Ryze matchup: Don't E on him lv1 especially if he has boneplating. You want to poke away his boneplating but some ryze players go celerity+ms shard so you need to be really careful how you throw it and ideally Q him when he is going for CS if you want to play to kill him earlygame. If he doesnt have boneplating you still want him to use a spell before because he can deny you from proccing passive with his W and run you down with phaserush after and if he has E he has a very low CD so he will likely get 2 E's off and outtrade you like that. Bait it out, then jump on him after he uses it. Lv2 he has the option to go E+W so you can't combo him unless he uses his E on the wave so make sure to be in position to pounce if he does. You will still be able to proc your passive if you hit your combo but he will outtrade you because of his short E cd and autos. So this is only worth it if you can immediatly punish and combo again when it's off CD but you usually have to take this risk to make the matchup volatile. The reason for this is that you pretty much only win on first and second reset so you want to make both of you base for 400g as your dring+darkseal spike is still a bit stronger than his tear and you really don't want him to get ruby crystals. After he gets even 1 ruby crystal and lv5 he will completely statcheck you and you won't have enough damage to kill him 1v1 for a very very long time while he can outroam and outpush you so only trade with him for lane control and denying CS and ONLY if you have your W up or he wastes his CDs on the way in a stupid way. Don't ever jump on ryze if he has all his spells up especially in a long lane because he can reset his Q with every spell and just run you down with his passive ms root phaserush and sometimes even ghost. In general you don't want to stay in your wave too much otherwise Ryze can splash his E on you and Q the wave. Since you still have to line up with the wave to Q it you need to move away from it and try to E out of the splash range for his Q even if he already marked you with his E or time your W in a way where you can avoid his Q damage. Whenever Ryze goes in fog you want to ping your team in advance as his roams are very potent with his ult. Eventhough it is not worth to trade with ryze for the 1v1, you can sometimes try to keep him in lane by trading with him and try to make both of you useless to influence the play eventhough you will lose the trade and need to be careful of his ganksetup with his W. It's possible to buffer his root with your E2 but it relies way more on prediction than other CCs because of how instant it is. When you have DnD you can play for short trades with him as long as you have your W shield and know where the enemy jungler is. Once he has 2 items he is at his strongest point and even if you have a lead you will likely not win sidelane 1v1s through his seraphs shield. Ryze is pretty vulnerable to your W in sidelane from fog but he can always just ult away unless your team has strong CC to lock him down. Be careful about his CC+burst in teamfights especially if he has his actualiser spike and never go in first. Ryze main weakness is that he is usually outranged in teamfights so play with your team if you have a range advantage. You scale fine into this matchup but much like Kassadin you don't win vs him individually and it heavily depends on what the teamcomps are so don't get too desperate even if you fail to get an early lead. As long as you stay in the game with good farm you can still kill Ryze if he gets low because his high health means you do a lot of damage with W and DnD. You can follow Ryze ult with perfect E2 timing but it is too hard to actually execute in a real game.

Yasuo matchup: This is probably the hardest matchup for Ekko in terms of early laning 1v1. You NEED scorch in this lane because if you Q him his passive shield will be gone and the scorch procs his boneplating. If you are very confident and aren't playing versus a very good yasuo player you can try to win this matchup in the first 3 levels of the game but if you take even one bad trade with ignite+dring while trying to play aggressive your whole game is basically lost because he can constantly push you in and force you to be out of mana under your tower for you to eventually drop a whole wave. This is why you need to stop playing for trades if he doesn't fk up earlygame really hard and try to manage your mana and HP to get a good first recall off. Yasuos main wincondition is to isolate the game and beat you 1v1 so you don't have to play into that and can just try to scale until you have your DnD when the matchup becomes much more managable. His main weakness is getting ganked, even in sidelane. Don't trade when he has boneplating or his passive shield up. Lv1 you can try to poke it off and trade again even at lv1 as long as he goes for CS and you have your hob+q up if he doesnt have his passive/boneplating. DONT PUSH INTO YASUO at all costs as he will just run you down the long lane. Let him push into you or keep the wave in the middle and only take burst trades with your passive. Ideally you want him to E in, Q while he is animationlocked in his E, auto and then E to proc your passive and run. If you have hob and he has no W up in a short lane that is the only time you can EQ in. Make sure to track his Q and especially his E stacks earlygame. Don't fight him when he has his nado up or has stacked his E. You can E2 blink over his Q3. If he has his Q up you can EQ E2 and then wait a bit before actually jumping on him as most yasuos will use the time you are animationlocked after your E2 to hit their Q so this is a way to bait it. When you get low in lane and see him E'ing in always be careful of his very fast EQ flash combo onto a minion. If he has his E stacked it will do insane damage with ignite. Make sure to never extend a trade vs yasuo or jump in when you are slowpushing into him even if you have a lead and even if you are lv7 and oneshot waves he can always just windwall and make the wave awkward for you so hold your E and W for that. Never rely on your Q2 hitting Yasuo if he has his windwall up. If you are trying to W him from fog or receive a gank you should usually aim for your own wave or at least think about where he is going to E through. You should W a bit more on your side of the lane to where your minions are when going for defensive W's vs Yasuo in lane because of this reason as well. If you think he is going to ult you after connecting his knockup you can W yourself preamtively and he will get stunned when he ults on you for you to escape. When Yasuo gets BOTRK he will usually beat you 1v1 even if you have a pretty big lead so keep in mind to NOT PLAY YASUOS GAME 1v1. Play your own game, you are usually way stronger in teamfights, 2v2s 3v3s and other skirmish scenarios. Be careful of yasuos burst+cc when he has a bit of crit as he can usually kill you with his knockup+auto+ EQ R + auto from around 40%hp. Keep in mind his teams knockups as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcmFok2U5BI&t=35s this is a pretty good vod reference for how to play vs bad yasuos earlygame.

Orianna matchup: You should be careful about E'ing in lv1 if she has boneplating. Some Orianna players might start E or even W to deny your passive proc lv1 and run you down with her strong passive autos after. You can click on her and see if she has bonus armor/mr, which would mean she started E; or just wait for her to place the ball down/try to bait her to Q you to see what she starts. It is viable to jump on her lv1 if she has Q on CD. Your main goal should still be to preserve HP and proc her boneplating with Qs for level2. If she doesn't have boneplating E'ing on her lv1 can work very well. Lv2 you can start trading more. Try to bait out her QW with E. Even if you can't get a trade dodging her QW damage is very worth for the mana to HP ratio. Some Oriannas will go E lv2, but if her ball is far away you can still EQ her and even proc your passive before she can shield most of the damage. You will get a feeling for how far away the ball has to be for this timing with HOB. In general you want to hover the opposite side of where Oriannas ball is so you have more space to dodge it . Orianna has very short cooldowns and extremely strong autos earlygame so make sure to not extend the trades unless you have extreme killpressure on her. The best openings to trade with her earlygame are when she either Q's the ground to setup her next Q and when she wastes her QW trying to poke you. Otherwise she can just EW herself and then Q you after while having shorter cooldowns to set up her Q again. Usually this won't happen though so it's best to trade with your W shield. After around first reset you should look to play to push and move and especially around lv7-lv9 her Q becomes so low cooldown that Orianna becomes extremely hard to deal with in lane. W yourself and try to avoid her from this point on to make plays with your jungler and your sidelanes. E to dodge her poke. You can buffer Oriannas ult pullback with a well timed E2. When Orianna ults you after a trade to pull you back, make sure your ult is in a good position so you don't get ulted and then cant ult away. Most of the time it's better to straight up ult her ult. You can try to dodge forward with your E into her ball so you don't get pulled back in case you are not able to fully dodge the R. Even in sidelane Orianna can beat you 1v1 if she has seraphs/mercs/phaserush as long as you dont flank her or she gets to poke you before so try to flank her and play to hit and run.

