Chapter 96: Exaggerated Timer, Terrified Crowd!
EDG finally ended their regular season journey with a thrilling five consecutive wins, with their final record settling at 11 wins and 5 losses.
As for whether they end up first or second in the regular season, the key to destiny lies in the hands of WE and NB.
If WE can defeat NB, they will lock in first place with a 12 wins and 4 losses record; if WE loses, then EDG will take first place with an advantage in tiebreakers.
Although the suspense remains, for the EDG players who finished strongly, they have already given their all, so they can take a temporary breather and prepare for the upcoming playoffs.
As for whether it’s first or second, there’s actually no extra significance; no matter who the opponent is, they just have to win.
However, while League of Legends viewers were still focused on the final round of the regular season, debating the playoff matchups, a hot search topic that seemed completely unrelated to the LPL playoffs suddenly dropped to the top of the list at an astonishing speed, instantly attracting the attention of the vast majority of players.
#Unreal has arrived at the QQ Speed SSC Spring Split quarterfinals site#
Inside the hot search topic were a few slightly blurry photos that were clearly of Li Fan.
In the photos, Li Fan was wearing simple casual clothes, standing in front of a background board that was obviously from a QQ Speed competition venue, checking in.
But this hot search… exploded like a bomb, directly causing an uproar among League of Legends viewers.
They all clicked in to join the discussion.
【???? Did I see that right? EDG just finished the regular season, playoffs are about to start, and he runs off to participate in a QQ Speed offline tournament?】
【Holy crap, he’s serious? I thought he was just joking during the live stream and interviews before? And he actually went right away? Right after the match ended without stopping…】
【The club has gone mad? They approved this? No preparing for playoffs? No training matches? Then get directly eliminated? Who needs Mid-Season Invitational qualification? We were already the Mid-Season Invitational champions anyway, right?】
Even more people specifically tagged EDG’s official Weibo.
Facing the surging public opinion, EDG club’s official account remained unusually silent, making no explanations or statements.
【My god, is this the willfulness of a true all-around genius? Just made a name in LPL, then turns around to do a side gig?】
【Heh, just squandered all the goodwill he built up; looks like he really doesn’t take League of Legends as his main job, just here to play around—what kind of League of Legends professional player is that? Completely irresponsible to his teammates.】
【Why the rush upstairs? EDG’s regular season is over, there’s several days before playoffs start; what’s wrong with him taking time to attend a tournament he signed up for long ago?】
【I’m just puzzled—him participating in the tournament means the club agreed, and his teammates agreed; under these circumstances, what right do you have to speak up? Everyone involved agrees, but netizens don’t?】
【Exactly, Unreal is also a top professional player in Speed; what’s wrong with fulfilling his commitment to compete? Plus, with his hot streak carrying EDG to five consecutive wins, what’s wrong with taking a break to clear his mind?】
【Still the same words: we Speed players are really looking forward to Unreal bringing his talent to Speed.】
Public opinion instantly polarized…
Mainly because Li Fan has been gaining a lot of fans during this time.
Many league players are now taking a wait-and-see attitude, not actively joining in; they have plenty of precedents here.
All captured on camera by Unreal’s little fans and posted online.
Even with thick mosaics, didn’t that just make them the clowns everyone remembers?
So they choose to stay silent for now.
Fans of other games are eager for Li Fan to participate, so they can encourage him to join their games’ tournaments next.
Naturally, they will show support in this hot search.
This way, although there are many critics, there are even more supporters!
The opponents, seeing so much support, can only swallow their displeasure for now and wait!
As long as EDG explodes in the playoffs, they can settle this score then.
Regular season is regular season, playoffs are playoffs.
The intensity is completely different.
The main reason is the number of matches.
bo3 has more randomness; besides, top-ranked teams choose to practice lineups during the regular season.
Once they practice lineup tactics, the rhythm operation becomes a bit stiff, so strong teams easily lose to weak ones.
But isn’t the regular season for training soldiers?
Know where the problems are, then fix them.
If they wait until playoffs or World Championship to pull them out and practice, it’ll be too late.
So they don’t believe someone like Li Fan, who only played one ranked match in three months, can have any standout performance in the playoffs.
All this hype now will have to be paid back in the playoffs!
QQ Speed officials have no time for these matters.
