Big Plays Spotlight: Leona’s Last Stand

RiotPreeti·Aug 22, 2014·130 votes·380,887 views

Welcome to the Big Plays Spotlight! In this feature, we highlight the most epic plays, from meticulously-coordinated early tower dives to mind-blowing cross-map jukes.

This is why you never dive a highly-skilled Leona player. Watch closely as Guanine (also known as Cytosine), a high-Diamond I support main, methodically thwarts and punishes a three-man tower dive.

Leona quickly makes Udyr her first victim, locking him under turret with absolute brute force. Despite all of her spells being on cooldown, she bluffs Varus with an aggressive Flash—not only scaring him off but also forcing Thresh to take turret aggro. With careful spacing between her enemies, the Radiant Dawn buys time to chug potions and get her spells off cooldown before re-engaging Thresh. Finally, as the last enemy melee minion falls, the newly-level 6 Leona snipes Varus just as he barely touches the edge of the turret’s range.

Leona got credit for those three kills, but the bot outer turret deserves an honorable mention for assisting with 11 shots.

This Monday, Gnar’s on the free week rotation! We’d love to feature your biggest Gnar plays, so post a link in the comments below or submit your clip here!

300 Comments

FlintfallAug 22, 2014155 votes

Praise the Sun! item 3190

ShadowGlaive213Aug 22, 20144 votes

\o/

ploki122Aug 22, 20145 votes

Just like the sun, her course still ended up with someone else replacing her in the spotlight. Her Jinx would've probably loved to get her hand on a few of those 8 pre-15 kills she got.

SummonerRPAug 22, 201410 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qMfvP5tgpU Jinx LOL!

Zoolog77Aug 22, 201427 votes

Sounds like someone is tooting their own horn, way to be modest buddy

Sicarius NoctisAug 22, 201423 votes

All I saw is bad play most players involved in the video.

Jinx Misses all her w's, uses unnecessary rockets, bad kiting. KogMaw Bad target selection (attacks/chases Zyra when he could kill Jinx then Zyra for a double kill), misses projectiles, does not auto when he can. Nami Exhausts Zyra for no reason. Rengar Jumps straight onto traps, tanks a ton of minions for no reason (he could have waited for minions to hit turret before ganking the clearly oblivious Jinx). Fizz Does 0 damage to enemy champions.

The only decent play I saw was from Zyra who seems to be carrying her lackluster AD carry partner.

Disclaimer: I've only watched the video once so there may be other mistakes made. zzz.

MephilisAug 23, 201475 votes

A good example of why LoL has one of the worst(If not the worst) Communities out there. Someone posts a video(Randomly) of their exploits, and the response is a ton of down votes, and some critics points out every little thing that was done wrong. No, "That was pretty nice, but you could have done better if you Insert tips here" No instead it is. "Here let me kick you in the head a few times for every mistake you made because I've been playing mobas perfectly since the moment I started." Great job, way to help improve the player base that you probably complain about.

WeaponizedAwtismAug 23, 201426 votes

You, sir, are a lovely person. If there were more people like you, the world would be a better place. If this sounds like sarcasm, know that it isn't.

Shield of TargonAug 22, 201475 votes

Never! Diana

LegacianAug 22, 201422 votes

Yeah, don't forget about the moon and stars! Soraka item 3266 item 3070 item 2045 item 3174

EMOFRATPARTYAug 22, 20147 votes

in the sky...

PirateSurgeonAug 23, 201410 votes

and I SWEEEAAAR

dancingAug 23, 201410 votes

LeeSin What are you guys talking about? Praise Wat?

Agan MardrusAug 23, 20145 votes

I Velkoz wut u mean u should probably see an optometrist

RaymoclausAug 23, 201417 votes

I don't think an optometrist can help when your eyes have been burned out of your skull.

InsanityFlayzAug 23, 201452 votes

They could attach googley eyes, that way, the enemy would die from laughter!

LittleDiAug 23, 20145 votes

Next week, Banana for scale!

GurtoggAug 24, 201413 votes

The funny thing is that Moon light is actually sun light reflecting off the moon.... So.. ultimately it is the Sun light Diana is getting her powers from. Without the sun the moon would have no power and thus Diana could not praise the moon. So she ultimately is Praising the Sun when she praises the moon.

RiotIronStylusAug 23, 2014115 votes

wink

FlintfallAug 23, 20146 votes

Haha

DruidspellAug 22, 201430 votes

I guess you can say Thresh , got outflayed.

FrÿAug 22, 201419 votes

The Dawn has arrived Leona

PørourfAug 22, 201416 votes

i guess you can say that was quite enlightening Leona

TheRableAug 23, 201415 votes

Leona : Knock knock! Diana : Who's there? Leona : The sun motherf*ucker ! Get owned!

