​League of Legends has had many incredible base races, comebacks, and perfect game stomps. However, it's also had a fair share of cheesy moments. They are rare occurrences, but every now and then fans of LoL are given a timeless treat. It's necessary to appreciate these moments, because in any competitive field, optimal choices always dominate the urge for unconventional picks.

In honor of Team SoloMid's Teemo pick against NRG this past weekend, here's a list of cheese strategies that the League world has been witness to.

10. The KT Bullets Submarine Strategy

​This is one of the earliest uses of the Twitch submarine strategy at a professional level. The play is a mild cheese since it doesn't require much to execute. All a team needs is a Twitch, a Shen, and an unsuspecting carry.

The famous clip is from game 5 in the quarterfinals of the OGN HOT6 Summer Playoffs between KT Bullets and CJ Blaze. Score (Twitch) and inSec (Shen) pulled off the play to humiliate Captain Jack (Ashe).

The strategy carries a higher risk of failure or backfire outside of early or mid game. Highlights from that game can be found ​here.



9. Team SoloMid's Innovative Cheese Fails Against Vulcun

During the 2013 Summer LCS, Team SoloMid was criticized for their overly standard picks. TSM would rarely make off-meta picks so they tried to shake it up against Team Vulcun, but it ended in disaster.



Their composition was ​​Zilean mid, Jarvan jungle, Shen top, Xin Zhao filling the ADC spot, and Annie support. The unconventional picks lied in Zilean, Xin Zhao, and (kind of) Annie. ​A misplay in an early gank attempt by TSM gave Vulcun four kills which snowballed the game in Vulcun's favor. TSM couldn't recover and held a tough loss. If TSM kept with their standard picks, they probably would have won.

​

Aside from early gank plays, it's hard to see what the objective was with this cheese. It's not as defined as other strategies in this list nor has it been replicated as of today.

8. Moscow 5 and the Four Guardian Angels

​The Russian innovators were destined to make this list. It won't be their last appearance either.

​

​During the ESL Poland event in July 2012, they bought four Guardian Angels against Team Elo Hell. It created a wonky and exhausting team fight win for Moscow 5. Moscow 5 piled over the baron pit cliff into Elo Hell territory. They turned around a lost fight thanks to their GAs, with Genja as their sole survivor.

​

​The caster reactions in the bottom left corner add to the enjoyment of this cheese.

7. Froggen's Lee Sin Trashes Team SoloMid

It was CLG.EU vs Team SoloMid. Froggen, a legacy midlane regardless of current standing, trashed TSM with his Lee Sin against Reginald's Karthus. It took place at MLG Dallas in game 2 of losers quarterfinals.

After a successful early skirmish, Froggen rushed a Bloodthirster and Guardian Angel and slayed throughout the game. He had a score of 5/0/4 by the 19 minute mark. Lee Sin's mobility in the hands of Froggen allowed for constant playmaking in this game. Froggen had no deaths with a final score of 8/0/4, and CLG.EU eliminated TSM from the tournament.



6. Dignitas and the 2012 Juggermaw

The protect the ADC comp isn't anything special. The Juggermaw composition was first seen by GE Tigers in the Spring LCK. The GE Tigers had a Lulu top and a Nami support. Nothing out of the ordinary since Lulu top was a standard top pick by then. However, the GE Tigers' objective was to use Lulu's ult on Kogmaw to allow him to make riskier plays or initiations that would bait out the enemy.

With 2-3 utility champions support Kogmaw, Kogmaw has the freedom to harass the enemy without repercussions (unless their team comp gets countered). GE Tigers may have been the first to make the composition viable, but Dignitas was one of the earliest teams to use what's now known as Juggermaw.

Back in the 2012 IPL 4, an extinct tournament series, Dignitas successfully pulled off the Juggermaw against CLG. Dignitas took the extra mile and had their midlaner, Scarra, pick Soraka alongside a Lulu top and Janna support. This led to a nearly unkillable Kogmaw during teamfights and a victory for Dignitas. Afterwards, this composition didn't become standardized as it did in 2015 with the GE Tigers.

5. SGS vs TPA: Vayne's Glorious Dream

The Taipei Assassins, former season 2 world champions, brought the Vayne pain train to the Singapore Sentinels during the spring 2013 GPL season.

​

​This is another famous protect the ADC match, except it reached the final form. TPA's entire composition revolved around supporting Bebe's Vayne. They had Stanley on Lulu, Lilballz on Nunu, DinTer on Taric, and Toyz on Janna. With Bebe using cleanse, Vayne was an impossible target, especially with her scaling back in 2013.

​

​SGS had the advantage in the early game, but couldn't capitalize off their lead. TPA slowly came back to win the game with their protect the Vayne composition.

