Top 10 crazy strategies in esports

Hello and welcome to our next Top 10! This time we’re sharing the 10 craziest strategies in esports that worked out!

It’s insane what kind of ideas the pros come up with sometimes, but surely a lot of things went wrong first before the perfect tactic was developed. If your plans don’t work out, you don’t have to despair, because as the saying goes: you’ll fail 10 times before you succeed!

10. Aui’s Techies (Dota 2)

Even in Dota 2, there are champions that can cause surprises, like Techies. When he was released and played for the first time, his full potential was not yet discovered, but Howie had understood the Hero. Theoretically, he can’t do much except lay mines and wait for someone to step on them. But in the heat of battle, bombs can easily be overlooked. Preparation is half the battle here!

9. Los Angeles Gladiators Kings Row Strategy (Overwatch)

The Gladiators, in a game of Overwatch League, rushed behind their opponents, London Spitfire, right at the start of the round and pushed them close to their Widowmaker. But they had no idea because Surefour hadn’t picked them yet and was waiting for his moment. Then when they circled Spitfire, Surefour switched to Widowmaker and they were completely crushed. With a nice flank and good timing, almost all strategies have worked.

8. Miss Fortune Support (LoL)

If we’re going for experimental champion picks in League of Legends today, it’s a safe bet that someone has done it before. The Support role lends itself extremely well to such unconventional champion experiments, such as Ashe Support. We’ve seen this a lot today, but in the past it was really exotic to play an AD carry as a support. So at some point Miss Fortune was able to establish itself as a support, but GorillA already showed us in 2016. Along with Ashe on the lane, it can be really burdensome to get stunned by Ashe Arrow and then just wombocomboed by MF’s Bullet Time.

 

7. G2 Caveira (R6)

In R6, Caveira is far from the best operator in the game to say the least. She can definitely be annoying in ranked matches, but in pro league she just doesn’t fit well on most teams. But G2 Esports didn’t care about that, and at the Major, the team pulled out Caveira and showed us that even the fanciest operators can shine on the big stage if they keep their heads down. It definitely gives you an advantage when your opponents underestimate you and that was exactly the case here. So don’t forget to take your opponents seriously, no matter how weak they seem.

 

6. Fountain Hook Combo (Dota 2)

One of the most infamous cheese strategies in Dota is the Fountain Hook combo, an ingenious plan that Dendi and Puppey concocted at TI. They were on the verge of losing to Tongfu when they played out the Chin Pudge combo. And it just looks beautiful how the opponent is pulled back across the map from the hook for several seconds. It’s so simple: Dendi, as Pudge, hooked his opponent and was immediately transported to the Fountain by Puppy’s Chin. Meanwhile, he dragged his victim all the way there with him. What’s a guy to do? Just not let him hook.

5. Roshan Bait (Dota 2)

There he is again, good old Roshan Bait and there must be a mastermind behind this strategy. No Tide Hunter was the team that became famous for this tactic. Even before the game really started, NTH faked a Roshan fight. And in order for the opposing team EG to catch on, one of Roshan’s players gets himself executed. In a complete panic, EG rushes there to prevent the Roshan kill, but when they arrive, there’s no one at Pitt. By the time they realize it’s a trap, they’ve already taken down an opponent. Kudos for this innovative strategy!

 

4. Pyke Flex Pick (LoL)

In 2019, G2 had an excellent run at the League of Legends MSI and even against SK T and Faker, G2 players were still willing to unpack the troll picks. As many of you know, Pyke is not really a toplane player, but when played by true geniuses, it works well on toplane. G2 is known for its creativity and experimentation, and in this game it paid off. Of course, the Champion was also played well by Toplaner Wunder, but in this play you realize that having a good team composition is very often enough in League. You will probably never know how much strategy and how much troll is behind it.

3. Ana (Dota 2)

Drumroll for the God of Dota, who lands in our third place with the most unlikely hero in all of Dota. We are talking about Ana, who shows up on TI quasi once a year to show the world why he is the faker of Dota. His big talent: he can make even the most mundane Heros look like the biggest carries, and that’s what he does here with support Hero Wisp. His Hero is actually at his best when he supports his team and everyone works together. But what if you just turn the tables and play the team around Wisp and try to support him. Then this unassuming Hero could become a destructive carry and that was underestimated by every team. This strategy allowed OG to win their second TI title at the time.

 

2. Olaf Boost Fnatic (LoL)

Every CS:Go fan knows the Olaf Tower. Olaf Tower comes from the quarterfinals of Dreamhack, where Fnatic got absolutely clobbered by LDLC. But after the first half, fnatic turned the tide out of nowhere with a truly wild play. Fnatic discovered a secret spot on Overpass that allowed Olaf to snipe LDLC without fear of consequence. Their opponents had no idea what was going on and that’s why this strategy was so controversial. Fnatic abandoned the match after they were forced to replay it. That strategy will never be around again because Valve patched that glitch out, but we’ll remember it forever.

1. Faker LeBlanc Counter (LoL)

What if your whole strategy was based on countering a single champion from the opposing team? Exactly, then you probably had the same plan as EDG did when they had to play Faker’s LeBlanc back in the day. Up until that point, Faker had never lost with LeBlanc on the big stage, so that’s why the champion was actually banned whenever teams had to play T1 Faker. But EDG had a different idea and drafted loud champions that were good against Leblanc instead of banning them. With champions like Maokai, Morgana and Alistar, there is so much crowd control in the team that even a Leblanc could be caught in the CC chain.