Sylas matchup: This is a very common and hard matchup, but you can beat 99% of sylas players by knowing this matchup You have INSANE kill pressure early levels and most sylas players don't expect it and will trade with you Most Sylas players will try to fight you early levels. Level1 you should walk up ahead of the wave and hold your skill point. A lot of Sylas players will try to E into you, and if they do that you level up your E and dodge their E2 to outtrade them and use your minions to block it. DONT GET HIT BY HIS E AT ANY COST, it's the only way to lose earlygame. If he doesnt E into you and has boneplating, you should try to poke it off while staying inside your wave. HIS E HAS A 13 SECOND COOLDOWN, so you should try to punish it early if he uses it by zoning him off minions and standing on them. Very often you will get an aa q aa trade while it is down since your Q is 9 second cd. It is usually worth to EQ him if he means he just needs to E away for this reason as well. The most important thing about this matchup is knowing that if he ever E's into you level 1-3 while even a little bit chunked, you can ignite his W healing and run him down with 2 rotations if he is on your part of the lane. If Sylas E's into you, you Q aa (aa) and then E to dodge his E2. You should almost NEVER E into him if he has E up as he can dodge your Q and trade back. Only EQ on him if he is going for cs, you have an HP advantage or you can make sure it's a short trade with your W shield, or if you get lv2-3 first. After level 5 he will always statcheck you. Even if you have solokilled him early you should respect his trades and let the wave come in. If he ever gets a full trade on you he can easily dive you on next rotation. Sylas is a very gankable champion so it is completely fine to chill. Play with your ignite cooldown even if you have a lead and use it to transition to dusk and dawn. Ekko still has a lot better waveclear, so post lv7 you should try to push and avoid him. If he ever takes your ult randomly you should be happy and let it run out as it will have a really long cooldown. As a rule of thumb you NEVER win against sylas when he has your ult. If your team is going to kill him, try to move away so he doesnt get your ult. Another trick is to use your ult to dodge him taking your ult by timing the untargettability part of it. This is especially useful when you are going for dives. Midgame is by far Sylas strongest point in the game, so even if you get dusk and dawn he will completely outtrade you when he is lv9-13. Play for 2v2/3v3/5v5 fights when he cant take your ult and abuse your stronger waveclear. At 3 items you can start winning 1v1 if you trade your ult for his ult and then go again. Most Sylas players just pick it and don't main it while permanently fighting, so a very concistent way to beat him is to play for 10cspm and teamfights, where his champion is extremely hard to execute. If he has electrocute instead of conquerer, you can also beat him in sidelane after dusk and dawn. https://youtu.be/nV7MZBMH8xU?si=5E0QLRZMrn1ICLq8&t=33 this is a very good vod to get an idea of the sylas matchup (xlb vs dk showmaker)

Zoé matchup: This is the hardest matchup in the early levels in the game. She has insane kill pressure on you and if she hits one bubble you will usually die 100-0. Never underestimate her damage and be very careful. Zoe can do almost nothing to match ekko in sidelane later on in the game, so going even is extremely good. Level one you should stand next to your wave and pay attention to where zoe comes out of fog. A lot of Zoe players make the mistake of throwing a Q from fog level one to get push. As long as she doesn't splash the Q on you and the wave, you should try to get into position to punish her Q cooldown. You can also E on her if she uses her Q trying to hit you lv1, but you need to be very careful and react to it so she doesnt hit any part of it. If she does, she will proc electrocute and outtrade you really hard while you can't farm. If she doesn't show her spell level one NEVER E ON HER, as she will hard win the trade if she E's you. Usually you can start Q to only farm, get a good base and slowly outscale her. It is extremely risky to EQ at her when she has her E up and it's not even really worth to bait it out unless you can guarantee hitting your W stun. Only do it if you have minions in front of you or can E2 away to a minion after she uses it. This is why you should usually only trade once her E is down or use that time to push and get good bases/fog into enemy jungle. Zoe is extremely strong in early game skirmishes due to her ability to pick up your teammates summoner spells, so only fight if you have stronger champs in jg/sup or have good setup. The matchup can DRASTICALLY change depending on what RNG bubbles she picks up. If she ever gets something like ignite, barrier, even titanic hydra : you need to respect her W and not trade, the amout of MS and bullshit W damage she gets is too high. After lv7 you want to W yourself, bait her E and hold your E for when she tries to contest push, and constantly fog to your strongside. When doing so make sure to not walk next to walls and really think about where she can E you from, as one E means you wil lose control over the whole lane map vs Zoe The most important mechanic in this matchup is timing your E2 to follow her R, if she ever ults forward you can W her spot, hold your E for any bubble and follow her with E2 to get a massive trade. In sidelane she is extremely vulnerable to getting flanked and ganked. If you get a good opportunity to get mercs, you can almost ignore her E later in sidelane and stat check her with dusk and dawn.

Aurora matchup: This matchup is all about dodging and baiting her Q's. Try to do so from lv1 onwards since if she wastes her Q and doesnt have boneplating you already have a very favourable trade against Aurora. She should win the earlygame if she plays properly but you can still watch out for mistakes. Let her push and only trade if her Q is down lv1-2. If she wins the skillcheck and hits a Qaa Q2 electorcute trade on you it's your sign that you should stop trading and play to have enough HP to push and base for dring/darkseal since her burst is pretty high earlygame. Treat her like a less extreme version of the Leblanc. After lv3 you can only trade when your W is up. If you EQ her and she reacts with her W after she lets you connect she can deny your passive if she times it correctly so she will run you down really hard if you don't. Don't try to predict her W too much and just play for the shield because she can either W forward or just stand her ground and still outtrade you. Her Q does more damage the lower you are and she is also pretty strong in extended trades so make sure to only go for all ins if you are much stronger and hit a W on your side of the lane. Next patch you will be able to wait for her to actually W and then channel your E2 to break stealth and follow her in her W animation. You can use your scorch proc to see where she is going after her W. After around lv5-lv7 she is very strong with her Q points so try to only trade with your W to buy space for you to play the lane and defend yourself so you can farm or just push and base while trying to bait out her Q's. If you need to E defensively you should, especially if she combos it with her E. Aurora will very often try to W in fog, then combo you out of invis especially in sidelane so always be careful when you approach a new wave and have your fingers ready on your E to avoid it as getting chunked like this is the only way you lose sidelane later on. When Aurora wants to ult out you should put your W on the other end of where her ult will take her to cut it off. Aurora is a pretty strong champion earlygame so you shouldnt be expected to win and you hard outscale her once you have DnD.

Akshan matchup: Level one make sure to not go into risky positions in jungle as he will take almost your entire HP bar with E depending on the angle. If he has boneplating, you will need to respect him level one and make sure he can never auto you, otherwise his E will connect on you and he will get more damage+ passive proc + shield. Try to farm safely with Q and ideally fish to proc his boneplating. Without boneplating, you will only win level one if he E's into your casters and you can walk out after, but most akshans will start Q then. In this matchup more than every other one you want to play with your hail of blades cooldown, as he will be able to proc his shield or E away if you jump on him otherwise. Level 2 you can look for a trade if he has either wasted Q, has no boneplating, or used his E. If you can get an even health trade against akshan while his boneplating is down, you will have insane kill pressure on him while his E is down. Usually you don't want to EQ at akshan unless you are sure you can hit, because his passive MS and E make Q very hard to hit and you are extremely fucked if you miss it. going for an E2 Q aa or E2 aa Q trade is much safer and more reliable. When you get your shorter cooldowns back against akshan, don't hesitate to Q flash auto and only then E at him. This way he can't E out as you will bodyblock it. If all his spells and passive are up, only trade with your W shield. Try to always focus akshan in fights so he doesnt get resets and revives and keep in mind that he can follow your roams and match your waveclear, so ping your team back heavily if you think he is roaming. After dusk and dawn go for short trades and then kite him out as his upfront damage is extremely high once he gets 1-2 items. Akshan is very hard to play and easy to kill in soloq so most players go for very flippy plays and overroam, so if you can keep it consistent and are not against Phantasm you should be fine.

