Faker has built his reputation with a multitude of champions, from LeBlanc, Ryze to Azir, Riven, Master Yi… but when it comes to the champion that leaves the deepest impression, it can only be Zed. Besides his historic solo play against Ryu, Zed is also one of the champions that Faker has used extensively in the early stages of his career, achieving ultimate glory with this champion.
It’s no wonder that despite Zed’s low pick rate, every time Faker brings this champion into play, viewers will tune in without hesitation. For instance, recently, this Demon King unexpectedly picked Zed for the jungle role in a ranked match on stream. And needless to say, the viewership on Faker’s channel skyrocketed as a result. Everyone wanted to see what Faker could do by taking a mid-lane champion into the jungle.
However, this experiment didn’t seem to go too well. Although experts have noted that Zed can be used in the jungle after a series of adjustments from Riot, this champion still appears quite weak in this new position. Faker struggled significantly to complete his initial jungle routes, and with Zed lacking any hard crowd control, Faker’s ability to gank in the early game was nearly zero.
In the harsh environment of Grandmaster Korea, any disadvantage, no matter how small, will be thoroughly exploited by the opponents. And a Zed in the jungle is like a tasty bait for the enemy team. As a result, by mid-game, Faker had a KDA of 2/6/7. Quite a feed, although he did contribute to several team fights.
However, the Demon King, no matter how “old” he gets, still has his claws, and underestimating a 2/6 Zed controlled by Faker proved to be costly for the opposing team. In a situation moving to the top lane, Faker was ambushed by three enemy players.
A series of abilities were unleashed, causing Faker’s health to plummet to a critical level, but this was also the moment Hide on Bush activated his tournament version of Faker, dodging every enemy attack with his quick movements and clever shadow positioning. Even when Jarvan IV, Rumble, and Pantheon from the enemy team had the support of Senna’s ultimate, Faker still could not be taken down.
He bought enough time for his teammates to arrive for support and even turned around to “steal” the kill of the enemy jungler. The result of this skirmish granted an advantage to Faker’s team, as two enemy players went down, sacrificing only one Zed (who was eventually killed by Rumble’s burn damage).
Faker’s “Lăng Ba Vi Bộ” (Three Steps of the Rising Dragon) left over 400,000 viewers watching his stream in awe, as they witnessed once again the image and qualities of a top superstar in League of Legends history, finding himself in a disadvantage but always handling it with incredible calm. Only to continue feeding afterward…
Notably, Faker’s team ended up as the final winners, despite the Demon King’s feeding to a score of 4/11. With a textbook counterattack in the top lane, Faker and his teammates unexpectedly wiped out the enemy team and marched straight to the Nexus, concluding the match.
