Top 10 smartest plays in esports

The best esport players are not only distinguished by their skills but also by the way they read and understand the game. Today, we’ll show you what that can look like.

Smart plays can look very different in esports. Whether it’s spontaneous flashes of genius, ingenious chess moves or insane outplays, we present the top 10 smartest plays in esports.

10. Yel Molotov Window Mirage

Rank 10 on the list starts with the unusual yet smart use of Molotov. In ECS Season 3, Brazilian AWPer Yel of Team Luminosity was blinded round after round in the Window on Mirage by a well-placed Smoke. Therefore, he decided to preemptively throw a Molotov to extinguish it when it landed. The plan worked out perfectly. This play gave Yel a clear shot at his unsuspecting opponents. The map went into overtime, where NRG prevailed.

9. Soaz TP Juke 

In the semifinals of the League of Legends World Championship in 2015, SKT T1 and the European organization OG faced each other. Things got heated in the first few minutes, with French top laner Soaz already losing his turret. Consequently, he could not retreat to it when he was ganked shortly after. So the veteran of OG had to get creative. After a wild chase, he came up with the idea of teleporting from a bush to a Turret further away, which he managed to do and made his escape perfect. The semi-final was lost 3-0 despite this brilliant play.

8. Double Grenade by Ceiling 

During Rainbow Six NA Pro League Season 10, Team Reciprocity found themselves already 4 rounds behind against their opponent Luminosity. But in this round, everything looked like a first-round win for the team from North America. However, in a 2 vs. 1 situation and only 12 seconds left on the clock, Luminosity pro Doodle comes up with a brilliant idea: He threw two Impact Grenades to the ceiling above him, where the remaining opponents were just reviving. One by one, opponents fell victim to the explosives, and Doodle won the round with this 500 IQ play.

7. xPeke Backdoor 

Arguably the most iconic moment in the history of League of Legends Pro Play occupies 7th place on our list and goes to none other than xPeke and his Backdoor in the final of IEM Katowice. The match between SK Gaming and Fnatic had already gone 55 minutes when xPeke apparently had enough and headed for SK Gaming’s open Nexus. Since his champion, Kassadin, is too mobile, he skillfully dances around the nexus, dodging all of his opponent’s attacks. What seemed to be pure madness in this score turned out to be one of the smartest and most spectacular plays ever.

6. Asuna Rope Play 

At Valorant Championship Tour NA Stage 3, North American orgs Xset and 100Thieves played for a spot in the grand finals. In Game 2, 100Thieves’ Asuna resorted to a circus act that was as artistic as it was brilliant to win the round and even score an Ace. After taking out the first opponent, Asuna jumped on a rope and swung over the heads of his unsuspecting opponents, eliminating one by one of them. The fact that no opponent expected this move proves that Asuna put all his brain cells together for this. The map went to 100Thieves, but they couldn’t secure the final spot in this best-of-three.

5. Body Hides Claymore 

5th place on this list is a clip from the Rainbow Six Collegiate. The match pitted colleges KSU and the University of San Diego against each other in an exciting exchange of blows. When the bomb was already placed, Pandamnoium died as the only remaining defender in a one-on-one but crawled with his last strength onto a claymore he had placed earlier. His corpse covered the explosive landmine, killing his last opponent and winning the round. This was a true flash of brilliance that Pandamonium used to secure the round for himself and his team.

 

4. S1mple AWP Throw 

As in almost in every piece of our top 10 series, a clip from Ukrainian CS pro S1mple should not be missing from this list. He is not only known for his immense firepower, but also for his ability to gather all of his IQ at crucial moments and create ingenious plays. During ESL ONE Cologne, S1mple found himself in a 1 vs 1 retake against his former teammate Nitro. Without further ado, he decided to use his AWP as a fake flash and threw it over the wall behind which Nitro was waiting for him. Nitro was so surprised by the move that he didn’t even shoot back, and S1mple was able to get the round.

3. Pray Ashe Ult TP Cancel 

This clip of the Korean League of Legends player Pray from the semi-final of the World Championship 2016 between SKT and the ROX Tigers makes it onto the podium of the most intelligent plays in esports. In a thrilling best of 5 against Korean rival SKT, fights break out all over the map as Pray and his support Gorilla attack SKT’s base. Duke, SKT’s Toplaner, wanted to use his teleport to get back into Base to stop said push. Pray recognized his intention and fired an Ashe Arrow all over the map, breaking the teleport and buying his team valuable time. The ROX Tigers used this time to destroy SKT’s base and win the game. Despite this outstanding chess move, SKT decided the best of 5 in their favor and later crowned themselves World Champions in the finals.

2. Dosia 500IQ Grenade 

Most High IQ Plays in Esports occur during hot firefights and wild battles. Our 2nd place proves that it can be done differently. In the final of the PGL Krakow Major in the year 2017 Gambit and Immortals competed in a best of 3. The round was already in the safe hands of Immortals and their players already took a safe position not to die from the bomb’s blast radius. Gambit’s Dosia, however, had other plans, and just before the explosion threw a grenade right at the spot where two Immortals players thought they were safe. The grenade caused so much damage that the players died from the explosion of the bomb. Gambit won the final and thus the title of PGL Krakow Major. Dosia even got graffiti on the map Inferno for this play.  To come up with such a play in this situation requires a tremendous amount of IQ and is therefore deservedly in 2nd place.

1. Scyther’s Ninja Defuse through wall 

First place on the list of the most intelligent plays in Esports goes to Team Empire’s Scyther at the 2019 Rainbow Six Major in Raleigh. In the semifinals, the Russian org faced Team Secret. In a 1-on-1 situation, Scyther seemed to be in a hopeless position: he had to stop the Defuse and his opponent was one floor above him, calmly monitoring the bomb. Realizing he couldn’t take out his opponent, Scyther had a brainwave: he shot a small hole through the wall behind which the bomb was located and defused it through that very hole. His opponent, who had no view of the back of the wall, somehow tried to prevent the Russian from defusing it, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Team Empire took the title in this major, as did Scyther, who deservedly takes the #1 spot on our list.