Ekko Counterplay

• Dodge his Q. Its pretty easy to dodge for the most part, and once it is used Ekko loses a good bit of his damage. He will have to attack three times, or E and attack twice to proc his passive, and he does little AA damage without proccing his passive or the shot from E. If he tries to just come in and AA you to proc, blow your load on him as nearly eery champ, and he will either die or blow ult to try to escape. Play safer untill he uses it. Also dont stand IN minions waves, thats just a prime target for him. If you are to either side (and stay moving) if he tries to hit you with it he is missing alot of minion damage which should hurt his farming.

• Poke him to death. His ult only recovers part of last 4 seconds of damage (plus a small amount). If you poke him out, he can ult all he wants and he isnt going to heal much, not to mention he will not want to try to engage on you usually, and probably not enough to matter if you are engaging on him wisely. If it is a close battle you will likely lose (barring any sweet plays) So avoid getting into a skirmish with him without a clear advantage (same goes for any champ).

-When fighting Ekko keep moving. Dont let his shadow catch up, so he cant use it as a Nuke. If you get Q'd this can be hard with his slow, but if you got caught out alone as a squishy you shoulda been more aware or more careful. In teamfights keep the fight moing untill you kill him or he blows his ult to escape/heal. If you stand in one spot and let his Shadow come without killing him, making him blow ult to esc ape, or CCing him, you played against him poorly. Which brings me to next point

-Kill Ekko early in teamfights. If left alone he can contribute quite alot, and he excells at finishing people off. CC him early and kill him or make him blow his ult to escape.

-Pay attention to the visual/audio for when he W's. It isnt that hard to dodge if you are ranged. The general safest way to move is to either side, as he is either going to try to shoot it on/behind you to attack you and make you run into it as it explodes, or in front of you/on him to bait you into attacking because you think he shot it behind him. Rarely will he try to catch you moving to left or right because those add less chance to an already low chance skill. Play safe at first till you get a feel of how he uses it.

-Buy some sore of MR item. Every champ can use some sort of MR item, there are offensive versions as well. Get one early. This will lessen the damage of any Q's that manage to hit you, and if you are playing right that wont be much so you should be fine.

-Focus on CS. Safely of course. But just dont feed him. Playing for CS is smarter play anyways at all levels. If you can poke him safely/reliably, by all means do it. But keep CS a prime focus. Unless he is bad/you are good/favorable champ matchup, he can be dangerous or difficult to kill. So get that CS. If he isnt fed by mid game, and you have solid CS, most mages I feel out damage him mid game, his mid game damage if not fed or super CS'd is more drawn out then the burst of alot of other champs. You can likely kill him quicker then he can kill you if you are still following all these tips.

-When Ekko is MIA, either went to roam, or went B, TWO IMPORTANT THINGS -- -- CALL MIA's. Let your team know Ekko is roaming, and let them know loudly. Nothing sucks more then handling an ekko like a boss and then ho goes and gets a few kills somewhere else and undoes all your hard work (because laning against Ekko is a battle). Dont Ping once, Ping several times and shout it out in chat. -- -- BEWARE THE W RETURN TO LANE. If Ekko goes B or roams and you try to push lane, dont forget his W has a sizable range. He can shoot it from bush or just outside your vision, then dash/ flash-dash to hit you with the stun. Be sure your bushes are warded(do this anyways) and pay attention, keep moving. Pay attention to how long he is gone, where he went, ect. When in doubt, fall back and wait for him to reappear somewhere.

Lastly try not to panic. I've seen plenty of people die to ekko in a situation just because they panic'd and started running when they should have killed him. Running from Ekko, with his slows, leads to free damage for him cause you usually cant get away easily.

Personally I think he is strong, and his kit gives him alot of flexibility, but he has clear counterplay, he isnt op.

Hope anything here helps anyone.