The MOBA League of Legends has existed since 2009 and millions of people play it every day: One would actually think that no move or trick is unknown. But the Dane Rasmus “Caps” Winther (23) has now come up with an idea that apparently no one has thought of before and which totally surprised the opponent. And he had reserved the trick for a decisive game at the LoL Worlds 2023.
This was the situation:
- In the LoL Worlds, G2 (Europe) faced Bilibili Gaming (China) in a Best-of-Three. It was a knockout match for G2 in the tournament.
- In the mid lane, Caps played the champion Neeko. His opponent Yagao was on Jayce.
- Suddenly, G2’s Jungler Yike appeared on Nocturne and attacked Yagao under the tower: In the early game, that is basically a suicide mission, but thanks to a brilliant trick from Caps, Yike survived this situation, killed his opponent at the tower, and put his team on the road to victory.
Neeko can do something unexpected: tanking the tower
What was the trick? Through Neeko’s passive ability “Inherent Glamour”, Neeko can transform into a non-epic monster.
Caps transformed into a “Cannon Minion”, a siege minion, and was able to absorb 4 hits from the tower that would otherwise have killed either him or his jungler. Because tower shots are normally the mechanic that prevents such “Tower Dives” from happening at the start of a match: When someone runs into the tower to kill an opponent, they usually die in the process.
Thanks to the extra time that Caps bought for his jungler by absorbing the shots, the jungler was able to eliminate the opposing mid laner relatively risk-free and secure the coveted first blood.
As Dotesports explains, Caps was only able to absorb so many shots from the tower at this low level because the “cannon minion” he transformed into enjoys some special rules, which allow it to receive less damage from the tower. And apparently, Neeko benefits from these bonuses as well.
Apparently, no one before Caps had thought of using Neeko in this form.
This is being discussed: As it says on reddit , the idea was so “crazy” that even the opponent Yagao said after the match that he was not aware of this feature and never expected it.
Others say that Caps’s action could lead to Neeko being banned in the course of the tournament because she becomes too strong through this trick, and the best mid laners in the world already have a strong Neeko, which now becomes even stronger.
There is also speculation about whether Riot intentionally programmed this trick into the game and no one discovered it until now, or whether even Riot was surprised by this innovative move.
Did it help Caps?? Maybe, the match in which Caps used the trick was won by G2. However, in game 3, his team had to concede defeat, and thus G2’s Worlds ended early.
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