Big Plays: Big Flays

RiotPreeti·Jul 11, 2014·79 votes·164,045 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.

Putting his mechanics to work with a pair of Flays, Synasor proves that supports deserve a lot more love for their big plays.

After a favorable 2v2 exchange, the Diamond 3 support winds up to deliver the knockout punch: a reflexive Flash Flay to cancel Tristana’s Rocket Jump mid-animation

With bot lane ravaged, the Chain Warden ducks into the brush to find an opening—literally and figuratively—for a nasty hook/Flay combo that punishes the enemy team’s greed and protects the vulnerable Eggnivia.

Who says supports can't carry?

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

345 Comments

MrBuffingtonJul 11, 2014122 votes

Plays like these make me want to play Thresh more. But then I do and I get sad...

I Main SwainJul 11, 201411 votes

skins like these make me wish I had thresh when championship thresh came out.

The ShiftyJul 11, 20146 votes

Skins like that make me wish I played the game when Champ Thresh came out.

J3 e c k e t tJul 11, 201413 votes

just wait for dog walker thresh. That's gonna be a thing right riot? RIGHT RIOT!? >:D

CR1T OR4NG35Jul 11, 201418 votes

Or Infernal Thresh

Screams "Get over here!" when he lands a hook

XticiJul 12, 20147 votes

Or Infernal Thresh

Screams "Get over here!" when he lands a hook

You mean... like... Scorpion?! :O

summoner 4

I Main SwainJul 12, 201412 votes

why on earth did nobody suggest cowboy thresh? his ult would be a firkin fence

kXTBY0yTTuJul 12, 201410 votes

What about Fisherman Thresh, when he lands a hook he says "Hook, line, and sinker."

Deep Terror NamiJul 12, 201412 votes

There's an Arclight Thresh concept art floating around. Looks really good and I believe I heard it was given the green light (at the least, Baconhawk already presented it to the Skins team); though how soon that is if ever is unknown.

http://imgur.com/K3jgtOJ http://imgur.com/RHXyL8t

THEATOMBOMB035Jul 11, 20145 votes

only if Gentleman Vel'koz comes up right after hahah

RiotStayAwhileNlistnJul 11, 201484 votes

100% feel ya on this one. IMO, one thing that makes Thresh different from other popular supports is that his playstyle requires proactive tactical awareness that is more than one step ahead of what's happening. I think a lot of supports can more or less live in the moment e.g. Morgana can instantly fire a binding or shield a teammate, while Thresh needs to plan out his lanterns and hooks a few extra seconds in advance. This makes for a tougher character to master, but one that provides even greater satisfaction when played right.

Just gotta team builder it up and keep with it before you can reap the rewards of a support champ with such a huge area of influence :)

MrBuffingtonJul 11, 201424 votes

I agree, it's the combination of pseudo-clairvoyant map-awareness and high-precision mechanics, in addition to making sure everyone on your team is on the same page as far as your sick play is concerned, that makes Thresh pretty daunting to master. That plus hardly anyone (aside from maybe another support main) appreciates the plays you make (like, with Braum, there's no way you didn't see my 5 man ult, it took up half of your screen. With Thresh, hooked their carry, lanterned in our tank to follow the 4 man box + flay and oh, our team is running away. ok. I guess I'll just die now.) #SupportProblems, lol

Maybe I just want to teamfight with Thresh, where he's not really suited for that. He's more of a pick/skirmish champion, no? Maybe I just don't know what I'm doing, lol.

SpurtacianJul 12, 20144 votes

Thresh has a lot of team fight functionality. Your a passive tank. you just focus on keeping the dive off your carries. Thresh is a support that works well in skirmish or team fight

AzuriiJul 12, 20146 votes

The thing about Thresh is is, he is a team reliant champ. One could argue all supports are, but Thresh is especially so since he requires so much more planning and follow up. I find my biggest problems with Thresh is either, I don't plan carefully enough(such as going in on a hook barely in tower range) and end up dying, or situations like the one you described, where I set up a nice teamfight/kill and no one responds, or they don't respond in time.

I agree Thresh takes ALOT of skill, but I'll add that he's kinda useless when no one else has a similar level of skill. :/

MrBuffingtonJul 12, 201413 votes

Not to mention he doesn't do all that much damage. Supports like Zyra/Annie/Morgana, if you're ADC is a potato, you can just put your carry pants on and kill people.

EDIT: Wow, okay, I guess I should have been a little less vague/exaggerated less in my comment. Been getting a TON of responses about how you can do a ton of damage with flay, etc etc. Coming from a guy who would take Janna into Showdown 1v1 and win, yes, I know supports (this includes Thresh), can do a deceptive amount of damage. What I should have said is that Thresh's kit is more suited towards utility, rather than damage, as such it is difficult (not impossible) to 100-0 someone unless you have a fair of time alone with them or you're under tower or something. As oppose to Annie, who, with some AP under her belt, can 100-0 a carry with like, 2-3 spells. I appreciate your comments, and I've learned a bit from this thread, but hopefully this clears up this comment :P

Strictly SupportJul 12, 20149 votes

If you think hes doing no damage you're playing him wrong, he does tons if you execute the play properly with Flay.

MrBuffingtonJul 12, 20142 votes

lol I just meant no damage compared to supports like Zyra or Annie. He can do a good amount of damage, especially if you have a lot of soul stacks, but it's not like, reliable damage? Like, it's hard to 1v1 someone as Thresh (for those rare instances you may need to 1v1 someone).

