Big Plays Spotlight: Katarina’s 1v5 penta

RiotPreeti·Aug 8, 2014·87 votes·105,668 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.

As the sole survivor of a late-game team fight, KatarinaMaster (formally K4tarina) proves that it’s never really over until the nexus explodes. With her team down 8k gold and super minions pouring down mid lane, Katarina knows only a big solo play can keep this game alive.

In a move that would make TiensiNoAkuma proud, the Sinister Blade prioritizes the low-health Leona first to get the reset and eliminate the enemy team’s most threatening crowd control. It’s pure mechanics from there on out as Katarina jumps from target to target, maximizing her cooldowns and punishing the enemy for their overaggressive push.

Good thing she got the reset!

Let’s slow that down a bit…

We’d love to feature your biggest plays, so post a link in the comments below or submit your clip here!

474 Comments

lVSymVkmynAug 8, 2014140 votes

Solid play, this is why we don't surrender til it's over.

TimewinderAug 8, 201449 votes

I wonder if that game ended with kat not being able to defend her tower/nexus against the super minions

DoubleMAug 9, 201412 votes

I doubt it, his teammates respawn timers were pretty low.

Reforming OCEAug 8, 201418 votes

If Tiensi says you've done well... you've truly done well! ^_^

ploki122Aug 8, 201479 votes

Wanna bet that she's not playing on the 100 ping of NA's East Coast?

Dig DuxAug 9, 201432 votes

Next on Big Plays, an east coast team beats a west coast team without flying across the country to play on an even field.

Good DominoAug 8, 201439 votes

Ugh. Good job and all, but this. This is why I hate Katarina. item 3070

BringYorickBackAug 8, 201413 votes

Better then laning tryndamere vs teemo!

Sassy FruitAug 8, 201436 votes

You know that moment when you die to a Katarina. Your screen goes all gray and as you wait patiently to respawn, you watch the rest of your team just get melted/deleted. It's okay to cry sometimes.

AguTheMeerkatAug 8, 201421 votes

Why wasnt she in the actual fight? She just stood in base not helping her team and then just cleaned up

insaiyanbaccaAug 8, 201455 votes

because thats how Katarina works

AShinyPenguinAug 9, 201420 votes

Um, am I the only one to think that it seems like this kat was afk'ing and decided to be a dick at the last second?

XulsigaeAug 8, 201418 votes

I don't see why she flashed up and to the left at the beginning.

Trust in BardAug 8, 201421 votes

Misdirection Leblanc

XFortuityAug 8, 201422 votes

Not just a misdirection... But a *classic misdirection

Entity ZeroAug 8, 20144 votes

If you watch it on youtube and slow down to the slowest speed, it looks like she shunpos onto that minion near the tower and then flashes, which which might of just been a missclick. Looked like she wanted to shunpo, then flash to the right not left. Either way, still worked out for her. Watching it on the slowest speed though makes this look much more incredibly with how she moves around.

BBBombBBAug 8, 20144 votes

I don't understand how she "flashes" twice. First she used her flash to move forward, but to "flash" left, she couldn't have used anything since there was no minion or ward there, and then she shunpos into Leona. I'm confused how she jumps distance twice before shunpoing for the first time.

darkair134Aug 8, 20146 votes

I dont think she flashed twice i think she flashed got hit by syndra and shunpo'd back in

ShadowCleave212Aug 9, 20143 votes

...I don't think Syndra hit her, it doesn't look like Syndra did anything to her, although I could be watching lower quality.

SeshiaAug 9, 20144 votes

I agree, if you look at the fight, later on Syndra uses her shockwave in about 2 secs (it's on a lengthy cool-down), Syndra was nowhere near the initial flash, and there is no effect that could indicate it. Finally, if you look at where the shunpo takes her, it's opposite the initial up and right flash location, not the later (and assumedly glitched) upper left one.

I'm gonna chalk this up to a replay bug

mayushiiiiAug 9, 20146 votes

I think it's a LOLReplay bug. I slowed it down in Youtube. Notice the minion actually dies before she does anything. I believe she just flashed closer to get in range and then Shunpo'd in after. Syndra did not use E until Katarina Shunpo'd, so Katarina wasn't knocked back after the flash. It only shows up as a double flash in LOLReplay(?). Pretty weird, it hasn't happened to me before.

BIG DUALLYAug 9, 20146 votes

I'm pretty sure it's just a glitch in the replay itself, I noticed it too, but replays are often all buggy and junk lol

PushoverAug 9, 20149 votes

It's a visual bug, if you slow it down, she flashes up and to the right, but ends up appearing up and to the left briefly.

