I’ve been playing on the PC for well over 30 years now and I’m a big fan of competitive titles like Counter-Strike or League of Legends. That’s why I like to watch what the best of the best in e-sports are doing in such games and have seen many videos of remarkable actions. But in all these years I have never been as impressed as I was by the video below, which is the subject of this article.
It shows what is often referred to as the best LoL player in the world Faker
from South Korea, who is also participating in the current World Cup. It is his seventh participation in the most important Leauge of Legends tournament ever. Most recently, he became the first player to play 100 games at the World Cup (of which he won 72 with his teams).
You can see him in the video during daily training (or streaming) with his second account Hide on Bush
. To put it simply, he prevents his character from taking fatal damage with an ability. But it’s done in a way that leaves me with my mouth wide open.
Although I know League of Legends inside and out, it was only in slow motion that I realized what was happening and what Faker was reacting to. Before I explain for non-LoL players what it’s about and why I think it’s so blatant, take a look at the scene for yourself:
The video and the crucial skills
0:30
What a response time! – Possibly the best League of Legends player in the world shows off his skills
Faker plays the champion Fiora. As usual in LoL, she has four special abilities, but only one of them matters here. She bears the label counter
and at the touch of a button immediately prevents Fiora from being damaged for a short moment. There are other components of the ability, but they don’t matter in this case.
The second ability we’re talking about comes from an opponent of Fakers, who plays the champion Nidalee. the name Throwing spear
accordingly, she throws a spear. It can fly through any terrain and will damage the first enemy it hits. The farther the spear flies, the more damage it deals.
In the video, such a spear flies towards Faker’s champion, who has to stand still for the teleportation back to the base and is therefore an easy target. The spear would kill him with a high probability since he has little life energy left. But Faker prevents this by using his counter ability – but how!
What’s so impressive about that?
The video or Faker’s use of the counter ability is so incredibly impressive for me mainly because of four factors:
- Faker is about to return to base to heal and shop for items. He checks extremely quickly by constantly moving the map section what is happening in other areas of the map (or on the other lanes). So he no longer focuses primarily on the gameplay around his champion.
- Faker also opens the scoreboard again and again. As a result, the flight of the spear is even hidden most of the time and is no longer visible.
- The enemy champion, Nidalee, doesn’t show up beforehand, so the spear comes flying out of the Fog of War at Faker largely without warning.
- There is so little time between the first flash of the spear and Faker’s use of the counter ability that it’s a total mystery to me how he managed to hit the crucial button in time and prevent his virtual screen death.
Personally, I think it is extremely unlikely that Faker accidentally pressed the button at exactly the right moment. However, it cannot be completely ruled out.
Also to consider: Faker knows that Nidalee is on the opposing team. So he will basically be set to watch out for spears that appear more or less out of nowhere. However, its extremely fast response time is very remarkable.
Only slow motion can help
Because the spear can only be seen for such an extremely short time before Faker blocks it, I didn’t realize what he was actually reacting to at first. I only saw him in slow motion.
Once you know what to look for, you can certainly perceive the spear. Many people were very impressed that Faker managed to do this in the middle of the game and despite the fact that the scoreboard covered his view and that he was able to use the counter-ability in good time.
This also includes the well-known LoL caster and former professional player Caedral. He shared the video appropriately with the words I am convinced that Faker is a robot
on twitter – a suspicion that one can hardly blame him for.
If you want to see another video that really impressed me (albeit in a different way), check out the article below. It’s not about a game, but about the 30-year-old film classic Jurassic Park:
Movie Goofs in Jurassic Park: How Did I Miss This Hand for Nearly 30 Years?
Can you imagine that you would have reacted in time to the javelin throw by pressing the necessary button or do you think that, like me, is practically impossible in my case? And do you know other videos like this that show extremely impressive gaming skills? Feel free to write it in the comments!