They precisely seized this wave of unexpected traffic and quickly posted an official Weibo: 【QQ Speed SSC Spring Split quarterfinals are about to begin!】
Participating players: Li Fan, Jiang Zhangchuang, Xiong Mengqi, Hu Xu, Luo Wei, Liang Haipeng, Liang Haihui, Chen Zi.
The quarterfinals will use a specific maps time trial format; the first round grouping will be based on the players’ fastest single-lap results on Rainbow Windmill Island and Western Mine.
Once this Weibo was posted, it was instantly pushed to the hot search by fans from both sides and those watching for fun.
【Rainbow Windmill Island? Western Mine? These are old maps; looks like it’s testing basic skills and stability.】
【I watched Unreal in Speed too; he’s indeed amazing on nitro maps, but on old maps, he doesn’t have a huge lead—it’s not like a sure win.】
【Stop analyzing; Speed players say no weaklings make quarterfinals, especially Luo Wei, the three-time Car King player—he’s the real top favorite this season.】
【Speed’s official account is rubbing this hype crystal clear; no matter Unreal’s results, their match attention is maxed out.】
【Tch, QQ Speed still has some shame; if shameless, they could’ve included Spring and Desert Inn here.】
【Isn’t this good? Unreal gets eliminated on the first day, comes back just in time to train with the team for two days, then prepare for playoffs.】
【Makes sense; Speed officials really didn’t choose to kill the golden goose— the better Unreal does in League of Legends, the more hype he brings, and Speed keeps the hype too.】
At the QQ Speed SSC quarterfinals site backstage, at exactly 8 PM, the eight top players gathered, waiting for the draw to decide the first-round time trial order.
During the wait, the atmosphere in the venue was extremely tense, with an inexplicable smell of gunpowder.
The players’ rest area scene was very intriguing, clearly divided into several small groups.
Speed professional players actually have their own circles too.
Jiang Zhangchuang and Liang Haihui huddled together, talking in low voices, occasionally glancing at other players with eyes full of evaluation and hostility, forming the first small circle.
On the other side, Hu Xu, Liang Haipeng, and Chen Zi sat together, chatting lively, occasionally bursting into light laughs, appearing relatively relaxed—this was the second small group.
Li Fan looking at these two small groups actually couldn’t help but want to laugh a bit.
Liang Haipeng and Liang Haihui, these close brothers, now at odds like fire and water; from check-in to now, several hours after dropping their stuff, they haven’t said a word or even made eye contact.
This is the true most familiar strangers…
Though Li Fan only heard about what happened between these brothers: Liang Haipeng made a lot of money from live streaming but didn’t bring his older brother along.
Liang Haihui struck hard, teaming up with Jiang Zhangchuang to set him up, costing his younger brother a few million.
Who knows if it’s true or not, so he’s not that interested.
Mengqi was quite active, sometimes chatting with Jiang Zhangchuang’s group, sometimes joining Hu Xu’s trio’s idle talk, seeming quite familiar with both sides, knowing people on each.
But he didn’t bring these two hostile small groups together to chat.
Precisely because he knows clearly what the conflict between these two small groups is.
Overall, it’s about those offline cheating incidents…
Their matches are a dozen or more per event; Jiang Zhangchuang nearly bankrupted Hu Baibing and Chen Zi by cheating.
Three-time Car King Luo Wei, recognized as the biggest favorite this tournament, sat alone in a corner, eyes closed resting.
The other one sitting aside was Li Fan; he’s a League of Legends professional player, didn’t play team races at first this year, rose as a dark horse, snatched a spot in online matches, showing terrifying strength.
Others were curious but had no intention of coming over to chat.
After all, their fields are different.
Many think Li Fan is just here to go through the motions and experience the QQ Speed offline tournament atmosphere.
Even if there’s a spot later, he might not participate.
After all, Car King events are in August, which is a critical period for League of Legends matches.
Spring Split points are important but not that crucial; Summer Split is completely different, relating to World Championship qualification.
In that case, who has the mind for this?
Definitely won’t participate.
So this time, after experiencing it, there won’t be much contact later.
There are also players amazing at time trials but trash in actual combat.
In the eight-to-four melee, they might not even make it out.
Soon, the staff came in with the draw box.
Everyone’s gazes instantly focused; the chatter in the rest area abruptly stopped.