Focus My ADCAug 8, 201418 votes

Not impressive if you ask me. I mean, everyone knows Katarina by her ability to 1v2,3,4,5 so easily and come out with all of them dead and stay alive. If you watch closely.. she really just button mashed.

Focus My ADCAug 8, 201413 votes

and if you watch from the beginning she's waiting in spawn for the enemy team to get low and just come in and clean up.

SokinaAug 8, 201434 votes

Blah blah blah. If you watch closely, she's at fountain and the rest of her team isn't even defending at the base. They probably got baited, and rather than try to fight out of the base, she decided to stay in the base.

"She waited in spawn for the enemy team to get low and just come in and clean up." Yeah, good point. She should have fought with "honor" and decided to 1vs5 everyone like an "honorable" assassin outside of the base, away from the backup from her minions / towers.

Do you even know how to play league? Whatever she did worked.

SonicBlissAug 9, 201418 votes

That was a really obvious casting bot. it will use her q then shunpo, then w, then r to the nearest opponent but prefers champions. If a skill cannot be cast, it will continue down the list. This is obvious in the fact that her skill intervals seemed to surpass human reaction/targetting time and at the end when she continued to combo the super minion but couldnt finish the combo because he skills were cooling. There are tons of lingerring programs from the past when LOLPLUS and programs like that were around. They openly had command lists for things of this nature. It's extremely possible and i gotta say im surprised a riot employee actually posted it. Get your head together Preeti. Even if i'm wrong, its grounds for easy controversy and still shouldn't be posted.

TheMorrighan01Aug 8, 201417 votes

I know I'll get downvoted, but that's an entire team with mid level health wiped out by one champion in five seconds. That's enough time to say, "hey, it's that OP--" and everyone's dead. A single champ who can wipe out a whole team in five seconds is OP. Period.

VyvoxAug 8, 20148 votes

Lol I hope u realize that 2 of them had full health. She just had better reactions than the people with cc on the other team. LEONA. SYNDRA. IRELIA.

BringYorickBackAug 8, 20147 votes

yeah reaction speed is important to katarina, especially if they have good CC.

SixNovaAug 8, 20147 votes

Obviously you're gonna get downvoted if you cry OP, when a champion isn't actually OP. This Kat just knew her priorities. Kill heavy CC tank, burst carries, let AoE dmg take care of low Mundo and Irelia. item 3070

TheMorrighan01Aug 8, 201422 votes

Your explaining how she killed them doesn't address the point that she could and did. She does so much damage so fast that she can take on five champs and kill them all. I love how the description of this video says the other team was overaggressive. Yeah, because they should've said "whoops, Kat's up and there's only five of us, retreat." Balanced gameplay at its finest.

C0ol Br3ezeAug 8, 201416 votes

Wow! A kat got a pentakill on 5 low hp champs!! That is def spotlight material. I doubt there are many Kat players that can do that.

BringYorickBackAug 8, 201431 votes

You go ahead and try doing exactly what they did, as fast or faster then what they did and show a video, besides not all of them were low health.

TerchioAug 9, 20149 votes

Well, to be fair, the only two who had MR on items at all, Mundo and Irelia, were quite low from the beginning, Leona was also super low, and that leaves only Syndra and Lucian at nearly full health, but terrible defenses. Really, the 3 low ones were just passive fodder, making this even easier. With Leona the first target dead, only Irelia and Syndra had any chance of stopping her, but Irelia waited until she fell too low, and Syndra never did fling her skillshot off properly in any case. You think it's hard to click some random 5 targets over and again, try to click that thing ping-ponging from target to target at that speed.

MilleniumAug 9, 201410 votes

I'm only going to say this because I've seen it before. For how bad the stats are and how the play started/ended this could of easily been a bot. I know people (because they told me and because they are horrid at the actual game) that have a macro that when they push a certain button when playing katarina it instantly works as the video did, using all the "instant" type of abilities on the enemies that can be killed by that lower damage amount in quick repetition after getting the next target low enough. The macro calculates and runs it all itself with no actual work done by the player. Note though, I am not accusing that this was a bot/macro being used. I am only saying that for the elo that it is and the stats beforehand make it a simple conclusion to come to. The two biggest points in the play that make me think this is how kat ultis to the point in which she could jump to syndra and combo her (who was at that time behind mundo) and when she used her E and W randomly after lucian died. Through repeated watching (over 30 times) I can see where this is perfectly doable. At the same time I am still saying that bots/macros for this DO exist. Nonetheless, it is just information given to the public for their own educated responses.

mcpwAug 8, 20148 votes

If this doesnt solidify the fact that katarina needs an enormous nerf, I don't know what will...

