What is Flame Horizon? League Historical Terms and Where They Come from
The history of League of Legends is steeped with legendary figures and moments over the long course of its run. And every now and then, a figure from the community - be it a content creator or more likely a pro player - makes a play so iconic, that it immortalizes their name within the annals of the game’s history and language. One such example is the Flame Horizon.
Flame Horizon: Domination in Purest Form
By this point in League of Legends history, the term is slowly entering rarity. Fewer and fewer players have even heard of this term, and fewer still make reference to it. To Flame Horizon an opponent was a mark of utter domination - proof of your Lane Kingdom. But these days, it is a rare sight to see, especially in pro play, where the gap has significantly closed between players.
Named after former LCK Top Laner Lee “Flame” Ho-jong, Flame Horizon refers to the act or achievement of successfully farming a 100 CS (Creep Score) more than one’s opposing laner. Killing one minion is worth 1 CS score, meaning to achieve Flame Horizon over one’s opposing laner, you would have to kill 100 more minions than they do.
Flame was considered one of the greatest Top Laners in the Korean League of Legends scene and one of his most iconic skills during his time as a professional player, was his lane management. He was infamous for freezing the wave for long periods, accruing tremendous leads against his opponent laner. Moreover, he was known as an extremely skilled laner, regularly dominating the opposing top laner.
His first ‘Flame Horizon’ came about against Xenics Storm back when he played for CJ Entus Blaze in the HOT6iX Champions Spring 2014. There, Flame took the first step towards a lasting legacy of lane domination by scoring more than a 100 CS over Xenics Storm’s Top Laner Jung “Ren” Byung-wook.
Fun fact: there is an even more prestigious and rarer variant of Flame Horizon, known as the Double Flame Horizon, in which a laner accrues a 200 CS lead over their lane opponent. Naturally, it was extremely rare.
Flame was an extremely skilled and dominant Korean Top Laner during his prime. (Credit: Riot Games)Domination by Gold
For context: some quick maths, a non-cannon wave is composed of 3 melee minions and 3 caster minions. Each melee gives 21 and each caster gives 14. That makes a sum total of 105 gold. The first cannon minion gives 60 and increases by 3 each time (up to 90).
The third wave is a cannon wave, making it 375 gold for the first three waves and a total of 21 minions killed. In a vacuum, 100 CS would net the player somewhere roughly between 1800-2000 gold, about 6 kills worth of gold.
Flame Horizon: A Relic of the Past?
Famously coined by OnGameNet (OGN) casters Erik "DoA" Lonnquist and Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles in 2014
These days, Flame Horizons do not happen very often. Especially not in professional play, but even in ranked games, it is an occurrence that for all intents and purposes, has nearly gone extinct. Last-hitting or CS-ing, where a player lands the final blow on a minion to claim the XP and gold, is considered one of the most important skills in modern League of Legends.
Therefore, if you ever find yourself so lucky as to dominate your lane opponent to this extent, pour one out for Flame and relish in the small part of LoL history you’ve now partaken in.
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