CamelOfDooAug 22, 201413 votes

No mention to how she leveled up to 6 with the kill on thresh

WindScorpionAug 22, 20143 votes

And then 7 with the kill on Varus? I don't think champion kills give that much XP.

regularguy3Aug 22, 20146 votes

Damn she would look so dope if she just recalled right after she ulted varus

TenSlashTenAug 22, 201412 votes

10/10

uhsnivekAug 22, 20148 votes

Ah leona my main support :3 Leona

Starblaster11Aug 23, 20142 votes

LOL kennen is my main support :3 Kennen

ZarocrossAug 22, 20148 votes

look at the URL to this page spelling op

UwU Whats ThısAug 22, 20146 votes

The team was sloppy. This was diamond, and the Thresh, who built no attack items, thought it best to auto attack rather than Q, which DOES damage + momentarily stunning her, and giving time to use flay (E). If you want to argue that his Q was on CD, it was a good 15 seconds later from his first Q, and as long as he leveled it up, as he should be, it would have enough time. Next, why did Varus go back in close to death when there were no minions? He should have just Q'd over the wall.

I will admit though, Leona handled that dive very well, but Varus and Thresh just failed.

EIV2fGRgmUAug 22, 201418 votes

Quite the observations on Diamond players from a level 25. They should take your advice to heart.

MikeEatsAssAug 22, 20144 votes

He could be a smurf... Just sayin. :P

Hyper EntityAug 22, 20145 votes

He's diamond 1, really? A smurf?

AlexsdamanAug 22, 20143 votes

No, he used Q mid-dive and missed, you should of pointed out that thresh missed his flay when Leona was extremely low, it would of surely killed her and saved both their lives, also Leona should of ulted the Thresh to kill him as proper calculations and execution would have resulted in thresh killing Leona with his flay before Leona killed him. It was an amazing gamble for Leona to save his ult in hopes that Thresh would miss his flay in order to save his ult for Varus. Of course no one actually thinks like this, this is all hindsight, perhaps it was divine intervention that prodded Leona to save her ult till the last moment, or simply blind luck. Either way, You're wrong.

ElemonAug 22, 201447 votes

I'm pretty sure Leona got her ult by killing Thresh... She couldn't have used it before then...

Edit: How exactly do I have more upvotes than the OP? Especially since I'm just repeating part of what it says... O_o Not that I have a problem with it or anything, but...

I Main SwainAug 22, 20145 votes

and that's why I laughed when people complained about braum needing a nerf. Leona is much worse.

znoopyzAug 22, 201414 votes

they both fill very different roles Braum is much more defensive protecting your carries while leona is all about getting in there and setting kills up for her team. each of them can do both but one is always better then the other

OmnifinityAug 22, 201448 votes

and that's why I laughed when people complained about braum needing a nerf. Leona is much worse.

Please nerf Leona because this guy plays her well. People like you should stop playing.

EpicBroccoliAug 22, 201418 votes

I mean there was 0 counterplay to that! They HAD to dive her under turret

Lumus AvatarAug 22, 201420 votes

They didn't HAVE to dive her under the turret. After Varus' ult, she was damn low on HP. If they'd backed off, she might have returned to heal, at which point they could leverage the pushed up minion wave to take bot turret. Or they could have stagnated the minions and drawn her out away from the turret. Their failure to take Leona or bot Turret is a result of greed for the kill. There is always an option to how you play. This Leona player capitalized on their unwillingness to let her escape and their ignorance of the threat of her turret.

They're thinking "It's 3v1, so what if she has a turret, our damage output will lay her out before we take a hit!" They attacked her under the turret, drawing fire and she just locked them up. I think the flash that scared off Varus was amazing. it would have ended differntly if she hadn't dodged his Q.

CHiiiiiAug 22, 20143 votes

Yup the flash was great with her items and being at lvl 5, i doubt she had her q or e ready right there right after using it on udyr... But flashing in def scared varus off lol

regularguy3Aug 22, 201416 votes

Well I thought that was sarcasm from Broccoli lol

SnowLeopard91Aug 22, 20143 votes

I absolutely love these big play spotlights. Keep em coming!

HyperspaceAug 22, 20143 votes

Do you even tank bro?

superpanda02Aug 22, 20142 votes

but gnar needs a buff plox rito plox D:

Newb the LegendAug 22, 201430 votes

He doesn't need a buff people just need to learn how to play him

DrizydAug 22, 20142 votes

Maybe if leona spent 75g on a ward and not 2 pots, her adc might still be alive

NinjaishGirlAug 22, 201437 votes

a) The river was already warded. b) Udyr came in through lane, courtesy of Thresh's lantern, so the ward issue is irrelevant. c) Maybe if Leona's adc didn't get hooked, her adc might still be alive. d) Maybe if Leona spent 75g on a ward and not 2 pots, Leona would've died, considering she uses all but one of them to survive the dive.