JonJonBurgyAug 8, 201421 votes

She doesn't need a nerf. I see Kat as an ap version of Master Yi. No cc. She can't stun, slow, silence, anything. That's her weakness. As soon as Kat even made an appearance Irelia should've Q'd, then E for the stun. Leona and Syndra could've followed up with her stuns and Lucian could've killed her. One could argue that everything happened too fast or Cooldowns were on but hey. That's my take.

Captain CalciumAug 9, 201410 votes

Agreed, but the issue is that Katarina focused Leona then Syndra INTENTIONALLY because they had all of that hard cc that would have stopped her. Also after that long wait at the beginning, I'm pretty sure everyone on purple's team had all of their abilities up. knew that she had to kill those two first before she could clean up the rest. So I agree with you that Irelia was the only person who had ANY potential to stop her, but her reactions were just not fast enough to do so. But between tanking tower shots and noticing that 2 of her teammates had just died in about less than a second, I wouldn't blame her for not doing so. I mean, they only had 2 and a half seconds to land an ability on someone who can teleport faster than night-crawler. Katarina does not need any adjustments, Irelia just needs to stay frosty :)

jamoecwAug 9, 20146 votes

well what does constitute a nerf? by looking at the past it seems hit and miss. i've seen champs that can do stuff that other champs can't do, but have weaknesses to them (some of them require a long list of champs to be picked at champ select) get nerfed just because what they do is powerful. the explanation tends to be that games shouldn't be picked during champ select and any champ you pick should be able to counter any other champ to varying degrees of success. of course this logic hasn't spread through the entire champ lineup, so it is doubtful that is the real reason for nerfs.

personally i think that she doesn't need a nerf, but should be seen as an example of trade offs and uniqueness to be exploited. if they took a lot of the champs that are under powered and tried to recreate such an effect (maybe not 1v5 pentas, but maybe safely soloing baron, taking a undefended tower with no aid, etc.) with them by boosting and/or altering slightly certain abilities while nerfing other areas to compensate you'd end up with a more varied game and more thought about achieving great plays (rather than everyone simply crying button mashing or good connection when something like this happens).

genexpAug 8, 20147 votes

This is insane!

CrymyAug 9, 20147 votes

She's afk at the start for sure

Genetics70Aug 9, 20147 votes

Such devastation... is it still too soon for the "Hurricane Katarina" skin to make its debut?

Ethan zzAug 10, 20147 votes

http://gyazo.com/623241e6ec2399151490094383375731 I noticed an odd flash, wondering if anyone could explain this, sorry for the poor gif with gyazo.

TimewinderAug 8, 20145 votes

What was that flash and shunpo thing at the beginning of the play? Slow it down on YouTube to x.25, it looked like she glitched out. O.o

BBBombBBAug 8, 20143 votes

And at the very end of the video.

VHFAug 9, 20143 votes

so, how did she shunpo on nothing? or how did she flash over it's range(it's 400...)

Dist the ReaperAug 9, 20144 votes

This guy has literally played over 700 games playing as Katarina ..

Dark NephthysAug 9, 20144 votes

I don't count this a "big play" although interesting but when you actually look at it...

-The 3 tanks had less then half their HP so it's easy to instantly clear the front line -The entire team wasn't even trying to fight her, they were all scattered and running away -After Leona died, they pretty much loss most the CC they need to lock her down (Unless Syndra actually tried)

But honestly..Riot shouldn't be praising this type of play...they should really look at this and think "Why is this allowed?" The fact that this Katarina was able to kill an entire team when really behind and it almost looks like she was jumping around the map with her ultimate still going on while jumping. Her only counter is to focus her down and CC her but if she can jump on people that many times, it's not easy to lock her down.

Also I saw the video on youtube. The person's youtube name is BestKatarina and claims to play Kat for about 3 years...But honestly, it seems a little odd that some one who was playing Kat for that long would first of all go 6-6, with only 99 CS by the 30 min mark. Also the fact that in the beginning of the video, she was at her base while her teamates lose a 4v5 so that probably means she was caught out and killed before their fight. Besides...I'm not sure if it's lag or what but on the actual youtube video she randomly teleports after her Penta and she didn't shunpo there and her flash was on CD so she just randomly teleports at the end of the youtube video..