RiddlingVenus0Jul 12, 20145 votes

When I mained Thresh I had to 1v1 people all the time and won. When you have enough skill to make sure whoever you were fighting can't get away when you get them low and they try to escape, 1v1ing isn't that difficult.

RiotJawstheMusicalJul 12, 201420 votes

The passive AA bonus on his Flay deals a sneaky high amount of damage too if you let it charge up.

Midnights DaggerJul 14, 20142 votes

If you think he does so little damage i reccomend teambuilding him as an adc for a game. as far as high burst adcs' i cannot name 1 adc who can match his burst in the late game. hell even top thresh works against some picks. There is no greater satisfaction that deleting a champion from a game, and a damage thresh is the funnest champ for doing just that.

KillaMaanJul 12, 20144 votes

That plus hardly anyone (aside from maybe another support main) appreciates the plays you make (like, with Braum, there's no way you didn't see my 5 man ult, it took up half of your screen. With Thresh, hooked their carry, lanterned in our tank to follow the 4 man box + flay and oh, our team is running away. ok. I guess I'll just die now.) #SupportProblems, lol

OM MY BEJESUS #SupportProblems it is lmao, I enjoy playing Thresh (and Braum) so much but can't seem to function with a seemingly majority of players who can't seem to want to follow up those amazing setups. #SupportProblems #ThreshProblems it is. ):

THEATOMBOMB035Jul 11, 20144 votes

sgreed as a huge thresh player it takes alot of timeing and planning to get thresh down but once you do, people start running the moment they see you you know, cuz they fear the chains Thresh

PropaneblastJul 11, 20144 votes

You say team builder it up..but the que times......and if not not playing support/duo playing team builder is a nightmare, Supports leave if there no adc yet, vis versa. kids leave when you pick a champ they dont like. not ot mention its seem to be buggy ive had a lot a dropped games playing TB and it seem like the que just bugs out sometimes and stops looking 20+ ques time.

RiotStayAwhileNlistnJul 12, 201417 votes

I've mostly used team builder for Top lane, which seems to be one of the longer queue times (I've never seen it in the "Captains are currently looking for the following roles:" box), and it can take around 5-15 minutes to get a game started, but I'm willing to wait to be able to focus on one specific role/champ to improve with. Support, however, is often sought in Team Builder, so you should be able to get onto a team pretty quickly. I have definitely noticed players joining and leaving the team repeatedly, but the 5-15 minute wait has stayed more or less consistent for me, regardless of how many times the roster changes.

As for kids leaving when you pick a champ they don't like, I really doubt this would happen much with Thresh, as he's pretty much seen as the quintessential support that people would want on their team.

I have experienced the queue appearing to "bug out" and not find anyone for way too long, and in these cases I just re-queue. It certainly isn't perfect, but I've found it to be a the most reliable way to practice a champ against human competition.

rose xinJul 11, 201480 votes

Oh hey that's me!! :D

RiotPreetiJul 11, 201424 votes

Hi, Synasor! Thanks for submitting your kickass Thresh plays to us!

rose xinJul 11, 201424 votes

This just made my day! Thank you riot!

epicfacemeteorJul 11, 20147 votes

Thank you for not saying "Rito," I don't like it when people do that. :(

LemonInYourEyesJul 11, 201415 votes

I know Righto?

MM4Y0Jul 12, 20149 votes

LemonNation in your eyes

XFortuityJul 12, 20147 votes

:D he so just did that.... CAN WE GET SOME HOT LISSANDRA PLAYS THAT ARE AS AMAZING AS THIS THRESH? riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiito?

Gallion35Jul 11, 20146 votes

Thresh Teach me!

Walmart CustomerJul 11, 20148 votes

Synasor, the Madlife of NA.

DandicJul 12, 20145 votes

Let's not get carried away now.

Best Champion NAJul 11, 201424 votes

Riot can we get a big plays spotlight on champ's that are not common picks like.. I dunno big plays Urgot? Urgot

CrucileJul 11, 20148 votes

Whose urgot?

Faptain AmericaJul 11, 201417 votes

*Who's

PAWS711Jul 11, 201413 votes

Naw, he was totally going for "Whose Urgot is good enough and actually seen enough to make it to big plays?" :P

regularguy3Jul 11, 20145 votes

Im tired of only seeing leblanc, lee sin, and thresh plays. As awesome as they are well all know leblanc jukes everything lee sin goes flying across the screen and thresh... well hes thresh he can do almost anything

PtarlorrJul 11, 20146 votes

there was an akali play

Suck My ToenailsJul 11, 20143 votes

How about me :( Teemo

ThunderstruckHRJul 11, 20148 votes

Well, Satan, we can't make Big Plays with you because no-one would want to interact with you. Everyone would build summoner 4 summoner 6 item 3117 BISHES GET OUT OF MY WAY

PtarlorrJul 11, 20144 votes

Janna's not too common, right? She had a big play spotlight.

Hidden SanityJul 11, 201417 votes

Thing is... the popular champions are, well, mroe popular, so there's more videos of them out there and with a larger sample size, there's going to be more impressive plays in general.

Secondly, many of the champions that are made popular at a competitive level are popular there due to their high 'playmaking ability'. A good Urgot and a good Thresh are both a terror, but Thresh is more likely to make an unexpected play that makes the viewer say 'wow' just by virtue of his kit.

Xeno DragoonJul 11, 201413 votes

Guess you could say we... Furgot

DevotìonJul 12, 20141 votes

tbh urgot sucks as an adc i find him easier in the mid lane... I've wrecked plenty of swains with urgot in the mid lane and other champs as well... urgot just isnt an adc and shouldnt be marked as one