One insane play was absolutely everyone talked about in LoL, Official LoLEsports Grant Tweet, titled: STEAL OF THE YEAR CONTENDER, that showed an astonishing backdoor by the top laner Doran to basically steal away an entire game.
A back-to-back five-game series with all games being near 50 minutes long. Both teams had around 30 kills each. The fight for the Elder Dragon kept 4 players busy, yet at the last few moments, Doran sneaked away to essentially base race and win the game in the most unexpected way possible.
Fans and players alike have been going crazy with hype and disbelief at the play. There was a comment, “NA really don’t fit to be one of big regions anymore”; placing the play with reference to most NA matches that rarely implement such strategic brilliance. Some went on about few technical details like “missing doran priming q and using 2nd q no?” showing how nitpickingly techno-fans analyze moments.
The hype with Doran is real as he is being shouted out as “the most hype/great top.” In contrast to this, some blame him jokingly with the tag of “KRUGLORDDDDDDDD!!!” in all caps excitement. Some others have gone ahead to compare it to legendary plays of other regions, with one fan arguing: “No way that tarzan quadra isnt number 1,” speaking off top plays from this season.
It’s not just the mechanics that make Doran’s play special-the plot is this was the final game of a series, and everything was on the line. Doran makes a call so great that it utterly overshadowed the opposition: while three of his teammates entered into the enemy base, Doran alone made it out to finish the game, a testament to his brilliant game sense and awareness under pressure.
The loudest reactions came from simple hype like “DORANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN” to more analytical discussions about how this play actually marks a split between regions. This has even sparked memes in the community citing, “T1 has 5 junglers.”
Competitive League is watched for those once-in-a-season moments wherein a player does something entirely unforeseen yet perfectly timed to instantly etch his/her name down into esports history. Whether it’s the official play of the year or not, Doran’s backdoor is set to continue dominating feature reels and fan discussions for months.
By all means, the icing on the cake was that this was professional play, where every decision counts; he did it under pressure. It is thus so rare that at the highest levels no one would anticipate a win like that. Even nowadays, everyone is having trouble trying to figure out how Doran even pulled it off against world-class opponents.
This play will indeed come up later in the season anytime a team encounters a similar situation. Moments like this alter the way the high-level game is played to show that the crazy ideas are often the ones that win championships.
In case you missed the live broadcast, clips have been circulating on social media with fans picking apart every vector in an attempt to figure out exactly how Doran managed to flip what looked like a lost cause into one of the sweetest victories you’ll see in recent history. This is exactly what we watch esports for: moments that could never be scripted.