Qiyana matchup: You have to abuse qiyanas weak level 1-2 at all costs. Most qiyanas will afk lv1, but if you see she is contesting you it's very good to start E into her. You need to be very careful and precise with your auto spacing and pay attention to what Qiyana does : If she W's away, you will need to kite forward longer to proc your passive If she kites forward and W's into you, you will NEED to kite back on the last hail of blades auto to run away with your passive so she doesn't proc electrocute, as this will be a winning trade for her. This should give you push for level 2. As you get it, you can walk up a lot and trade with her again, even if she stays all the way back it's okay to just get an EQ sudden impact+ scorch proc\par If you are still full HP, it is also worth to take one tower shot if it means you can proc your passive. The second wave is a very crutial part of this matchup. You have to make sure it crashes cleanly so the third wave is in the middle, otherwise she can get lv3 first, have a longer lane to run you down on and farm more safely. Qiyanas all in ranges, especially with conquerer, are extremely high at level 3 if she gets to cycle both her Qs. Unless you have a high HP advantage (which we were trying to accomplish) you should be extremely careful to trade with her now. A lot of qiyana players will allign themselves with a minion, then E through it and Q W Q you for poke or an all in. Be careful what minion she can dash through, just like Yasuo. After lv3 this matchups trading patterns become extremely unfavourable for you all the way until dusk and dawn, so you will need to punish these mistakes : If qiyana JUST used her W, you can trade on her to force her grass/ice element for an even trade. Don't just let her pick up W and fist you after, unless you are already in a losing position. If Qiyana EQ's into you, you need to instantly Q her while she is in her E animation as this locks her in a straight line for a moment, just like Fizz Q. Most Qiyanas will W away and Q you for an electrocute proc, but you should still fish for an auto by walking forward, trying to get an auto and then E'ing her for passive proc and run. Only do this if you are already forced to fight back, don't let her EQ onto you with grass if you can. You can dodge Qiyanas EQ autoaim combo if she does it at max range with your E and good timing. After Qiyana gets dirk, don't ever jump in onto her in a long lane, even with your W shield. Wait for the wave to be on your side and punish her wasting her grass Q or W cd and only trade with your W up unless she does so. After level 6 you need to be aware of the following interaction : If Qiyana ults you from a medium-long range, you will be able to ult just before you get stunned into the wall eventhough it says you are knocked up. You can use this to bait qiyana players into thinking they can dive you, but you need to know the range pretty well. You can also buffer through Qiyana ult's knockup with your E2 if you time it well, this will let you stick onto her if she tries to ult you away. Keep in mind that the river and bush terrain also stuns you with her ult. After dusk and dawn you can trade into her grass Q effortlessly and kite out, as you will be able to proc your passive with just EQ. In teamfights you will need to be extremely careful of her CC and burst. If qiyana is ahead of you she will 100-0 you through cc with little counterplay.

LeBlanc matchup: This is a very tricky matchup earlygame, but once you can get through it it isnt as bad as most ekko players think. Level one you can try to bait her W, E back, E2 on her while she is following. If you know she has E or Q start it is extremely risky to go in and you will need to just respect. The goal vs leblanc is to never give her a trade where she can hit her W damage or proc her Q crit. Use your E reactively most of the time, as her W cooldown is a lot longer than your E. This will buy you time to either look for a trade while her W or E is down, or let you push the wave without getting killed. Standing inside your minions is very important vs leblanc, as she won't get to W and then E you as easily. A very skillchecky way I like to play this matchup is to EQ at her while her W is down, and then bait her E, proc passive with HOB and then run out. You can do the same thing level one but it is extremely flip and usually not worth the risk, especially if she hits her E on you, your game will be over. If you get an HP lead against her early game it is very important to abuse her longer cooldowns, otherwise her trades are a lot stronger. With hail of blades, you will be able to proc your passive through her W'ing away from you if you buffer your autos correctly. The best way to play this matchup is to Q the wave while her cooldowns are down and play for recalls to avoid her strong laning phase. Against Leblanc you want to pay extra attention to her jungler as her gank setup is extremely high. Against most champions you would be able to Q the wave from lv7 onwards by W'ing yourself, but Leblanc can take very nasty trades with her short cooldown ult to just poke you out or worst case hit her double chain, in which case your ult will not take you back or heal you enough to avoid getting killed if you are slightly low hp If you see her connecting the chain on you, you should consider ulting out immediatly as her root will go through your untargettability, so try to break the chain with the blink part if you can. After you get some HP with ruby kindlegem and work your way to dusk and dawn, the matchup will become easier and easier. When you finish your dusk and dawn you can permanently look to trade with her as long as you know it's a 1v1. Just W for the shield and run out with passive. A very useful interaction with dusk and dawn against leblanc is, that you will be able to connect it through her passive if she gets low, surprising a lot of leblanc players when they think they are safe. When Leblanc W's away and you chase her, make sure to W her return spots for vision and for you to eventually ult back on her if she returns to them. Whenever you proc Leblancs passive you should pay attention to how many passive stacks you had on her or if you procced your passive on her before, as this will tell you which clone is the real one.

Diana matchup: This is a very hard matchup earlygame. Most dianas will have boneplating. If she has phaserush, she can go for short trades while you can't trade back and she still has her W shield, if she has electrocute, she has a lot more damage than you. Try to poke her boneplating away lv1 if she doesnt show any spell level one for you to punish. Some Dianas make the mistake of trying to Q you and the wave. Stand next to your minions and try to dodge her Q inwards, as her hitbox is much larger at max range, especially if she curves it. If you are sure you can dodge it this way with E you will take a very good trade like this. You win lv1 trades against her if she has Q start, with both E and Q start yourself. If Diana has every spell up she will massively win every trade if you jump into her. Abuse her using her W cooldown, otherwise don't ever give her range to QE onto you and only trade with your W shield up later on. Her W shield refreshes every time she hits an orb. Dianas main weakness is that she is very commital and very immobile defensively, which makes it pretty easy to hit W's on her from fog in lane and in teamfights. If you see she fucked up her wave she is a very easy kill to your jungler. The same thing is true in sidelane. Diana wil statcheck you all the way up to 2-3 items 1v1, but you are a lot more useful and safe in both sidelane and teamfights.

Kennen matchup: A very uncommon but very hard matchup. He is extremely strong earlygame with dblade+ electrocute so respect his insane kill ranges. Kennen has very 2 main ways to deny your passive : him stunning you and E'ing away. This is why you can't ever E in to him if he has his Q up, as he will aa Q and then W you for the stun. If Kennen is going for a lasthit without Q up or early levels without all spells, you can eq at him and proc your passive. Otherwise he will E away and even if he doesnt stun you, he can still space you with it and you lose the trade if you dont hit your Q, which is very hard to hit into his high MS. You can only trade if he wastes his Q or his auto animation is not on you while you have your W shield. This way you won't get too punished if you miss your EQ while fishing for a good trade if you do hit. As with most matchups this is the reason why you should play for waveclear and your stronger skirmishes pre6 as well as roaming. Your main advantage is your better waveclear and the fact that you massively outscale him in the sidelane, as dusk and dawn will let you proc your passive through the upper meantioned obstacles. Something most people don't know is that Kennen gets bonus resistances while he is ulting, so don't overestimate your damage.

Jayce matchup: Against jayce, NEVER Q the whole wave level one or he will proxy you and beat you up by jumping in with hammer, auto, swap to range form, aa and eventually even Q. This matchup heavily depends on what rune he takes, as this champion plays around his keystones extremely well. With grasp he will be very tanky and hard to kill, phaserush firststrike is more scaling, conquerer is good in extended trades and electrocute is full china fist mode. The most important knowledge against jayce is his hammer Q damage splash being very big next to minions, while his hammer Q alone has extremely low range. You can try to bait his hammer Q, then E to the side to dodge the damage. Jayce can deny your passive if he hammer E's you away and you can't ever jump on him if he is in hammer form with all spells up, as he will be very tanky, knock you away and then chase you down with MS+ auto reset from his cannon W. The weakest state jayce can ever be in is RIGHT when he transforms to cannon. He won't be able to switch to hammer to E you away and be very squishy One thing you will notice is that jayce has EXTREMELY long cooldowns on his hammer Q and E earlygame, so you will want to trade again after baiting it out with your E or having a good trade with your W later in lane. If you can jump on him off cooldown while punishing his Q cooldown, you can win early lane extremely hard, but if you jump in while he has everything up he will outtrade you very heavily with both forms. Level 2 jayce can only deny your passive if he has hammer E, so make sure to trade if he can't switch forms. If he ever Q's into you and you manage to dodge it, you can try baiting his E by walking in range of him melee and reacting with your E2 to buffer the knockback, but trading on the cd is also completely fine. Jayce is extremely gankable and/or squishy if he doesnt have phaserush/grasp and while you are weaker in lane after your first base, you are a lot stronger in skirmishes with your jungler and he can't match your waveclear to follow roams if you ever get tempo on him. Try to get your damage off on him whenever he is in cannon and try to respect when he is in hammer, as his bonus MR makes your damage extremely minimal against him. In sidelane make sure to never facecheck jayce, as he has enough burst to force your R before you can retaliate. Don't underestimate his damage and ult early if you have to, as his E is both an execute and CC, so ulting will be very hard.

