The Unkillable Demon King

What does faker play? Jungle, top, etc.? Or was the article saying he plays everything?

I've been out of league for a few years now and never got into e sports besides solomid for context.

Worked in game industry for more than 15 years, but never played any multiplayer games (except at work locally), and hot-seat (Heroes of Might and Magic). I always felt strange about such tournaments, but now I'm reading Ender's game and that feeling is even more stranger :)

Oh, I forgot... I've played for 30 minutes minecraft with my son last week first time for me and him on a server. It was fun!

I've never been enthusiastic about traditional sports - I didn't enjoy playing them that much when I was younger, so maybe I just can't identify at all with the players.

However, I've always been passionate about video games, which is probably why professional gaming is so appealing to me. Following the pro scene, you become really attached to individual players and teams - their unique personalities, skills, and the complex team-based strategy that the game calls for.

Unlike traditional sports, pro esports players are streaming frequently on twitch - you have much more direct contact to them. You can watch them playing in solo queue (i.e. in a non-professional environment, away from the rest of their team), and they'll often joke around, talk to their viewers (who talk in a chat attached to the channel), and explain what they're doing and their decision-making as they play the game.

So, you watch League of Legends because of the crazy plays that Faker makes, or the mind-blowing support mechanics of Madlife. You rooted for Dignitas because of how hilarious QTPie is on his stream, or maybe you've been following TSM since the Baylife days, standing by them when they falter and cheering madly when they make a showing in an international tournament. The Koreans have been dominant for years, but every year it feels like the NA teams are slowly inching closer in terms of skill. You go to a bar in San Francisco where they play matches live, and you're surrounded by people who are just as passionate as you. On top of all of that, you have Riot Games, which has invested themselves entirely in building a sport, not just a game, and making fans feel like they're valued and loved. Maybe you even have professional aspirations yourself - there's a challenger circuit for the best amateur teams, that's also run by Riot Games, where the best teams make it into the professional circuit. Playing professionally pretty much guarantees you six figures of income, from streaming and sponsorships.

So, people are into esports the same reason they're into any sport. You fall in love with the teams, the players, and the rivalries, and you get to watch people who have dedicated their lives to being incredibly skilled at a game that's both more technically demanding than anything else you can think of, and requires perfect coordination between team members.

> Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/37d6kw/fiz....

> For me this looks more like someone running around aimlessly, bashing some spells and getting lucky. Please explain.

A lot of strategy in fights is avoiding incoming damage. I will give you the play-by-play. First off, you need to know who is who so I've labelled everything in this image: http://i.imgur.com/alDwsQz.jpg

Some background, a major part of Fizz's kit that many players (including myself) find incredibly annoying is that he can use his E ability to dodge quite a bit of damage as well as deal a lot of damage. What makes the link you provided a good play is Fizz uses great timing of his ability to dodge damage as well as an active on item he's purchased to avoid damage that would likely have been enough to kill him twice over. Here's the play-by-play.

1. Yasuo dashes to fizz. This removes a lot of fizz's health. One more like that and Fizz would likely die. 2. Fizz uses his E ability to just barely dodge incoming damage from Leblanc (he cannot take damage while on top of the trident). 3. After taking some damage from Zed, Fizz uses the active ability on his Zhonya's Hourglass (item slot 2) which disables actions on his part (puts him in stasis) and makes him untargetable and immune to damage for a short period of time. It also turns his character model gold. This is great timing on his part, as it avoids a lot of incoming damage from Vi and Yasuo. The tornado from Yasuo would have knocked fizz up in the air (a sort of temporary stun) and allowed Yasuo to perform his ultimate ability (which allows him to deal a huge amount of damage to a target in the air). Another great part about the zhonyas is it gets him a little closer to his abilities coming off cooldown (notably his E, which again allows him to avoid more damage as well as deal quite a bit of damage when he lands). 4. As soon as zhonyas stasis ends, fizz uses his q ability to dash towards Leblanc and finish her. 5. Fizz places his ultimate (R ability) on Vi, which slows her and eventually deals a large amount of damage in an area to her and Yasuo. He times this with his E to avoid damage from Vi and Yasuo and then deal enough damage to kill Yasuo. He uses a basic attack (empowered by an item he's purchased) to finish Vi. 6. Finally, he dashes towards Zed with his Q ability to kill him.

Interesting! What this basically boils down to is 'handling instinctively the right way'. It's hard to grasp for me, because there are so many factors in play and by watching LoL recordings it's sometimes impossible to tell what makes someone gaining an upper hand. Is it communication with the team, doing the right skill at the right moment, being at the right place or just pure luck?

Probably all of this together, which makes this even more intriguing. But I guess this comes natural after playing hundreds of hours?