Video: The Top 5 Mechanically Godlike League of Legends Outplays, Explained

For this week’s Top 5 video, we’re diving into League of Legends esports to look at the most impressive mechanical outplays of all time, from Doublelift’s Lucian to Ruler’s insane mechanics on Ashe.

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Number 5: Faker’s Zed

Our first outplay needs no introduction, because at number five, we’ve got the classic: Zed vs Zed, Telecom vs Telecom, Faker vs Ryu.

At the fifth and final game of the 2013 Summer Finals, the LCK’s two Telecom giants found themselves in a blind pick grudge match, with each Mid Laner locking in Zed, one of the flashiest champions in the game.

You don’t need to be a League of Legends fan to know that winning a duel at 30 percent health against a full health opponent is impressive and that’s basically what Faker did.

After Ryu used most of his abilities to chunk faker down to near death, The Unkillable Demon King began his outplay. He used the Zed ultimate to start and hopped to a shadow clone to create distance between the two shadow ninjas. Then, he used QSS, an item that cleanses your champion of all debuffs,  to remove both Ryu’s Zed ultimate and Ignite. Either would’ve killed Faker. Finally, Faker flashed away, simultaneously dodging Ryu’s ranged ability while also creating even more distance from the melee champion. And by the time Ryu flashed to follow him, Faker used his last ability to secure the kill and escape.

At the end of the day, Faker played every single millisecond of the fight perfectly, and Ryu ruined his chances by Igniting too early and not checking Fakers’ inventory. Eight years later, it’s one of the most impressive individual outplays League esports has ever witnessed.

Number 4: Huni’s Riven

In Huni’s debut year back in 2015, he and Fnatic set a still unbroken record in Europe, completing a split undefeated 18-0. At number four, we’ve got a hallmark outplay that defined what his career would become.

And that record split sent him and Fnatic to Worlds, where they were hopefuls to take the whole tournament. And they nearly did, advancing to the semifinals before finally being sent home. But before his ticket back to EU was punched, Huni would continue to mark himself as a rising star to watch.

In the Group Stage, Fnatic found themselves up against Chinese team Invictus Gaming. After teleporting bottom lane to assist his team, Huni was in a position to escape to safety after losing his AD Carry. But where most people would retreat, Huni flashed face-first into three enemy champions, killing them all.

Riven is one of the most mechanically intensive champs in the game and Huni plays it perfectly. Nobody expected it, even the casters are thrown off guard. But players, casters and fans alike quickly learned to expect the unexpected from this superstar Top Laner.

Number 3: Doublelift’s Lucian

Coming in at number three, we have none other than Doublelift on his signature champion, Lucian, playing a late-game teamfight on a knife’s edge to win TSM the 2016 LCS Summer Finals.

TSM was up 2-1 in the series, but in the fourth game, their opponents Cloud9 took the lead. C9’s comp was built for engaging in teamfights, and at 40 minutes, they did just that to push for the win and even up the series. But Doublelift and Hauntzer had other plans.

Cloud9 started the fight by using their abilities to chunk Doublelift and then lock him out of the fight, artificially creating a huge advantage for C9. Doublelift was then faced with a split-second decision: hop over a wall to join his team, or stay put until it was safer to fight head on.

He chose to stand back and wait, doing his best to get in some chip damage. As it turns out, that was the right call. Even with his reserved play, he was almost dead by the time the fight came to him.

But with three TSM members each at 20 percent health, Doublelift decides to live by his own advice: he looks for the outplay.

Doublelift plays it tight. He uses his dashes at the last second possible to bait C9 and maximize his damage. He hits 19 of the 22 bullets on his ultimate to chop Cloud9 down. He cleans it up in a 3 vs 4, keeping each TSM member alive, and winning the game.

This fight was a matter of inches. If he had played it differently, if he had dashed over the wall to join his friends, Cloud9 would’ve eliminated him and would’ve likely taken the game and possibly even the series.

Want to know which other League of Legends outplays made our list? Watch the video above and head to Upcomer’s YouTube page.