Cassiopeia matchup: This is in my opinion the most skill based matchup in the game earlygame and you will need very good spacing, clicks and apm to properly play it. If cassio walks up to you lv1 with no boneplating, don't hesitate to E onto her. However, this is much safer if she autos a minion before, since you will take a lot of damage in return by her aa e aa e autoing you a lot with conquerer stacks. This is still worth to do tho as you have more burst and kill pressure. Let her push you in if you can, as getting hit by a cassio Q in a long lane usually means you lost your lane. Once you get lv2 this matchup becomes a lot about mindgames and spacing. Never jump onto her if she already hit you with a Q, just let it run out and try again. You have a lot of trading patterns into cassio at lv2 : Vs bad cassios you can instantly jump in, eq, proc hob and run out. Try to dodge her Q with your passive ms on the way out. You can also EQ, then wait a bit to predict her Q'ing you once you land on her, then E2 onto her. You can EQ at her, then not auto for hob and keep running forward, and then proc your passive once you dodged her Q. The most save way of playing this matchup though is to REACT to her Q'ing you, then EQ forward to dodge it for a good trade. After lv6 you can apply the same mindgames to dodging her R. Cassio is extremely squishy earlygame but becomes extremely unkillable if you don't get a lead over her, so playing aggressive and knowing your limits is key.

Ahri matchup: Ahri You should be careful to straight up E on ahri level one as she can use both her W and E to deny your passive. A skillcheck way to play this matchup is to E, then wait for her W to run out and then proc your passive on her, it even works against the best Ahris, I did it vs Peng and he got caught off guard. Otherwise it's completely fine to start Q, especially if she has boneplating, but dont let her aa w aa you level one and adapt. Level 2 Ahri can take E to make it really difficult to proc your passive, but if you see she has W Q you can easily proc your passive through her W speed as long as you hit your Q. In this matchup you always want to mindgame her E by changing up the timing you E2 onto her. Generally the first trade you always want to figure her out by EQ'ing, then waiting for how she reacts. If she throws her charm, great, dodge it with E2 onto her and run out with your passive. If you just EQ her and she holds, you can still commit onto her as long as you hit both Q's. With W this mindgame becomes more favourable for you, as if you see your W can connect on her you don't need to be afraid of her charming you as she will not be able to deny your passive if u hit the stun. Later in the lane it is always worth to dodge her E or Q's with your E if it means she can hit you. The only way you can die to Ahri after lv6 is if she can ult forward and ignite you while your clone is in a bad spot. Whenever you trade vs Ahri and she is forced to ult you should be very happy and take the win, it's usually not wise to overcommit into her after. The problem with this matchup is that she is one of the few champions that can match or even outtempo you after lv7 with her roams, so don't give her free access to the wave unless you have to be scared of the enemy jungler.

Hwei matchup: Hwei : Lv1 you have to see if he starts E or Q. You can only jump on him level 1 if he has no boneplating and starts Q, otherwise he will fear you and deny your passive. Try to hold the wave outside your tower when you get level 2. At lv2 you can start trading even when his E is up by EQ'ing at him and mindgaming his E by holding your E. If he doesnt throw it you can still commit to the trade as long as your q2 hits and you can proc passsive. Most hweis even in higher elos will fall for the bait and throw their fear. After you connect with your E2 you can still sidestep to a side to potentially dodge it. It has 13 second cooldown, so that is higher than hob+E. so as long as the wave stays in a good spot and you dont lose your conditions too much you can still go for an even trade. Once you get your W, you can do the same thing with no risk as even if he hits everything you will be able to run out with the shield. Make sure to W before the trade instead of playing for the stun. Be very careful with estimating your damage earlygame when going for the kil/dives against hwei when he has his W up, the shield will regenerate a lot and makes it impossible for you to kill him with auto attacks even if he is very low. When approaching the wave vs hwei it will always be worth for you to E his combo or even a QQ with E as it costs a lot of mana and your E is relatively short cooldown. Try to dodge his QQ "inwards" as the hitbox is much larger at max range. When you are inside the wave you want to E forward to not get hit by his very common QE EE combo. After lv7 he becomes very strong in lane with Q points but can't follow your roams due to being very immobile. Lv9 with his first item is by far his strongest point. After you get dusk and dawn and potentially mercs and get to sidelane it becomes extremely hard for hwei to play the game. In teamfights you want to avoid choke points and try to create flanks as much as possible against his strong zone control.

Lissandra matchup: LVL 1 if she starts q, E start and get a good trade, if not just start Q and when you are Qing aim to get the minions + her this matchup is pretty boring, if u are against a good lissandra u cant do anything early game, so once you get your backline oneshot which is at lvl 7, you just try to do shit on the map instead u handshaking the lissandra consider buying mercs if they have +2

Vladimir matchup: This is a very volatile matchup. Level one you don't have enough damage to start breaking him and if you E on him you will take a lot of caster aggro which will lead to you pushing the wave into him, making him heal up eventually and making the trade not worth. Only start E vs Vlad if he starts zoning you, pushes the wave or already wasted Q on the wave. It is very important to keep the wave on your side so you can keep jumping on him. This is why starting Q and letting him push while trimming the wave is usually safer and superior. The most common mistake people do versus vlad is spacing his Q bad by being too far away to punish once he goes to Q cs to heal. You want to imagine a circle around his Q range and instantly jump on him once he uses it. When you EQ into vlad it is very important to not be in range for him to pool in a way where he can damage you and heal off it. Trading your EQ for his pool is always worth it. One trick you can abuse vs vlad pool is that as long as you keep walking forward your E2 will outlast his W, meaning that you can jump on him after it expires. The only way vlad can outtrade you earlygame is if you tank his charged up E, it will slow you a lot and do a lot of damage so try to stand inside your minions and trade on his lasthits when he has his Q down. Otherwise only ignore this rule if you have your W shield. If you think vlad is going to pool your combo you can also EQ W. If he gets hit by your Q as he is in his W he will be extremely slowed so hitting your W stun is extremely easy. Once Vlad gets his second base and around lv7 in his Q points it is no longer worth to keep permanently trading with him as you won't break him unless you are extremely ahead and still have your ignite up and the wave is still on your side. Most Vlads will instantly ult you and the wave once they hit lv6 so watch out that you don't trade too much. If you jump on Vlad in a long lane when he has both summs up and he ults you with red Q up, don't try to statcheck and kite him and just ult out as he can easily outspace you and deny you from proccing your passive and just ult out instantly if you are anywhere near lethal. Your ult is much lower CD anyways so it is completely worth it. He will beat you for a while until you have your dusk and dawn, so plaiying the map vs Vlad who has no waveclear and no useful abilities in a skirmish is a very good way to win the game. Once you have your dusk and dawn laning against vladimir becomes manageable. As long as you use your W shield and don't jump into him fully charging his E you should win for a long time. One important interaction vs Vlad with dnd is that your E will go through his W once you start the animation https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/ArKt5aeAbXr Since he builds a lot of HP your W% + dnd double proc will do a lot of damage to him once he is low.

Vex matchup: A lot of players struggle with this matchup, but it isnt as bad as most Ekko players think. Try to space her E level one. As long as she doesn't get to proc her electrocute level one with E auto auto you can trade back with E start. You can also space her E aggressively and react to it by E'ing sideways or forward to dodge and retaliate. As long as you respect her fear and try to bait and dodge spells with your E to then punish her cooldowns while playing around your hail of blades cooldown, this matchup is not that complicated. Never jump into her when she has fear up, but you can still try to bait it by EQ'ing, pretending to E2 onto her and then jumping on a minion or letting it expire. You can dodge her Q completely by E'ing over it with good timing. If you ever get hit by her fear with E2 ready, you can buffer the CC by timing it and E2ing onto something. Once you have your W you can trade with her even if her passive is up, but you need to hit your stun or you won't be able to proc your passive. What often works vs Vex's short range is W'ing first, then EQ'ing for the slow of your W and Q and then once she is stunned you can commit to the trade even when her passive is up, otherwise you can just E onto a minion or walk back. Once you have dusk and dawn her fear wont stop you from proccing your passive and if you can get mercs value vs her team you can almost completely ignore her and run through it.

Syndra matchup: Versus First Stike no boneplating Syndra you can force E start and make her game very hard from lv1. You can wrap around the raptor wall and gank your own lane level one and take half her HP. Versus boneplating you need to space her Q's. Unless she walks past your wave you will lose too much control over the wave if you E start for no real benefit. Having intention with your movement and baiting her spells when you are going for lasthits is very important and easy in this matchup. Pretend to go for a low Hp minion and sidestep when you think she is going to throw her spells. The most important interaction in this matchup is buffering her QE with your E2. Most Syndras will instantly try to E you away as soon as they see you jump on them. You want to get hit by her E and then E2 onto her so it cancels her knockback, making you able to proc your passive. Her E cooldown is very long compared to your E, so you will have a timer to jump in right after your E comes up. If you think she will hit her QE it is very worth to E her combo for this reason as well. After her Q upgrade the lane becomes hard, but by that point you will be lv7 and can look to roam. Dont try to EQ onto her directly if she has a lot of space in the lane as it's very easy for her to outrange your combo. In sidelane try to come from multiple angles so her E doesn't get value and flank her from fog of war. Mercs are very valuable into Syndra, she has a lot of burst and you can ignore most of her stun so if you get value against the rest of her team think about picking them up.

Viktor matchup: Viktor is the stongest 1v1 laning mage and will often take boneplating as well. Make sure to never trade into his Q shield and try to not give him Q+AA when going for CS, only taking the Q part is completely fine. Don't E on him for that reason unless he stands past your wave and will take caster aggro. Playing for the first reset without getting zoned off too much CS should be your primary goal but you have some opportunities to trade with him early if you manage to poke his boneplating and can trade when his Q shield runs out. The most important thing in this matchup is to not trade into his Q shield. It's fine to trade a lot in this matchup earlygame and make it volatile to desynch his Q shield with your combo but if you get too poked early before can start trading you should adapt and try to play for your first base instead. If you only take damage while commiting to trades it's good as long as u play around Qshield+boneplating. To bait this you can let him Q you when you are forced to CS, then space his auto range and combo him immediatly when his Q shield runs out. You can trade in this matchup even without your HOB as long as he doesn't have his Q up for the shield. He can't ever deny your passive with his W as long as you have HOB. If he goes for ROA build and gets ruby crystals you should stop trying to play your lane pretty early. E his E if you can and trade your HP for push while W'ing yourself. His waveclear is pretty bad until he gets E upgrade and he is much weaker in skirmishes compared to you eventhough he is stronger in lane 1v1 so try to looks for 2v2s and 3v3s with your jungler as soon as possible. Trading with him blindly will only benefit him as he wants to keep you in lane to stop you from impacting the map. Be careful about his R burst when you are low but other than that you can always run out of it if you can proc your passive. Viktor is pretty strong in sidelane if he can kite you with his Q's and his shield will still be very strong but he is extremely immobile so playing to gank him is more safe if you dont feel like you can beat him 1v1 if he goes for a more tanky build.

Talon matchup: Level 1, don't level up your E or Q yet, if he W's the wave u can E on him and get a good trade, if u don't see him start W, that usually means talon leveled up his Q and jumping on him is not worth. After Lvl 2, the main thing u wanna focus on is dodging his W so u don't let him proc passive on you, dodging his second W is pretty easy, and then u can jump on him to get a good trade. 3.If ur going for an all-in don't forget to ignite him before he presses his ult so u can track him down.

Tristana matchup: Don't E on her lv1 especially if she has boneplating without any thought. The only time you should E on her lv1 is if she steps inside your wave and takes caster aggro and autos you before E'ing, this way she doesn't get as many stacks on her bomb before you run out with hob. The most important thing to know in this matchup is to always hold your E for her W. If you EQ on her while she has her W up she will E, W to slow you, stack her whole bomb and outtrade you really hard, but with your W shield this is completely fine. This is why you need to time your EQ with a lasthit and hob (a bit skillchecky) or only trade with your W up. When going for roams vs tristana it is very important to chose your timers wisely. Make sure to roam right after oneshotting the wave. She takes plates extremely fast and if you leave your tower on a cannon wave she will completely destroy it. When going for W's on tristana after lane in a winning position, you have to think about her W'ing away. A lot of times they won't expect you to put it extremely deep to cut off their W path. You can buffer Tristanas R with your E2 so make sure to hold it if you think she can R you away so you can follow her. Tristana can W buffer your stun, so don't be confused if she jumps away while still being stunned in the air.

Naafiri matchup: DONT JUMP ON HER LV1 if she doesnt show any spells. A good naafiri will start W and literally 100-0 you lv1 with hob+ignite+ her dogs and bonus dmg. Even if she has Q start she hard outtrades you. The only way you can E on her lv1 is if you manage to bait and dodge both her Q's and she is ideally in an auto attack animation for a minion. Your Q1+Q2 kill her dogs at most stages of the game. even lv1. This is mostly useful earlygame. Whenever naafiri disengages a trade you should always try to auto her dogs or redirect your Q2 on her dogs if it's free. Dodging her Q's early levels is key as it's all her damage and hitting the second part amplifies her damage. After the nerfs to midlane naafiri it is very easy to drive her oom like this. Let her push early levels. Once you get lv2 you can trade with her if she is locked in a lasthit animation as she won't be able to Q1 and Q2 you before you proc your passive or run you down with her W. If she uses her W and has every spell you should not jump on her. \par However, just like with Vlad, if she uses her W you can jump on her AFTER it expires. (like this { https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/BcCW5FVFSVo } Whenever you EQ Naafiri you should be mindful of actually commiting on her though as she has the option to dodge your combo with her E and deny your passive with her W after you jump on her. This is why you should only jump in on her if you have your W if she has every spell up. If she is in a lasthit animation however she won't really be able to E your (E)Q so make sure to keep that in mind. When Naafiri ults on you and you ult, you need to know that her ult will follow you all the way so make sure to not panick. Sometimes if you want to escape it is better to let her connect onto you first to gain more distance depending on where your clone is. If she does it in melee range on top of your R you can time it in a way where she gets hit by your ult while not being able to dodge it as she is very animationlocked.

Fizz matchup: Fizz Level one you need to find out if he starts W or E. If his autos do a bleed damage on your minions it meanns he has W start, but if they don't dont be sure he skilled E, he might just have not skilled anything. If he has W start, you can E start on him if he is in an auto animation. If he has E start you will need to respect and space the big explosion part of his E. If he E's on you with the small part it is completely fine if you can aa q aa or aa e aa him. Otherwise be very careful to trade lv1, as his aa w aa + electrocute proc will outtrade your aa q aa as well. Generally the most important part of this matchup is to not E into him aggressively when he has E up, as he can aa W Q and E to dodge your passive, making you hardlose the trade. You want to space his big E splash and E reactively while not getting hit by it. If he holds his E to full duration you can also try to follow it as your E2 will outlast it. If you think Fizz is going to Q into you, you can Q as he is dashing into you and buffer an auto, forcing him to E for you to dodge his E with your E. A trick you need to watch out for is fizz QR combo through a minion, as this will hide his ult animation. Whenever you get hit by Fizz ult do not panick and try to ult the knockup part of it.

