After finishing red buff, Beichuan moved his camera down to bot lane, preparing to gank JackeyLove.
But the moment he looked, he was stunned. The opposing bot lane had actually given up the wave and didn't plan on rushing level two at all.
Was this for real? With the advantage in hand, they chose not to push forward and instead let the wave go.
Was this really JackeyLove?
Had losing so many games actually changed him?
"The enemy bot duo is probably on alert," someone said. "They likely guessed you started red and planned to level-two gank bot. In that case there's no opportunity—just farm up first."
"Alright. I'll clear a bit more and come down later. Once levels come up, they won't be able to hold back. They'll want to expand their advantage."
…
Caster's desk.
"Top Esports' bot lane didn't go for level two."
"Very sharp instincts. Beichuan trying to level-two gank bot would be pretty hard."
Seeing that bot lane wouldn't generate any action, the director shifted the camera to mid lane.
Mid should be a one-sided beating of dine, right?
Sure enough, that health bar didn't look very healthy.
Wawa had just opened his mouth to speak, but after taking a closer look—Syndra's health bar was actually ahead!
Instead, Zed had been beaten down to half HP.
They immediately checked the consumables. Ucal's starting items were extremely aggressive: Doran's Blade plus one potion, and he had already used it.
Syndra had also used a potion, but she had started with two—so she still had an advantage in sustain.
In this situation, dine not only had better consumables, he even had a health lead…
And this was only level one.
That meant the early laning had gone extremely well.
Like drinking water, only the drinker knows if it's hot or cold.
At first, Ucal thought this mid lane matchup would be easy, no pressure at all.
Once he locked in Zed, he was ready for a personal highlight show.
But once laning actually started, he realized just how wrong he was.
The pressure from the other side was completely maxed out.
It was no weaker than when he used to face top-tier mid laners in the LCK.
If you covered the IDs, it honestly felt like he was playing against Faker.
It sounded exaggerated, but that was the reality.
He was dodging like crazy, yet he just couldn't avoid that Q.
When he tried to throw a counter-Q, it got dodged every single time.
Not only that, the opponent kept sneaking in auto attacks while casting spells—meaning he was taking the full damage every trade.
Each combo repeatedly triggered Arcane Comet, and every hit added over ten extra damage. He really couldn't take it.
He lost the trades, and his consumables were gone.
The opponent had fully brought out Syndra's strength—this was lane-bully level dominance.
He took a deep breath. Don't panic. Just play safer from here on.
If his HP kept getting chipped down and he had to recall before level six, the lane would become very hard. There was a real chance Syndra would hit six first and kill him in one combo.
Especially since he didn't have Teleport—he had to hold on a bit longer.
Watching Zed tread carefully in mid lane, retreating at the slightest movement.
The audience started quietly discussing with the friends around them.
"Dine… this Syndra actually looks pretty good."
"Yeah. At least in the first two or three levels, he gave no openings and even got an advantage. Honestly, it feels a bit stronger than Knight."
"This isn't just 'a bit.' Last game, Knight would've already been AFK under tower at this point."
"Looking at it this way… White Moonlight's substitution was actually pretty solid. Still feels kind of dreamlike though—this guy was playing support just last week."
"Probably because Mark joined, so he directly switched to mid."
"Switching to mid is great. Isn't he playing well? I always thought Knight was the primary culprit before—way too ridiculous."
…
Seeing that the opponent wasn't stepping up, Lin Fan calmly switched his screen left and right. It had already become a habit—whenever he could slack off, he would.
After all, they couldn't even touch his HP.
Nice. Zoom's last-hitting under tower was impeccable—extremely stable.
Ornn versus Rumble wasn't a difficult matchup. Their kits were pretty similar.
So top lane basically went back and forth pushing waves. Solo kills were unlikely.
Top lane would stay balanced unless the jungler interfered.
Mid lane wasn't playing out like everyone expected, so the director kept the camera there.
They saw Zed hanging back, while Syndra farmed in a stop-and-go rhythm.
It felt strange—almost robotic.
The broadcast switched to first-person view.
Immediately, it was a "holy crap" moment.
Player dine was constantly switching screens.
But unlike Faker's rapid-fire camera swaps, he lingered on each lane for four or five seconds.
That made Syndra look clumsy—like a robot.
"What is dine doing?"
"Look at his mouse—are he counting CS?" Miller was quick to notice.
"Looks like it. One… two… Zoom's CS fundamentals are really solid—he didn't miss a single tower minion."
"But wait, isn't he in a match right now? He's still laning mid. Why is his camera on his teammates?"
"Maybe when he played support before, we didn't notice this. Now that he's mid, those four-to-five-second pauses are obvious."
"Honestly, this is kind of outrageous."
Quick camera checks during lane were fine—but lingering like this was not.
The chat exploded.
"Is this match-fixing?"
"I thought he was better, but he's even worse than Knight. Zoning out during lane phase?"
Backstage, Luo Sheng rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath.
There was no other software on pro-stage PCs.
Yet even in this situation, he was still slacking off?
Back in scrims, this would've been the time he switched out to play another game, right?
Ancestor, can you just finish this game properly?
If you want to slack off, do it after we're back. I promise I won't say a word then.
At that moment, Syndra's screen suddenly snapped back.
She flashed forward.
QE shoved Zed under the tower—stunning him, clipping a low-health minion, and bathing in a pillar of golden light.
Syndra hit level six.
In reality, Ucal had also been feeling confused these past three minutes.
But at least his HP hadn't dropped further. Since the opponent wasn't pushing, he didn't provoke them either.
He planned to clear this wave, hit level six, recall for items, then fight again.
Knowing Syndra was about to hit six, he positioned even more cautiously, retreating to the front edge of his tower.
There was no way the opponent could reach him to engage.
But what he never expected…
That machine-like Syndra suddenly flashed QE and stunned him.
Even worse—she was level six.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup