Why everyone is playing mid Ezreal wrong

It's been a while since I wrote anything here, what with being busy coaching a team and all, but what better subject to resume with than one I've ranted about on twitter quite frequently, mid Ezreal. The execution of mid Ezreal comes down to the usage of the ultimate and how well the player understands the sheer versatility contained in that one spell. Unfortunately most players don't understand the tool in their hands, whether you're watching Bjergsen, Coco, Pawn, or any other pro, their understanding of Ezreal's ultimate is incomplete, except for Faker. The brilliance in Faker's play is in knowing not just the varied possible uses of Ezreal ultimate, but also in knowing when to use it selflessly vs selfishly.

To really illustrate the differences I searched all over for someone to compare against Faker's Ezreal and found that pretty much everyone is equally terrible, so I picked Bjergsen because I could. I'm going to use this game against Team 8 but you could easily do this with any other Bjergsen Ezreal game. In this game Bjergsen fires 22 ults, averaging about 1:20 between each one. On top of the frequency of his ults, the other really important thing to look at is where and for what Bjergsen fires the ult. Watching this game you can easily see his use is predominantly mid and many of his ults are simply to push the wave.

Here's what Bjergsen's first 8 ults, those before he loses his turret, looks like:

Rough illustration of Bjergsen's first 8 ultimate paths

As you can see 7 of his 8 ultimates fire down his own lane. Of those 7, only 2 were for anything other than to push the wave and both were defensive moves to try and make T8 back away from his turret.

Now for comparison, we'll look at a game of Faker's mid Ezreal. For the comparison we're going to use this game against KT. In it Faker ults 20 times averaging 1:09 between them.

Rough illustration of Faker's first 8 ultimate paths

To make it an even comparison we're tracking the first 8 ultimates. Unlike Bjergsen only 3 of Faker's first 8 ultimates rattle down the mid lane and only 1 was used to shove the wave. The other 2 own lane ultimates helped Faker pick up kills. Of the other 5 ultimates 1 was used selfishly in Faker's standard attempt to steal the enemy 2nd blue, the rest were fired bot to chunk the enemy duo and help put pressure on them to allow Bang to keep even in farm in a somewhat disadvantageous match up.

After this point the two player's ultimate usage starts to look quite similar if you're not looking too closely. Both mix pushing their own lane with using the ult for fights or objective takes, but even here Faker's use of Ezreal's Ult is a step above. Specifically in the way he pushes the lane with the ultimate, Faker uses it as efficiently as possible. Where Bjergsen will fire the ult just to gobble up a few extra CS as he backs regardless if his teammates are in the area to soak the wave, Faker will clear the wave with his ultimate while farming wolves or raptors, and he is perfectly willing to leave the farm to a teammate that needs it and happens to be in the lane freeing up the ult to check a buff or chunk a side lane instead.

So it sounds like Bjergsen just needs to use his ult a little more selflessly in the early game, and be willing to give up farm to people who can cover his lane (a problem he has on every champion) and he'll be as good as Faker right? Well... this is the part where I admit I've been a devious little sneak. You see, while that Bjergsen game is pretty typical of everyone I've watched on Ezreal, and I watched dozens of players before getting bored of more of the same, the Faker game was the one closest to other people's Ezreal play I could find. I rigged it in favor Bjergsen and other mid Ezreal players.

This game vs Sbenu is what typical Faker Ezreal actually looks like.

When Faker's ahead his ults get everywhere!

He pushes his own wave once, not once in the first 8 ults, once all game. That is his first ult and it's because he's being shoved in and needs to reduce the pressure, after that he never again ults simply to push the wave despite firing another 14 ults this game. What's the big difference here? Faker does not lose his tower. With his outer turret still alive and his team the one with the pressure advantage Faker never needs to relieve pressure on his lane with a quick ult to clear it. Unlike other players, when Faker isn't forced to use his ult to relieve pressure in his own lane, he simply stops considering that a valuable use of the Ezreal ultimate. It doesn't mean Faker ults less though, he still averages an ult every 1:16 this game. Faker simply transfers the ults that other players use to shove the wave into firing to other lanes to chunk enemies or help out in a fight while he's split pushing. Very rarely he'll push a wave with the ult at all and it's always an empty lane to keep minion waves pressuring the enemy while SKT pushes elsewhere.

Most players consider Ezreal's ultimate simply another of their spells meant to help get themselves ahead, but Faker has realized that using a global ranged, vision granting, nuke to farm is a terrific waste. With Ezreal ult you can pressure bot without having to roam, you can force an enemy to surrender farm for fear of a tower dive without leaving your lane, you can let your team 4-1 with the pressure of a 1-3-1, and more. While many players touch on some or all aspects of what it can do occasionally, everyone inevitably wastes ult after ult pushing their own lane, trying to get themselves further ahead, trying to put the game on their back.

Faker isn't playing to get himself ahead, he's playing for SKT to win the game. This is the real key to what sets Faker apart from other Ezreal players. Because Faker is playing for his team to win, not himself, and he has a full grasp of the versatility of the Ezreal ultimate he uses the spell to maintain or increase SKT's ability to pressure the enemy team at all times. As seen in the game against KT, Faker's play to maintain pressure means that when he is pressed in and has lost his turret he is willing to ult the wave to keep the lane stable instead of pushing against SKT. This use makes perfect sense, by keeping the lane from progressing forward into SKT's side of the map he hinders the enemy's ability to press their vision forward, stops roams from mid to other lanes, and prevents the enemy using the lane as a counter-pressure point, all while gobbling up CS to steadily close the pressure gap. However,  as seen in the Sbenu game, when Faker is ahead and able to play forward and farm without needing the ultimate he, unlike every other mid Ez player on the planet, finds any other way he can see to pressure the map. Whether it's ulting an empty lane so it pushes in SKT's favor, adding damage to a fight while he split pushes on the opposite side of the map, or trying to snipe the enemy mid's blue buff, when ahead Faker looks for ways to increase SKT's pressure on the map more effectively than getting 6 more CS slightly faster than he otherwise would. And that is why everyone, except Faker, is playing mid Ezreal Wrong.