Galio matchup: A lot of newer Ekko players struggle with this matchup but it is a fake counter to you individually. You HARD win lane early levels. A lot of Galio players use preset runes so lv1 you have to click on them to see if they have boneplating or not. Position yourself outside of the wave and be ready to skill your E if he doesn't have boneplating. This way you can both bait out his E, sidestep it, and then proc hob on him AND be in position to punish him if he Q's the wave. You don't want to stand right behind your minions to avoid his passive auto AOE. If he has boneplating and he doesn't show any ability or has a magic shield (this means he skilled W) you should try to poke his boneplating while letting him push you in unless you can get a very good trade (you want the wave to be on your side) His W and E cooldowns are a lot longer than yours, so going for an even trade in earlygame is very beneficial for you since you have a lot higher killpressure and your cds will be up before him. Make sure to take space aggressively to punish. When you EQ on him, you can mindgame his E by stepping to the side or S stepping before connecting your E2. This way he can't knock you up and deny your passive. Even if you get hit by his E, you can buffer the knockup to get your E2 through and proc passive after. If you trade on a lasthit or while he is animationlocked, you can EQ and run out with your passive before he can W you if you run out instantly. After first base you will lose trades unless you trade with your W shield or outplay him with the upper meantioned trading patterns, as he completely statchecks you with ruby crystals and nullmagic mantle. However it can still be worth to trade if you have a heavy ganking jungler or can't do anything on the map, because his trades cost A LOT more mana than yours and he is very easy to gank if you connect your Q slow as this basically guarantees W stun. If he gets low on mana and HP don't be afraid to go for extended trades, your cds are still a lot lower and your W% autos do a lot of damage to galio. It can also be worth to trade with him purely to prevent him from moving if the enemy mid jg 2v2 is stronger in skirmishes. Usually after lv7 you just want to completely avoid him and play to outfarm him. You need to be careful for his R when going for roams, but be mindful of him overcommiting with his R and punish him by taking mid plates. In teamfights it is very important to not go in when he has his W up and not dive his backline when he has R up, only do it if you can quickly proc your passive and run out. When he channels his W, you can instnatly use your W on him and play to stun with your team as he can't really dodge it while being stunned.

Anivia matchup: Go darkseal and gathering storm tp instead of dorans ring, ignite, scorch because its really hard to kill her unless she is really bad Anivia's auto attack range is really long so play around just q'ing minions on max range so u don't get poked and die especially if its ignite anivia, ideally base on 400G and buy dorans ring and TP back to lane if needed ( most of the time it is needed ) f she has Q up and u want to look for a trade E Q her but don't use your E auto and just bait out her Q and then use your E2, ideally u would want to do this with W shield up. Killing her solo is really hard, but u can setup her for your jungler and hitting your W on anivia is generally easy because its a no dash champion.

Annie matchup: Don't give her free poke level one, her auto attack range is extremely long. She can deny your passive with both E and Q start, so don't even think about E'ing on top of her unless she wastes her spell lv1 somehow. This is why it's fine to only Q the casters lv1 from an angle, then Q the whole wave after to avoid laning against her lv1 and play to get lv2 first on the next wave in middle. This way she will usually use her passive stacks to farm under tower or try to E shield the wave to zone you, but then she can't match your waveclear and you can base on the third wave. Annie's E cooldown is very short nowadays and she can deny your trades with it both by shielding your damage but more importantly by dodging your EQ with the MS. You can also let her push and let the wave be on your side. If she walks into your wave you can E, aa and then Q at the end. (You need to space her W with your EQ so you don't get insta stunned by it, this only works if she stuns you with Q) If you go for the normal EQ combo onto annie it is very easy for her to dodge it with her E ms and you will likely not proc your passive through the stun even if you do. If you notice you will get stunned (with Q)while you E, you can wait until the very last moment to E2 onto her, this way you you will be stunned while you are connecting to her, giving you more time to proc your passive after. You can also EQ W, wait for how your Q connects and then E2 onto her if either your W stun hits or she gets hit by both Q's. Poking her with EQ is fine if you can force her E with it. This trading pattern becomes easier with W. Make sure to only use your W for shield in this matchup as hitting her with W is nearly impossible due to her E ms. If she ever uses her R in lane you should be happy to just let it run out and don't fight her when it is still there. Try to kill it for +50 gold if you can, it's very easy to lasthit with Ekko passive. The biggest weakness of Annie is that her waveclear is severely limited, so playing to ignore her and impact the map as early as possible is the best way to play vs Annie if you can't see her misplaying the trading patterns. Later on it is very important to not underestimate annies burst+cc potential. Her stun duration scales with levels 1.25 1-5; 1.5 6-10 and 1.75 at lv11+ so don't get caught of guard by her stunning you longer than you expected. Get mercs if the enemy team has additional burst+cc threats. Playing sidelane with DnD vs Annie is extremely forgiving as she won't be able to kite you out now anymore as long as you play with your W shield.

Mel matchup: Level one she can skill E to deny you jumping on her with E+hob. Don't skill anything and try to bait her spells. If she starts Q you can punish her on lasthits with E+hob. Lv2 you can do the classic EQ into wait/press S combo to bait out her E, but it isn't really needed as you can proc your passive through her E as long as you EQ+E2. Mel can also skill W at level 2. Try to not trade with her when she has both W and E up unless you have your W shield. When mel has W up, you can try to E+ AA AA her instead of eq'ing, since she will reflect your Q but not be able to deny your passive. After lv5 her Q will deal a lot of damage and you have very limited ways to beat her 1v1 if she holds her E+W. The way most Ekko players lose vs Mel is by trading way too much after first base, when you can just play to neutralise her with your superior waveclear, roams and skirmishes. After lv7, even on cannon waves you need to be careful about Q'ing the wave though as she can easily stand in front of it, reflect your Q and trade on you (since your Q slows, her Q is also easier to land). Usually you won't be able to crash the cannon wave then, since by the time your Q's come back up the next wave will already be there and you will be very chunked. Make sure to E the reflected Q and her Q to avoid poke. If you ever see her E might connect on you, you can do the same thing. This is why on cannon waves you should try to trade once with your W up to bait her W and then push. With normal waves this is not a problem since you can delete them right after. Her Q+ult does a lot of damage, especially the more passive stacks you have. There is an animation for when the ult will execute you, but it is best to limit test the damage yourself as it's very hard to react to the indicator and it doesn't show until you are already almost dead ( https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/XqWPdZe3mQQ https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/FyM7QdQH4kP these clip are the perfect example as to why) With Dusk and Dawn her E can no longer stop you from proccing passive and you can easily outrun her Q with your passive proc directly after. Usually mel isn't even fast enough to cast her E after dnd if you move away instantly.

Heimerdinger matchup: his matchup is hell 1v1 early levels. You will be under tower all the time, trying to get cs as you suffer to breathe. Don't even think about E'ing on him lv1, he will outkit you through towers and then push you in so even if you somehow proc your passive you will not get to farm under tower. Thanks to all the Ekko Q buffs this matchup is more playabla now since 2 of your Q's kill heimer turrets. Level 1 you can try to get position to Q the casters, setting it up for your second Q as you farm under tower. When you are under tower, always hold your E for his E, as this is the only way he can actually do a lot of damage to you. Use your W off cooldown for CS and for buying you space to Q the wave. Don't think about using your W to stun him, he is very fast when he is next to towers so you will never hit it. Your only opening to trade on him in lane is if he wastes his E. You can E forward to dodge, EQ and run. You need to care for his towers though, as together with his W he will get a lot of damage on you. After lv6 you need to be especially careful to get stunned by his E, as his RW will completely oneshot you in cc. Never extend trades whne he has RQ (the big tower, just run) A lot of jungers will try to gank heimer, but you should usually ping them back as heimer is very good at 1v2ing melee champs, especially if he has conquerer+barrier like setups. Heimerdinger WANTS to get ganked. Ganking heimer only works if your jungler is fed or has very guaranteed lockdown for your W setup (something like Vi for example) Think of Heimerdinger as a ranged AP Illaoi, he is very stationary so as long as you get your items and get to avoid him by pushing and then moving away from him you will almost always be more useful than him. Diving on Heimerdinger in teamfights is only possible with multiple flank angles.

