eye, Orianna—who already only had eight bars of HP—lost five of them.
And a +36 gold notification popped up on Corki.
The horrifying damage drew gasps from the arena.
This was inhuman. Completely inhuman.
Xiaohu hurriedly sped himself up to run.
But Corki kept chasing.
Two more autos.
He'd just teleported back—now it was basically death again.
The wave was frozen by Lin Fan. With no HP, Xiaohu didn't dare step up to push.
He fell into a vicious cycle.
…
On RNG's stage, Xiaohu wore a bitter expression.
You guys fed him three kills—how am I supposed to lane?!
CS was 11 to 28…
Mid lane was utterly shattered.
"Corki's damage is way too high. Xiaohu really got chunked there."
"What do we even do now? Call the jungler to help push?"
The casters started brainstorming.
They had to relieve mid lane pressure. If they couldn't, when would Orianna ever get to scale?
Wei didn't even farm—he piloted Sejuani straight to mid.
No matter what, the wave had to be pushed in, then Xiaohu could recall again…
Seeing Sejuani mid, Tian also wanted to cause trouble.
You want to push the wave? Then we won't let you.
But Lin Fan pinged him.
"Don't come. Go invade his jungle. If he comes here, mid and jungle both collapse. You want to help Xiaohu push—did you ask me first?"
"Got it!" Tian trusted Lin Fan completely. If that was the call, then straight into Wei's jungle.
If Viego scales, he's a carry too.
4:40 on the clock.
Corki was already level five, with three points in Q.
Them coming up to push the wave was just giving him opportunities.
That wasn't an exaggeration.
Watching Sejuani and Orianna inch toward their turret, Lin Fan pressed W.
Valkyrie—straight to the face.
"Passion is burning~"
…
At the caster desk, seeing Sejuani come mid to relieve pressure, XiaoSan sighed.
"Orianna really can't play the lane anymore. She has to call the jungler to help push, recall, then come back to catch the bounce."
"But the CS gap will only get bigger. Once Corki finishes Luden's, it's hard to imagine how RNG plays."
"True. Though he has three kills, the key is still that Brother Infinite Borders dominated the lane early, forcing Xiaohu home and allowing him to support Tian immediately."
"What RNG needs to think about now is how to survive Corki's power spike. Pushing this wave is fine—" Guan Zeyuan hadn't finished speaking when Corki W'd forward again.
Burn it! Just burn it!
Autos plus E, nonstop damage onto Orianna.
Everyone was stunned by the scene.
The damage was absurd.
Orianna's already unhealthy HP dropped below 100.
Lin Fan tossed a Q backward.
Under that HP pressure, Xiaohu had no time to react and instantly flashed.
But the flash ran straight into Corki's Phosphorus Bomb.
The level-three Q deleted the rest of his HP…
Lin Fan slowly pulled his hand away from the Flash key.
If that predictive Q hadn't hit, he would've flashed to chase.
But Sejuani posed no threat—no red buff, no way to keep him.
Once the kill was secured, there was no danger at all.
Rampage!
As the fourth kill came in, Corki achieved a Rampage at just five minutes.
And the most terrifying part?
This was only the beginning…
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup