[Champ CP] vs Fizz

Champion Counterplay, something I wish to maybe start a trend here and have a discussion versus some problematic champions to see if they are as bad as people think. This isn't to complain on if they're OP or anything, it's to provide players reasonings and strategies to counter said champs. One that's KINDA a hot topic currently is Fizz. I have played him frequently, although I just don't like to play him much nowadays (excluding Legend of the Poro King) due to the flack I get for using him and how in some match-ups it can be frustrating to lane with.

I'm going to be talking about a Fizz who builds into a bursty AP assassin, since this is what people typically seem to play him as. As such this goes for his snowballing potential, so there defines a goal: stop him early game. And since we're still going typical Fizz route, it's probably going to be mid lane as well.

So we're talking mid lane, chances are you took one of these: Mage, AD Assassin, or Yasuo.

Mage Pros: Ranged ability, have the ability to CC, ranged auto-attack most likely. Mage Cons: Can be squishy, lack of mobility, reliant on mana, AP, and abilities for damage. How to use this against Fizz: Have map awareness, be a huge bully to Fizz, and you might want to bring some MR. Whittle him down bit by bit IF you can. Do NOT waste all your mana trying to bully him, for a manaless mage is an easy target. Be random and sneaky with your spells, your goal is to whittle him down, not kill him... yet. He needs to be scared, a scared Fizz should either overuse E (and should be wasting WAY more mana than you are using), should stay under tower, or if low enough, recalling back. So use this to bully him effectively in lane and you should have a good lead on him early game.

AD Assassin or Yasuo Pros: No mana (save on mana pots) + AD build works with life steal = much more sustainability. Also you probably also have a ranged attack, and if not, a bit of tankiness. AD Assassin or Yasuo Cons: Probably melee-based. How to use this against Fizz: Have map awareness. You can focus on red pots, and freely farm/poke Fizz with your ranged ability. early to early-to-mid you can even get an item (ex. Doran Blade) that has life steal and you can stay in lane much longer than Fizz can. Yasuo aside, you probably also have a burst as well, which can destroy the brittle sea creature.

Notice how the first thing I listed is Map Awareness. This is vital and key for ANY SR game, so it's great practice nonetheless. If a bullied Fizz cannot get a kill from you, chances are: he might try to find another target. This target is usually the ADC, due to the lack of defences they build, and due to shared EXP on bottom lane: probably the same or lower leveled. They may change it up, but the key here is map awareness, and not just for gankings by Fizz, but the ganks for him as well (jungler might try to help Fizz to get him to snowball). Even a periodic check by your jungler can be extremely helpful since Fizz is usually a single target burst champ.

Now to counterplay his Abilities:

Passive: His skin is slippery so he gets reduced damage and free movement around minions. This does not mean he's immune to it though, but as far as countering the passive... I mean, I guess don't rely on minions to help you out much?

Q: Targeted spell. He dashes a fixed distance towards/past the target and dealing AD/AP damage. This really hurts and is a nice engage IF he's close enough. ...so don't let him get that close. In all seriousness though: in lane this CAN be a possible escape because remember, this HAS to target an enemy for it to dash. If he uses E to engage, then he lacks a more easier escape, while this one is confined to certain scenarios. A big tip for this as well is that he has to wait at least half a second to use E after he uses Q (which honestly, if he's gonna get a nerf and probably will due to recent announcements, I hope it's on this).

W: Passive/Active on-hit. It's a Damage-Over-Time (DOT) passive which as extra damage and Grievous Wounds when active. Not something to counterplay other than just: don't get hit with Q or be in melee range for the auto attack.

E: Unique Skill Shots. This is the big kahuna, the rager extraordinaire only to be rivaled by Teemo's shrooms, IT'S PLAYFUL/TRICKSTER (aka the Troll Pole). Now WHY does he have this, and why should he have it? Well take a look at this stats: Melee = has to be near you (except Ult) to deal damage /AP-Based = focused on abilties for damage, countered by MR, and not really built for taking out towers, / Squishy = Probably should be the king of glass cannons, / and uses Mana = as explained before, this hurts his ability to stay in lane early game, or even later on he can't stay out for extended periods of time unless wasting gold, time, and items slots to somehow sustain it (and probably burst potential too). Anyways, so that's my reasoning on why he has it. He has to be close to you to deal damage (again, minus the Ult), so his only RELIABLE source of escape is his E. Can it have a higher cooldown, sure. But for it being main saving grace from all of his weaknesses, maybe a slight mana cost reduction for it? Or maybe same cooldown, but higher mana costs (kinda like the former lol). ANYWAYS SORRY FOR RANTING ON WHY HE HAS IT TIME TO GET ON WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR: to counter that sucker. It has a high mana cost, and pretty predictable on when he's gonna use it. You can either bait him to use it and THEN unleash fury on him, bait him to use it a few times and then he realizes he has no mana to do anything else (needs about half a bar of mana to do a full burst or dashpoke combo early game), or just make your attacks unpredictable let him forget to use it or something. It has high costs, you know he has it and you know what it does. It's like you don't use Fizz Ult against Elise because she can just Rappel out of it. So there's a few ways to go around it.

R: Skill shot. Fizz's only ranged ability and only form of movement CC. Unlike a lot of skillshots, this one fires as far as the summoner's cursor is (to a certain extent, usually within screen range). If it doesn't hit you, stay away from it because it can still do damage regardless if it latched to you or not. If it dos hit you, it slows you and then after the timer goes down, a huge shark (or Urf) will take a bite, knock you and whoever is near you up, and do a good amount of damage. There is a small chance I've heard that if you time it perfectly, you can flash out of the shark knockup and damage, not sure tho. I also believe you can Quicksilver Sash it and drop the Shark if it's attached to you... but yeah to counter it, you just dodge it, and if it misses, stay away until it's completely done.

I honestly hope this helps everyone, and I encourage people to share strategies to fight against him. I hope people can do similar things like this to have constructive feedback and helpful tips instead of just complaints all around. So come on and share some (legit/non-jokey) strategies that have worked out against Fizz, whether it be champion-related or skill-based.

~GL

PS- Made the [Champ CP] just in case others want to follow suit for strategies against other champs.