“Ah, damn—”
Killed by the “brother duo,” Yuim rubbed his forehead in frustration. “These two… do they really have that good coordination?”
"What's wrong, bro?" his teammate beside him glanced over curiously. "Who did you run into?"
"No idea." Yuim's thick black eyebrows furrowed tightly, his expression tangled. "Do you know any jungle–mid duo who plays Fan’en and Fanlei?"
“Uh, there was a team in Europe–America that used to play that combo.”
“Not that—recently.”
The teammate looked confused. “Nope. That combo's been nerfed. Not strong anymore.”
Replaying the last fight quickly in his mind, Yuim nodded in agreement. He had used Flash to finish off the Treant, and when he saw Fan’en appear without cooldowns, he got engaged on and forced into a 1v2. Considering that, it was already not bad that he lasted as long as he did.
Thinking of it made him mutter in annoyance again. “Damn, I shouldn't have used my ult.”
In his ultimate form, the Bear King's abilities gain extra damage and paralysis effects, along with a massive boost to HP and resistances. Against a weak-hitting Fan’en, Yuim's first instinct was to fight back—but the enemy jungler had shown up in support almost immediately. He'd clearly overestimated himself.
"Got too greedy." He clicked his tongue lightly, dissatisfied with himself.
After he died, his team's mid laner arrived late and guiltily typed over the corpse of the bear.
[Lalamor]: Sorry bro, my wave was bad just now.
[Tio_Yuim]: No problem.
For a ranked match hiccup like this, Yuim still carried himself with the calm of a pro player.
But moments later, a distress signal from the bot lane nearly made him lose his composure.
[Huf_libap] is requesting assistance!
[Huf_libap]: Need someone here, four from mid and jungle are diving!
[Lalamor]: Huh?! The mid wave's still here, are they ignoring minions now?
From across the ocean, libap rolled his eyes so hard it hurt. What kind of dumb question is that?
Why don't you ask if the enemy stopped for tea before coming back to lane?! He was this close to flipping the bird through the internet cable.
Yuim was speechless too. His mid laner looked like a lost baby who'd wandered into a high-rank game, but Yuim had neither the time nor the duty to teach him how to play.
If no one went to help, bot lane would crumble. With that judgment, Yuim immediately used his Teleport summoner spell.
[Huf_libap]: BE QUICK!
The blue-side top laner, playing the Treant, saw their team's momentum and refused to let Yuim go down alone in a 1v4. His life wasn't worth much, but at least he could soak up some damage. Without hesitation, he teleported too.
"The brother duo reveals themselves on the gank, and the red team's not backing down!"
Commentator Xiao Le's voice rose in excitement, his face flushed red. “Yuim's Teleport was super decisive—almost the moment Van appeared in vision! But he doesn't have Flash, and his ult's still on 5-second cooldown! Treant's following TP instantly—”
“Both TPs lighting up! Are we about to see a full-on 5v5?! But Frann doesn't have Teleport, so she'll be a bit late walking over—”
[66666 This is what high-rank coordination looks like!]
[Not quite—look at the red-side mid.]
[Fran, one of the strongest lane and roam champs, playing like this? As a Yue fan, I'm embarrassed.]
[Sweating emoji, don't compare randoms to Yue, that's disrespectful.]
[Shut up and focus—this is a great match, stop screaming.]
As the two teleports glowed, Sui Ning didn't panic. He decisively activated his ultimate.
"Teleport takes four seconds to land," he said calmly—his ink-dark eyes fixed on an enemy in the middle of the screen. "Target the AD. I'll bait their cooldowns first."
"Okay." Ji Yunyu never questioned his calls, following in with his own ultimate.
Fanlei moved like a shadow assassin, crossing the Abyssal Path laid by his companion's spirits. In a blink, he slipped over the river wall of bot lane and appeared in front of the enemy marksman.
"Fuck! How did he cross the wall like that?! You're clipping through terrain, you know that?!" libap blurted instinctively.
It wasn't that he didn't understand the synergy between the brother duo—it was just that the sudden strike completely rattled him.
He controlled Soul-Piercing Spear · Grier, flashing backward to gain distance, then immediately cast R to try to root Fanlei. His support, the Radiant Goddess · Leia, reacted quickly too, stepping in front of him to block and keeping her eyes locked on Fan’en.
"Our Wind-Cloud Brothers didn't back down after seeing the TPs—they went all in! Damn, Wind's shadow placement is insane, pulling his brother over from the other side of the wall!"
Xiao Le's voice jumped in pitch, then abruptly gasped: "Wait, wait—no, this position's bad! They're about to get countered! The enemy bot duo's holding all their CC—damn, Grier popped his ult!"
The dark blue arrow, imbued with binding magic, shot toward Fanlei’s forehead.
But the difference between randoms and pros—or even a duo queue—showed right here. Almost at the same instant, the Radiant Goddess raised her staff, signaling her ultimate. The blazing sunlight of dawn crashed down where Fanlei stood.
"Leia used her ultimate too, damn, this is a huge, huge, huge mistake! Overlapping CC again!"
Xiao Le's eyes and lips wouldn't stop moving as he watched and commented. "How many times have we seen key crowd controls overlapping today? They picked two heroes with hard CC, and yet somehow ended up with only one effective control between the entire team!"
[This is solo queue for you. libap did his best.]
[Yeah, every support I've had lately is like this—can't blame them for being bad, just no synergy.]
[To be honest, in public matches, don't just copy the pros when picking heroes. They can chain the Radiant–Spear combo and lock you down for 10 seconds straight. While in solo queue, you can barely control someone for 3 seconds before praying to the gods.]
[Radiant–Spear? What kind of weird nickname is that, hahaha]
"What a pity—but there's still a chance! If they can burst down Fanlei first—holy crap, what the hell is that???"
Just as Xiao Le's eyes were about to pop out of his head, Fan’en switched his brother's position with Children of the Void again.
The damage and control effects from Demon-Sealing Arrow and Light of the Sun both hit the same unfortunate scapegoat. Children of the Void, already on low HP, was instantly wiped out, letting out a miserable cry before melting into a puddle of pure black liquid.
Sui Ning's lips curved. “Gotcha.”
His brother's Children of the Void’s death allowed Fanlei to get a cooldown reduction. The usually silent cool guy didn't hesitate—he reentered the fight.
—This time, for real.
Xiao Le stared, completely dumbfounded, nearly cracking his voice as he yelled, “Th-this guy is playing mind games!”
"So dirty! That's so dirty! He used his brother as bait to draw out their ultimates, then swapped him out in the last half-second! Red team's marksman and support both blew their ults for nothing!" Just thinking about it made Xiao Le short of breath. "No way, seriously no way—this kind of mid-laner who plays tricks is terrifying!"
He paused, then added, “Guys, here's a horror story—by sacrificing his shadow like that, not only did he bait out their abilities, his brother also refreshed his cooldowns…”
“The enemy blew their key ultimates for nothing and basically ended their own game.”
"So dirty, seriously dirty!!" he said, almost in anguish—but his grin was wide and uncontrollable.
[I'm done for, my brain's fried.]
[Stop showing off like that, you're too fast, I can't keep up!]
[These hero mechanics are ridiculous. How are they not nerfed?]
[Last time I saw this combo was in some Western exhibition match over a year ago, FYI]
[I don't get it—how is no one practicing this? How?? Those few plays were absolutely insane.]
[Practice? You first need two perfectly synchronized brains for that.]
"Red side's Soul-Piercing Spear and Radiant Goddess combo is completely no match for the brothers' jungle-mid duo!"
Xiao Le took two big gulps of ice water. “Fan’en shadow control in those few fights was flawless. Our pro, libap, didn't even have time to react—just deleted! ”
[Wind (Fan’en) has slain Huf_libap (Grier)!]
[Wind (Fan’en) has slain TuT (Leia)!]
[Wind (Fan’en) is on a Killing Spree!]
The system announcement echoed through the canyon. Xiao Le raised both hands and shouted along with the final line:
"Blue Team Double Kill!!"
"Brothers, that was insanely stylish!"
By the time the shoutcaster finished, Yuim's 4-second teleport finally landed—just in time for his own marksman’s seventh-day memorial service.
"Ah, come on! That was way too fast!" Yuim couldn't help facepalming. "They're literally lining up to feed their mid-jungle duo!"
He ranted non-stop, "Who the hell designed this teleport? Why does it take four seconds? By the time I arrive, my teammates are already dust! And those brothers—how is that even balanced? Infinite shadow swaps? That's basically a cheat!"
Libap was equally distraught. "What the hell, I can't even follow their combo! Whoosh whoosh whoosh—dodged everything I had—and then whoosh whoosh whoosh, I'm dead! This isn't fair, this design is totally broken!"
Meanwhile, their Treant top-laner, who'd just teleported in, looked around, saw the enemy mid-jungle duo had already finished the job, and just scratched his head awkwardly before teleporting home.
And the one accused of “breaking game balance,” Sui Ning, calmly took a sip of water. “I'm heading back mid.”
Ji Yunyu responded, “Mm, want me to help push the lane?”
"No need. Take control of the dragon." Sui Ning pinged a few times on the minimap. "The new patch heavily reworks the dragon pit. Let's test a strat—control dragon and pressure both side lanes."
In MOBA games, there's a saying: "The mid outer tower is worth a billion." That's not just about the gold—it's because of the vision, map control, and wave management that tower provides at the center of the map.
Once the mid outer tower falls, your team's vision shrinks dramatically, your jungle becomes unsafe, and both side lanes become vulnerable. That's why mid-tower has always been a crucial objective—the one who takes it gains the upper hand.
In past HPL tournaments, teams often grouped mid within 10 minutes for fights. But with the new version emphasizing dragon pit skirmishes, Sui Ning predicted the meta would shift toward “pushing side lanes, pressing mid, and contesting dragon control.” The fall of the mid tower would happen later and later.
After taking the first dragon, Blue Team's gold lead widened to 4,000.
At 15 minutes, another small skirmish broke out in the bot jungle—Blue Team cleanly took a 0-for-3 trade.
By 20 minutes, Blue Team grouped mid for a push.
"This game's basically decided," Xiao Le sighed. "11,000 gold lead at 20 minutes—no way back from that."
"With that much of a gap? No comeback possible."
[Not necessarily, anything can happen in the canyon—even a fed team can throw if the dragon flies wrong.]
[Nah, not this one. Red team's scaling sucks anyway. Blue team's frontliner, the Verdant Treant, is so tanky now—just stands there like a slab of meat. Can't kill him, and he heals himself, too.]
[Respect, that's Verdant Treant – Mioen. Address him properly as Tree Bro.]
Soon after, at 23 minutes, realizing the game was hopeless, the red team surrendered.
Victory！
Xiao Le led the applause in the livestream room. "Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! This match completely overturned my impression of Fan’en and Fanlei. These two must've been secretly grinding when I wasn't looking—how did they get this strong?"
After the match, the system's post-game rating awarded the MVP, unsurprisingly, to Sui Ning's [Specter of Shadows – Fan’en].
[Fan’en was insanely fed this game. I just wanna ask those guys who said he was tickling people early game—does taking out of someone's HP with one Q still count as tickling?]
[Don't start fights. Early game tickles, late game shreds—that's just how scaling champs work.]
[Twenty minutes in is “late game” now, huh?]
[Full six-item build isn't considered late game, my ass! If anyone's to blame, it's the Red team feeding one by one like headless chickens!]
Seeing that, Xiao Le—who prided himself on being a high-ranked player—couldn't help but jump in. "Hey now, that's not right. How can you say they just charged in one by one? You've watched my stream for so long and still haven't learned to look at the details? ”
"I'm telling you, that Fan’en is definitely not some random player."
He saved the match replay, his tone firm. “None of you noticed the timing of every single gank, did you?”
[???]
[Stop keeping us in suspense.]
[Uh, yeah, his timing's good, he always catches someone.]
“Sigh, it’s not about whether he caught someone!”
Having once been a top-tier player himself, Xiao Le’s eye for the game was sharper than the audience’s. “He always moved before Fran did. He made Fran look like a total fool! Don’t you wonder why?”
[…Because the opponent’s bad?]
[Yeah, opponent’s bad +1.]
“Fran’s around King rank too—he’s not bad! He could stomp random keyboard warriors anytime.” Xiao Le rolled his eyes. “It’s about wave control, guys.”
“This Fan’en manipulates waves like he’s strolling through his own backyard. He freezes them exactly where he wants. Every gank, Fran’s wave is in a terrible spot—if he roams, he loses hundreds of gold and falls behind; if he stays, his teammates die. No matter what he chooses, it’s a slow death.”
He scratched his chin. “With that level of lane control, honestly… he’s gotta be a pro. Playing against ranked masters must feel like bullying for him.”
“Of course, Cloud4 was great too—completely crushed the enemy jungler in the 1v1, gave them zero chance to reset lane control.”
[So your conclusion is both of them are pros?]
[True, Wind’s rotations were beautiful, but I didn’t even know why they looked so good until now.]
[Is this what they mean by ‘a real pro makes pros look like amateurs’?]
[If they’re pros, isn’t this level of play just business as usual?]
[Fun fact: the enemy team had two pros too ^^]
[Then who are these two from? Which team?]
“Ruling out God Cloud from PNG, I honestly can’t say.” Xiao Le frowned, puzzled. “HTG, TL, and TMX guys are all streaming right now, so not them either.”
“The key is that mid-laner—he’s something else. With that kind of mechanical finesse, I can only think of a few of our national Phantom Gods, and it’s not any of them.”
[Wouldn’t it be a bit wild to assume he’s one of the Four Phantom Gods? Are they really that strong??]
[Judging from this match alone, his level’s honestly among the best domestically.]
[Could he be a rookie?]
[Rookie +1. Didn’t Furia just announce a new mid-laner? Eighteen years old, top 100 on the international server.]
Xiao Le shook his head. “Doesn’t feel like it. His mechanics are sharp and fluid, but there’s strategy behind it. You rarely see that kind of mind game from new mids. Feels more like a KR or EU mage main—a veteran with monstrous talent and godlike instincts.”
“But if he’s foreign, that’s a shame. HPL’s got another top-tier rival on the way.”
He smacked his lips, a little regretful. “Still, there’s no point guessing without leads. I’ll just try adding both of them and keep an eye out.”
And so he did. Xiao Le searched for Ji Yunyu’s account and sent him a message in broken English, asking if he could add him as a friend to spectate future matches.
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