I have outrun a hyper speed Hecarim

http://img.memecdn.com/tickle-me-elmo_o_2005265.jpg

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... You know what, I have a question: If running away properly under a fairly large threat isn't counterplay, then what exactly constitutes counterplay for the boards? Running away isn't counterplay, counterbuilding isn't counterplay, so is counterplay being able to directly manfight and win the manfight? Is it standing your ground successfully against anything? Where is the line?

Everything under your control can be considered counterplay. There will always be an upsurge of complaints on various champions about "no counterplay" such as Lee Sin, Yasuo, etc., however most of these champions require a specific set of circumstances (or being VERY fed) to be able to "legit no counterplay" you (RIP Rush, pls come back).

I encourage everyone to check out Faker's dodging to see tons of counterplay with pure simple mechanics and reaction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LGbSyxa_jA

Even Karthus' R has counterplay as it requires a long channel time and gives people time to prepare for it. If it was an instant-cast with no wind-up, there would be no opportunity to counterplay it. While a lot of champions (Illaoi, Karthus, etc.) generally can be seen as an "unfun" way of playing against as the counterplay is to literally run away from them at certain times, that is what is required to survive and actually have an opportunity to use your abilities. It's a similar trope to separating from a Fiddlesticks' E (or Brand R) when it is bouncing between you and your allies. These type of abilities create an effective "zone" in which you are required to play around in order to survive, lest you take massive damage. This creates a lot of pressure in an already high-pressure environment where positioning is key. If Brand pushes R on your Tank and the ADC is the only target nearby them chasing targets down, they are in for a bad time. The Tank probably won't think anything of it, as he's gotten a massive cooldown burned from the enemy mage, but the ADC positioned themselves in a spot that allows for a swift death. This is part of the reason the whole "ADCin2k17LUL" meme came from, as a small positional error will lead to an instant grey screen.

That being said, there are champions that almost REQUIRE you to build a certain way to deal with them. Malzahar and Warwick essentially guarantee the ADC will build a QSS as Mikael's doesn't remove Suppression. This is absolutely counterplay, regardless of what people want to believe. It requires you to activate an item ON REACTION to save your life. This also leads to sinking gold into an item that may or may not be useful to them stat-wise, but will ultimately save their life and devastate the enemy team who likely put themselves in a poor position to make the play happen.

{quoted}

... You know what, I have a question: If running away properly under a fairly large threat isn't counterplay, then what exactly constitutes counterplay for the boards? Running away isn't counterplay, counterbuilding isn't counterplay, so is counterplay being able to directly manfight and win the manfight? Is it standing your ground successfully against anything? Where is the line?

"I should be able to solocarry my noob team by building cookiecutter/full damage and charging down whichever lane has the most enemies, but not if I'm Yi, Riven, or Yasuo." -Boards, 1992-Current

https://i.imgflip.com/1neac1.jpg

because this the dingy na boards, people would rather use the flashy subreddit