Cho'Gath matchup: Don't E on him lv1 out of thin air as he will outtrade you really hard with hob+ his E. You need to wait for him to auto a minion to be in animation or react with your E to dodge his Q for a good trade. Chogath is extremely vulnerable to you in lane and his Q animation is extremely slow so you have a lot of room to EQ and mindgame it. Once you get lv2 you can start jumping on him as long as you are fighting on lasthits so it's harder for him to Q you once you "land" on him. Since chogaths Q is very slow you can hold your E2 a bit, go for an E1 E2 aa aa Q trade or walk forward right after you hit your E2 to dodge it semi reliably. Even instantly comboing him leaves him with very little time to react, but if you really want to make sure you can't fuck it up you can trade with your W as well. Chogath is very easy to hit with W as he is very big and has no mobility. A guaranteed way to hit your W is to hit him with your Q slow first, which is especially useful if you are receiving a gank since he is very gankable as well. You can either EQ W E2 or EQ E2 AA W depending on the situation. Chogath has very commital waveclear especially early on so you want to make him choose between Q'ing you or the wave and be in a very aggessive position to punish him casting Q. If chogath fights you in melee range you should Q AA AA and holy your E. In general this matchup is only losable if you make it too obvious when you are going to E2 on him so try to change up your trading patterns. This becomes even more uninteractable for him once you have dusk and dawn and chogath is very squishy for a long time especially if he goes for protobelt. Once he becomes too tanky for you to kill you want to impact the map just like in every matchup though. The big problem with the chogath matchup starts when he gets some items and teamfights start happening. He has a lot of burst combined with CC so it is very possible to die in CC from 100%hp if he has teammates around. You want to make sure to never jump in when he can silence you and be careful when you are facechecking bushes as he can do very surprising burst even if he is not fed.

Quinn matchup: Quinn is very strong earlygame and has a lot of ways to deny your passive. You should play this lane extremely slow in general unless she makes a lot of mistakes. Lv1 you should not jump on her as she can very easily skill E to deny your passive and proc her electrocute for a desasterous trade for you. Don't give her range to auto you lv1 as she will be able to follow up with E and knock you up for another auto and electrocute proc. There is a way to buffer her E and still get a passive proc by buffering her E with your E2 BUT this requires the quinn to misplay multiple ways. If she E's you after you connect on her you will lose hard and if she input buffers it at max range you won't be able to buffer her E either. (example {{ https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/bM9Izv81AwA }} Always be aware of quinns passive mark as it will do a lot of damage and after lv3 (when she skills her W) she will gain a lot of MS and attack speed for proccing it. She randomly gets marks on minions from time to time. You can theoretically trade at lv2 if she used her Q. Don't jump on her if she has her Q as you won't be able to buffer her E2 or reliably hit your Q when you are blinded. Her Q has a pretty big AOE around minions so treat it like a Karma Q or similar abilities to not get splashed by it. To trade with her you will need to bait her Q, then EQ on a lasthit AND buffer her E, so your window of opportunity is very thin and you must be very confident in the interactions. (this is how the buffering looks if you need to react to it in melee range { https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/YFOQfUXbTsX } After lv3 she will get a lot of MS for proccing the mark with her E so even if you hit your Q after she will run you down and likely win the trade. The best way to play the matchup is to only punish her on lasthits when you have W up and a void trades in the earlygame entirely as you are much weaker unless she makes serious blunders. (wasting her Q, you having W up while buffering her E etc.) If you manage to get a good trade like this, you can consider going in right when your EQ is up after as her Q and E are both 11 second CD lv1, so you will have a 2 second window to abuse this and trade again if you are in a winning position. You will need to jump in before your hob is up though so if you miss your Q she will run you down very hard, only do this if you are confident you can hit your Q. You don't need to take these risks to beat quinn.\ When placing your W vs Quinn in trades you want to make sure you get the shield first and foremost, but if you want to hit the stun you can abuse her animation locking herself during her E. You need to time your W in a way where she will be stuck inside it after she E's and place it behind her. Make sure to ping your team whenever you think Quinn is going for a roam and be aware of when you can go for waves in sidelane later in midgame since she is very fast at roaming the map. With every item and especially your dusk and dawn spike you start beating her harder and harder 1v1 and have much more value as the game progresses.

Singed matchup: Singed is very uncommon but every singed is usually an otp and has very different setups. He hardbeats you lv1 if you go for an extended trade or skill E into him with conquerer and perma tapping his Q and getting a lot of MS from his passive. only trade with him if you know what he started lv1, as him flipping you into his wave will also be bad for you. DONT get baited to jump on him when he can flip you into his tower, especially if he has his W up to ground you. You can buffer his E with your E2. Don't fight him when he ults, he gans a lot of stats and is completely op then. Try to kite him and ignore him. As a wise man once said : never chase singed :3

Kassadin matchup: You should try to jump on him lv1. Even if he has boneplating this is very worth as you will proc it and you need to win earlygame vs kassadin hard so make it spicy. He cannot aa w aa you if you have good auto spacing (this will also work next patch when they nerf HOB attack speed) \tab (example : https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/ynpjWmJ08YV }} Most Kassadins will start Q tho. Especially lv1 you want to delay your E or your passive to make him not block the damage with the magic shield. You E2 auto and then if he Q's you wait out the shield and auto after. (like this https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/I8tmdslqBlI ) To punish kassadin you have 2 options, punishing his jungler or punishing him in the 1v1. Early you want to focus on punish him 1v1. You can either play to dive him or let the wave bounce to you, depending on how hard you won the trades before. You want to slowpush the first wave to make it hard for him to walk up for lasthits after E'ing on him. If you are still fullhp and he doesn't take any trades you can even trade under tower with EQ HOB as you will only take 1 shot. You depending on how much minion aggro you took and how low he is you can either : Crash 2 waves cleanly and make the third wave reset. Crash 2 waves and make it bounce to you slowly. Crash 3 waves and go for a roam/dive/cheater recall (the third option is very rare nowadays because of minion changes) No matter which option is best in the game, you want to avoid the wave getting stuck on his side for a long time as this will buy him a lot of time to farm for free without you being able to jump on him. A lot of times vs Kassadin if you have a raptor ward lv2 you have the option to kill his jungler at raptors or his buff as kassadin has no waveclear or useful abilities to stop you. On the first reset you have another opportunity to trade and beat him 1v1 but you should already be thinking about getting your jungler and team ahead if he buys even 1 ruby crystal, but make sure to still trade with him if he wants to farm especially if the wave is on your side. If you don't have a lead before lv6 and he buys ruby crystals it becomes very hard to trade with him already. After 6 you don't want to E on him as he can tank it, jump away with R and proc his electrocute before you are able to proc your passive. You will still win trades (especially if you extend them a bit) if he R's into you before lv11, especially if he jumps on your R shadow. Standing still vs Kassadin can be very useful for this reason. Try to E his R when he jumps in on you. When he gets his catalyst you really want to focus on pushing and roaming, playing with your jungler and make the map explode to get a lead for your team. If you got a lead 1v1 before though you can still play for your lane and deny him as much gold and XP as possible. It's very improtant to not get too desperate vs Kassadin as your champion also scales very well. You can follow Kasssadins R with your E2. Try to cut off his ult with your W if he tries to escape. After lv11 2+ items you will pretty much always lose 1v1 to Kassadin even if you are slightly ahead.

Zed matchup: This is another matchup that depends a lot on his setup. Conquerer/resolve > Conquerer sorcery > electrocute sorcery > first strike sorcery in terms of difficulty. If he has electrocute or resolve (boneplating) you shouldn't jump on him lv1 especially if he has his Q up as he can aa q aa you for a favourable trade. However Zed is much weaker in complete melee range lv1 and therefore has to farm with Q lv1. If he walks up in melee range you can aa q aa him for cs, and if he just stays back lv1 you should angle yourself in a way that you can jump on him while he is in Q animation to lasthit but still be inside your wave so he can't fish to isolate his Q onto you instead of csing (like this https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/P1oahJJGKuj You want to apply this concept for every Q he throws when he gives you space like this. Punishing with EQ is very easy as long as you dont go too far back. When he hits level 2 you want to be careful about jumping on him as he could skill W and either make you follow him into tower or deny you from proccing passive by W'ing away. This matchup is all about punishing his W cooldown by either hard trading when it's down or pushing and resetting. Since his cooldown is longer you can E to dodge his shurikens when he tries to WEQ you. Keep in mind that he can reduce his W cooldown by 3 seconds if he hits his E so try to E away as soon as you see his W come out. You can only trade through his W cd if you have your own W shield. After lv6 you hard counter his ult. You can ult his ult and make it not apply the mark. The more broken interaction though is to INSTANTLY ult as soon as he ults you as this will make you hit your own ult on him as he pops out. Only ult the damage portion instead of the mark if you are sure you can dodge his spells or kill him as most zed's will ignite you and make you heal less so it's far safer to just ult his mark. Zed can ult your E2 damage so don't be confused if he does. Zed will always appear behind you if he ults so you can use this to hit your Q. Most Zeds will W before though to try and dodge it. Make sure to track Zed's shadows so you can W them and place your Q's inside them when you think he snaps back. You can follow Zed's W with your E2 with good timing but it's more about prediction and gamesense.