4. Team Dark and the Ultimate Sacrifice for CloudTemplar

CloudTemplar, a legendary Korean jungler, retired from the professional scene in 2013. He was a prominent carry in Azubu Frost, which later became CJ Entus Frost. His retirement saddened many fans around the world, especially Team Dark.

​

​In tribute of CloudTemplar, they picked a jungle composition in their second game against Samsung Ozone in the OGN Champions Winter group stage. These are cheesy picks, null of any intention to win. They picked junglers that embodied CloudTemplar's career, like Skarner. They would have picked Rammus had it not been banned by Ozone.

​

Their full composition was Skarner, Amumu, Maokai, Shen, and Trundle. Meanwhile, Ozone picked a meta comp and defeated Team Dark in 8 minutes flat.

​

​Team Dark was banned from OGN a few days after KeSPA and Riot discussed the game. They believed it was a breach of competitive integrity equivalent to purposely losing a game. Some fans were outraged while others found it comical. Team Dark also lost their prize winnings even though they were not a licensed professional team under KeSPA. ​This could be considered trolling instead of cheese, but it's left a stamp in League history regardless.

​

​Fun fact: this was the same team that Apdo had joined, but he was later banned for boosting.

3. Darien's Shyvana Deathcap, GoSu Pepper Amumu, And DFG Diamondprox Elise

Moscow 5 make the list again, but as Gambit Gaming. Their cheese against Ex Duris Gloria in the Battle of the Atlantic bordered on trolling and bad manners.​ Gambit were cocky in game 1 against XDG. At the forty minute mark, Darien as Shyvana bought a Deathcap and Needlessly Large Rod. Gambit took game 1 without a sweat. ​

​They made sure to give XDG a bit more cheese during the ​second game. While not as ridiculous as Shyvana wearing a Deathcap, Darien played Warwick top. The cherry on top was Diamond buying Deathfire Grasp on Elise jungle and EdWard bought a Frozen Mallet on Annie support.

Darien lived up to his disrespectful streak in the EU LCS when he bought a Manamune on Aatrox ​against Team Millenium. Darien's Warwick ​necessitated a ban in another LCS match too, which was a call for celebration for Darien.

2. Alex Ich's AP Master Yi's Pentakill Against Curse

There's little that needs to be said about this moment. Alex Ich locks in AP Master Yi and proceeds to get a game winning Pentakill.

At IPL 5, Moscow 5 played against Curse.NA in the ​group stage finals. It's arguably one of the most successful cheese picks in a League match ever. Alex Ich's AP Master Yi would return to the ​EU LCS later on.

1. GSG was the King of Cheese in the NLB Winter Finals

It's time for the cream of the crop. I'd say this is the greatest cheese in the entire history of League of Legends. From the enthusiasm of the casters to the extremely unorthodox picks, this is one of the greatest plays ever.

It was the game 5 in the NLB Winter finals. The winner qualifies for the next OGN season. GSG, an unsponsored team, was up against CJ Entus; in the most challenging region of LoL, GSG made history.

Not only does it feature a Heimerdinger jungle and Blitzcrank, but a level 1 invade that leads into a 4-man mid lane push. Since CJ Entus had to match the push, it let Solo (Olaf) farm up with zero threat. When needed, Solo would teleport to the bottom lane to hold off the pushing creeps. This allowed Solo to gain a huge level advantage over the rest of CJ Entus. So when it came to teamfights, the rest of CJ Entus were unable to stop Olaf.

Another element of this cheese was the clearing and pushing abilities of Clear (Caitlyn), Easy (Twisted Fate), and ManDu (Heimer). All three players had champions that had crazy early clearing abilities. Caitlyn's trap would help zone the enemies away or create traps for Blitzcrank's hook. Heimer's turrets kept waves push forward with more zoning threat. And Twisted Fate had regenerative mana, allowing for the constant yellow card threat and red card creep clears.

The itemization was a gamble too. Except for Olaf, the entire GSG team bought doran blades and rings until near the end. This gave GSG better early game power to 4-man push lanes. GSG was role swapped the entire time too.



Original roster Clear=Top Solo=Jungle Easy=Mid CheonJu=ADC ManDu=Support

Cheese Roster Solo=Top ManDu=Jungle Easy=Mid Clear=ADC Support=CheonJu

Let's also consider that this was in early 2013. Most of the players in this match would move on to become world class players. CheonJu became Acorn, Solo became Heart, Easy became Easyhoon, and ManDu became PoohManDu. On the flip side, CJ Entus had Space, inSec, and Dade.

The stars aligned when CJ Entus made picks that could not handle GSG's composition. This was cheese executed at a high level that we might not see ever again.