Cover-Credits:
The League of Legends community hails Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok as the greatest player of all time (GOAT) and he proves that he is still a mechanically strong player even after years of playing the game. Over the course of so many years, fans have watched Faker run around his enemies in circles in matches and pull off some crazy outplays. At this point, “Faker, Faker, playmaker,” is a phrase that most League of Legends fans have heard and witnessed way too many times. In a recent livestream, Faker had yet another crazy play that was too fast for viewers to understand at first and needed to be slowed down.
What happens in the Faker clip?
The clip revealing Faker’s inhuman reaction time went viral on social media late on 11th July and the community has been talking about it ever since. In the video clip, Faker is seen playing Fiora in the mid-lane against Renekton mid and after getting chunked out to one-third of his health, he channels the recall to head to the fountain. However, suddenly he cancels his recall by casting W - Riposte, and at first, it is very confusing. He uses the “Enemies Missing” ping on the bush behind the mid-lane outer tower and you can also see Nidalee’s trap laying on the ground near Faker.
Upon a closer look, it becomes evident that Faker cast Riposte while checking the scoreboard and immediately parried Nidalee’s spear. Nidalee had tried to cancel his recall by throwing her Q - Javelin Toss and her W - Bushwhack. Following this, Faker moves near the inner mid-laner tower to channel a safer recall to base.
Fiora’s W is a very unique spell in League of Legends. Her W - Riposte allows her to parry all incoming damage whilst disabling abilities for a short time and then stabs in a specific direction. This stab slows the first enemy champion hit or stuns them if Fiora blocked an immobilizing effect with this ability. If used correctly at the right time, players can dodge spells using Fiora’s Riposte and Faker pulled this off while Nidalee was out of sight.
Reacting to Nidalee’s spears while you can see them can be testing at times. So it is very impressive to see Faker react to the Javelin Toss while most other players would have gotten hit by the spear. Notably, the spear also gains damage as it flies a longer distance.
A Twitter user commented on Ashey Kang’s slowed-down version of Faker’s play and said, “My favorite part is that a glimpse of the spear appears before he hits tab again and hovers Nidalee's items. You can pretend he's calculating how much dmg the spear is going to do to him before deciding to riposte.”
The community also pointed out that the in-game cosmetic Nidalee was using made it difficult for everyone to even notice the spear. Fans also pointed out that the Nidalee skin is Headhunter Nidalee and that it is banned in pro play because the particles on her skill animations are difficult to see.