At this moment, a tense atmosphere emerged; the pressure of deciding who goes first or last, who gets to observe opponents’ results, inexplicably rose.
The draw began; based on online points ranking, Li Fan as first place went up first to draw a slip from the transparent draw box to decide the appearance order.
He expressionlessly reached into the box, fumbled for a moment, pulled out a folded slip, opened it, and clearly saw the number “1” printed on it.
No emotion showed on Li Fan’s face; he calmly handed the slip to the staff waiting to record.
For others, this order means no reference target, purely relying on hard strength to run a result, while giving all later players the chance to observe and study his running method details.
In this situation, the pressure is undoubtedly the greatest…
Seeing number one drawn, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, other players went up one by one to draw.
Jiang Zhangchuang seventh… Luo Wei… Xiong Mengqi last to appear.
Once the draw ended, Li Fan headed straight to the designated competition computer.
Then opened settings to adjust keybinds.
QQ Speed can use default keybinds, but adjusted ones are more comfortable.
Notably, others brought their own keyboards, while Li Fan used the venue computer’s keyboard—a 18-yuan Shuangyan Keyboard pair.
Following his keybind habits, he changed drift to q, props to e, and 8-4-5-6 as direction keys.
There’s another reason for this change: right hand operation is indeed more flexible than left.
Most people are right-handed…
If you don’t adjust like this and use left-side forward run, it’s easy to hold forward without releasing.
When Li Fan first played QQ Speed, it was like that; later, while learning techniques, he forced adjustment to keyboard side, discovering it like a new world—operation became much simpler.
Some might say why not use the original right-side direction keys.
Because the original right-side direction keys are slightly lower, making left-right hand asymmetric and uncomfortable.
After adjusting, the referee immediately came to ask if ready.
Li Fan nodded.
Soon the first run officially began.
First map: Rainbow Windmill Island.
The whole map has no difficult points, but has evolved running methods.
Like air break drift, three boost pull; on the uphill, Li Fan normally exited the corner and directly pulled nitrogen.
Right before leaping, pressing w small boost makes it faster and denser to fly out, so the leap height is higher.
Another technique: don’t release small boost too early on landing, overlap it as much as possible with the bridge’s air boost.
Then start traction before landing…
Leap air break drift!
Final drift three boost technique to finish entering the corner; full process completed.
The people standing behind were no longer calm.
They’d never seen this operation…
What kind of drift cornering is this?
So fast!
Their minds were filled with just “so fast.”
This air break drift wasn’t widely used until 2018; pros started learning one by one.
As for tutorials, it took three full years for widespread ones…
Three boost is even more exaggerated; even in 2025, some pros can’t master it— Cao Yi admitted himself using it is worse than not, with zero proficiency.
On this map with the new running method, Li Fan used razor to run 1:13.88!
On this map, master this technique and even pros can’t leave you behind unfinished.
But current pros are generally around 1:20… with razor around 1:22.
Once this result came out, the entire backstage rest area fell into dead silence.
The other seven players almost simultaneously widened their eyes, faces full of disbelief.
“How much? 1:13?” Hu Xu suddenly stood up from his seat, voice slightly off.
Liang Haipeng and Chen Zi exchanged glances, seeing shock in each other’s eyes; this single map wasn’t just strong strength—it was dimensional reduction strike!
The ease on Jiang Zhangchuang and Liang Haihui’s faces vanished; their discussed “techniques” seemed so feeble against this absolute strength.
“That cornering… that leap… how did he do it?”
“Too fast, never seen this running method…”
“Referee, I’m running the next map.”
“Player Li Fan, are you sure? There are three attempts.”
“At this speed, no need to run.”
“Mm…” The referee nodded repeatedly after hearing.
…
When Western Mine started, the people standing behind couldn’t stand still, crowding forward, stretching necks to watch Li Fan’s monitor.
Rank start is normal running method, but first corner directly pulled three boost; S-bend directly consecutive pulls plus violent cut-off, completely different from their old single spray corner exit…
When exiting shortcut, time was just 24 seconds!
Passing small path first corner, continue three boost pull.
Car head pull forcefully rush into shortcut then charge to finish!
1:06.28!
Another untouchable result!
Li Fan stood up from his seat.
“Sign!”
The referee then belatedly hurried over with the sign-off sheet for Li Fan…
“This is the true domestic server time trial king!”
