If there were a survey on “the silliest reasons for being taken down in LoL,” being ambushed by opponents hiding in bushes would likely be at the top. Basically, not every champion in League of Legends has the ability to check vision with skills, so sometimes you’ll have to put yourself in a dangerous spot to “check the bush.” If there are no enemies, everything is perfectly fine; however, if you happen to get taken down, you’ll receive all sorts of backlash from toxic teammates.
After some time of researching, Cloud9’s coach – LS discovered a highly effective and much safer way to check bushes. Essentially, you right-click behind the bush you want to check; if your champion walks straight into the designated direction, that spot is clear of enemies. However, if your champion suddenly “veers off” and tends to go around the bush, you should move in another direction because an enemy is waiting there.
So what’s the secret behind this tip? If you didn’t know, when controlling your champion’s movement direction in LoL, Riot Games’ system automatically selects the shortest path for the character to reach the designated position. Additionally, when choosing a movement direction, your champion will automatically navigate around minions and other champions, including enemies.
Therefore, to check if there are enemies in the bush, you can right-click behind that bush. If the movement direction displayed on the mini-map goes straight through the bush, then there are no ambushes there. In case the movement direction shows that you have to go around, it means there are enemy champions in that bush. Of course, you can choose to attack straight at the opponent if you’re confident and have teammates behind you.
Moreover, this tip can also help you with important skills or cast spells more accurately, even without vision. Champions that rely on skill shots like Ezreal, Lux, Morgana… can apply this tip very effectively to execute important abilities better. Hopefully, with this tip, players will minimize the number of “silly” deaths due to careless bush-checking.