To the Sun and Back: Plays Behind the Names
In eight seasons of competitive League of Legends, we’ve seen lots of clutch decisions and insane plays. A few of them have been so memorable that they have solidified the players as household names — for better or worse. From colossal inSec kicks to bizarre Cody Sun maneuvers: we’ve got them all covered.
One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For the Game
South Korea dove into competitive League of Legends at the beginning of Season 2, a year later than the West. It took local teams a while to get going, but a great macro understanding secured MiG squads victories in both splits of OGN 2012. The team called Frost even placed second at the 2012 World Championship, losing in the final to the tournament underdogs, Taipei Assassins. However, it was during the next season that Korea showed the first signs of their inevitable dominance over the LoL world. In the spring of 2013, fans chose five players to represent the region at All-Star. The first installment of the tournament was a competitive one. Korea was there to make trouble, and everyone knew it when the squad walked in.
Choi “inSec” In-seok was elected to shine in the jungle, and boy did he do just that. The first round had Korea facing Europe, and it was a rather close affair at first. What secured the first game was an innovative move by inSec. He hit Europe’s AD Carry Peter “yellowpete” Wüppen with a Sonic Wave and, for some reason, decided to immediately follow the skillshot with his Lee Sin. Then a ward was placed behind the victim, a blind monk jumped on it, and the unsuspecting player was kicked into the rest of the Korean line-up.
What was, at the time, history in the making eventually became just another day at the office. The inSec kick is now an essential part of the skillset for every Lee Sin player. No poor play will ignite as much rage as a failed attempt to push an opponent toward your team. Koreans are often praised for evolving jungle pathing, but inSec was the first to bring it when it came to mechanics.
“Gotta Hit the Trail”
Twisted Fate’s quote perfectly describes his ultimate, but our next star took it to the next level. There was no way to hit either the trail or the champion once Yu “Misaya” Jing-Xi pulled off his signature move.
The idea was simpler than most card tricks, but the execution required magically quick fingers. In the early days of League of Legends, Misaya used Twisted Fate to safely initiate fights fromhalway across the map. He would jump on top of an opponent with his ultimate, throw a gold card to stun and use Zhonya’s Hourglass to become immune. Naturally, the rest of Jing-Xi’s teammates were there for clean-up duty.
There is no doubt that Misaya’s move impacted League of Legends way less than inSec’s. However, it was another creative combo unleashed upon the world that left a legacy. Not all Twisted Fate players think of the nickname when they go in, but after landing they always throw a gold card and turn golden.
Quicksilver With no Peters Involved
Apart from a great start and decent follow-up in his career, Kang “Cpt Jack” Hyung-woo is known for two things. We’ll save the banter with Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok for later and talk mechanics.
For years, Quicksilver Sash remained one of the three defensive items for ADCs. The idea behind the item was nice enough (use after getting stunned to walk away), and the summoner spell “Cleanse” had the same concept. However, Cpt Jack took it further. “Why should I ever get stunned in the first place?” is what we imagine that Hyung-woo thought to himself and cleansed the gold card the moment it hit him.
The secret is a small delay between the use of QSS/Cleanse and the effect. Players from all around the world appreciated the trick and started practicing it. Few are able to execute it consistently, but modern pros boast a decent record pulling it off. In the spring of 2016, Cpt Jack moved on to become a commentator. It is hard to think of a sweeter thing than shoutcasting the heroes of today doing the move named after you.
A Hook to Make You Mad
In the first three seasons, Supports had a hard time impacting the game. There was no limit on wards, and Support players were relegated to spending all their gold on them. It was only in Season 4 that Riot Games both set a wards cap and gave the worker bees of LoL extra income. However, Hong “MadLife” Min-gi had made the role work two years earlier.
Great mechanics allowed MadLife to overcome the lack of items, and then there was a move to overturn the perception of supports as crutches. In January 2013, the devs released Thresh with his signature Death Sentence: a grappling hook that stuns for one second if you work around a 0.5-second delay. Min-gi was not one to work around it though. Instead, he started to play mind games, throwing hooks in anticipation of where enemies were going to dash.
In May 2013, Riot Games removed the ability to flash while giving the Death Sentence. The devs claimed it was a bug, and MadLife may certainly take credit for the supposed bug becoming the defining feature of Thresh. The patch was arguably for the better: it got harder to pull off a MadLife, but damn it feels so nice when you actually do it.
Holy Owie
Drunk streams, roster leaks and actually a decent level of play — Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco had it all. But he was also a great giver, one that gave us the first misplay that stuck for years.
Smiting has never been easy. You have to account for the HP regeneration of the monster, estimate your team’s DPS, fit in a penultimate blow/coordinate it and finally hit that last button. For some reason, DiMarco failed more often than others, which was always tough to watch. Several multi-minute fail montages date back to 2013!
Saintvicious outlasted most of the players that had good moves named after them. As simple misplays practically disappeared and isolated cases often led to benching, DiMarco stayed true to himself. Even in the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split, he missed Smites on several occasions. Not that we can really hold it against him too much; Saintvicious has developed a solid coaching CV and mentored two junglers to the point that they no longer buckle under pressure.
Supports’ Worst Nightmare
Buying tons of wards as a Support sucked. The only thing that sucked more was failing to place them, and it was actually a mid laner from Team Dignitas that demonstrated how bad it could get.
The blue side does not have direct access to the drakes, but players still ward the pit relatively easily from a tri bush. Then, there is warding that tri bush from the pit, a much bigger undertaking. Mistakes are often made, and it seems as if this setup was designed to specifically frustrate William “Scarra” Li.
Instead of another paragraph, let’s just enjoy the most ambitious crossover of all time.
From Sun to Red Giant
In around 5 billion years, the sun will turn into a red giant and burn up all of our descendants who still reside on Earth, claim scientists. However, Cody Sun has set his teams on fire within a noticeably shorter timeframe.
The first misplay that haunts him still to this day happened at the 2017 World Championship. As his teammates from Immortals were retreating, he Flashed forward and used Tristana’s ultimate. Prey normally does not push a hunter towards itself, and the aftermath illustrated why that’s the case.
Cody Sun pulled off a Cody Sun in the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split playoffs, this time as part of 100 Thieves. He jumped in as Tristana without accounting for Camille’s abilities.
This mistake cost 100 Thieves the series, and Cody Sun ultimately lost his spot in the starting line-up. The team qualified for Worlds on points and chose, instead, to use an academy ADC throughout the tournament.
The Play
Every esport title has had plays that have instantly taken them to the next level. Jump shots at the 2016 CS:GO Majors, sick ultimates in Dota 2’s TI playoffs — the list goes on and on. League of Legends is no exception, and the play transcends the good and the bad we’ve talked previously.
During the IEM Season VII Finals in Katowice, Fnatic were losing to SK Gaming in the deciding match of Group B. Despite a small gold deficit, the team barely staved off SK’s assault. Then Fnatic failed to close out the game themselves and had seemingly lost. However, mid laner, Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez, did not feel like going home that day.
The bold idea and tears of SK’s mid, Carlos “ocelote” Rodríguez Santiago, made this play iconic. Martínez is now always associated with backdoor victories, and ocelote’s fueled hunger had him build one of esports’ most decorated franchises — G2 Esports.
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