Katarina matchup: 1.You can zone her from the first 3 minions if she has no boneplating by E starting, if she has Dorans blade, Conqueror and Boneplating start E starting is not worth. 2.She can bait you to jump on her and then E on minion or her dagger to aggro tower, if she has E up you shouldnt E on top of her if her E is in tower range. 3.You would usually want the wave to be close to you to zone her from gold, XP, if shes low you can push and look for a dive.

Yone matchup: Some Yones default to taking second wind instead of boneplating even in very high elo so make sure to click on him lv1. If he has no boneplating you can wait for him to Q the wave and start E to trade vs him. If he has boneplating you should start Q and try to poke it off while focussing on CS and letting the wave come into you. Lv2 you can start trading vs him as his W cd is a lot longer than your EQ combo CD. Most Yones can't even react in time to W your passive. Make sure to keep the wave on your side and don't trade with him whenever he has his Q3 and E up unless you are in a short lane and can proc your W shield. A good Yone will dodge your combo with his E and run you down after. Trading heavily and basing on components is very good vs yone as your dring darkseal spike is much better than him getting 1-2 daggers. This is generally the best part of the matchup for you 1v1 and you should abuse this window as much as possible. If the wave is on your side you can trade with HOB and without W since he wont be able to E to run you down, then use your W for the next trade to have more kill pressure. Whenever he has his Q3 you want to space it at his max range. Bad Yone's will use their Q3 and you should punish it by immediatly comboing him, but most good Yone's just hold it to buy themselves time and space in the lane so they can start stacking their Q again. You can predict his Q3 directiion with your W and buffer through his Q3 with a well timed E2 if he ever hits you with it. Whenever you jump onto yone you can try to press S to bait his Q's before jumping onto him as most yone's will Q the air and get baited. After first base yone will try to keep you in lane and beat you in small trades and with better sustain. Unless there is nothing to do on the map or you have a very significant lead to keep snowballing your 1v1 it is generally not worth it to permanently trade vs him and focus to beat him with your better skirmishing and waveclear. Yone is extremely useless in skirmishes even after lv6. This is especially the case if he gets to his vamp scepter. A useful interaction vs Yone is that you can put your Q in the path of his E return. If you time it well it is even possible to connect both parts. When yone flies back to his E you can also buffer your autos (and your E2!!!) and attack him while he is snapping back if you are in his E path. You can also often time your R as he is snapping back. Putting a W on where his body returns towards the end of its duration is very usefu lif you don't need the shield. If he has Q3 up after he snaps back to his E you can also put it a bit deeper. When he is clearing waves in sidelane or in lane and you see he has his Q3 up you should time your W in a way where he get's stuck in the Q3 animation part as your W comes out of vision as this makes it way easier to hit. Most yones Q3 through your whole wave. Whenever he tries to escape with is R you should try to body block it as long as you are healthy enough so he cannot dash away. After botrk he will usually win 1v1 against you even if you have a lead due to his insane sustain but he is still relatively weak in 2v2s and 3v3s and especially teamfights compared to you until he gets to his Shieldbow. You should try to get a very significant lead vs Yone early as he scales extremely well. It's possible to follow Yone R with your E2 and it's also possible to follow a bit of his E but you won't be able to completely follow to where he snaps back.

Twisted Fate matchup: Lv1 you shouldnt jump on him if he has boneplating and didnt use any of his spells. You should try to poke his boneplating off with Q. Dont stand directly next to your wave so he can't red card splash you with it. TF's W cooldown is 6 seconds so be careful about extending trades into him. Ideally you only trade when his W is down, but if you have hail of blades up it is possible to proc passive when he is cycling to blue card. Make sure to space his auto range so you will actually be in range to punish his W cooldown if he uses it on the wave. If he has gold card you can only trade with him if you hit W and buffer your E2 through his stun to avoid a bit of the stun duration. This is a useful interaction vs TF in general but you need to be in range to hit him/ a minion since his W outranges your E2. After he gets even one ruby crystal it becomes not worth to trade with him anymore for the 1v1 as he becomes way too tanky. After lv6 you need to keep his ult in mind before making plays on the map and play hard to punish his ult cd ones he uses it. TFs gank setup is pretty good so you want to think about his jungler more than you would usually do, especially if is a high damage jungler. With Dusk and Dawn you can completely ignore his W as you will always be able to proc passive. Mercs hardcounter TF so consider it as an option unless he is the only CC in his team. Be careful about holding your ult as his W can get used as an auto attack reset so don't get surprised by this brust. Keep in mind his stacked deck as well. A very nieche and hard interaction vs TF R is that you can follow it with E2 if he is going to appear on vision, but this is extremely unreliable and difficult to do in a real game. https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/cv4vgYL9Kjv

Swain matchup: Swain Usually people think Swain beats melee champs and it's true, especially if you need to dive into him. However, Ekko hardbeats Swain, especially earlygame. You can start E into him if he has no boneplating and you know he started E. He will outtrade you pretty hard if he has Q start and boneplating. If he has E, you can proc passive and run out as long as there are minions behind you, but even if there arent any, you can usually dodge it with your passive MS. His E cd is pretty long as well so you can perma trade with him. Swain is not actually tanky without his passive stacks or items, so don't be scared to get scrappy. The most important thing in this matchup is to not get randomly hit by his E. Most players struggle to dodge Swain E because they don't know that his E has a pretty big hitbox behind the minions as well, so either stand IN FRONT of your casters, or way behind them. If he E's you without any minions being in the picture, you can EQ him before it returns if you have hob up. After lv6 make sure to only go for short trades and be happy if he is forced to ult. Don't overextend into his ult and just let it run out as you can kite it extremely easily. You can only kill him in his ult if he is very low and you ignited him with your W% and hob. After dusk and dawn this matchup will be even more unfavourable for him as you can EQ and kite him all the time. In sidelane he is very immobile as well so hitting your W's from fog is very free. Keep in mind that Swain builds a lot of HP, so when he gets low your W% with autos will do a lot of damage if your team can get him low.

Kayle matchup: Don't make the mistake of just jumping on her lv1 with E as then she will be able to AA AA E you to proc PTA and win the trade. You want to wait for her to either poke you with E, let the PTA run out and then jump on her or wait her her to hit your cs and then jump on her. If you end up pushing into her you should be careful to combo her if it means she has her passive and Q slow to hit you as together with her minions she will be able to run you down if you ever miss your Q. Whenever kayle has her passive stacked to get more MS it is therefore more safe to E2 AA and then Q or just E2 AA AA to guarantee that you proc your passive and make her try to dodge your Q as it is very hard to hit with her thin hitbox and the MS she gets through celerity. This is especially true when she gets swifties or has her W up. You should try to mix up your combo usage in this matchup to make it hard for her to anticipate when you Q. When she is in lasthit animation it is possible to EQ at her normally, especially if you have your W ready. Due to Kayle's very low base MR she can't deal with you permanently jumping on her so try to make the wave be on your side. Don't let her crash without losing a lot of HP/CS and try to thin the wave with your Qs as you trade with her. Kayle is a champion you want to punish in the 1v1 as much as possible so only push and roam if you already have a very big lead and if there is actually something to do on the map as you don't want her to get even a single CS for free. Kalye is very weak in skirmishes and can never follow your roams though, so if you find it hard to punish her in the 1v1 (especially after she gets her swifties) this is also a very viable way to beat her. Against Kayle it is very hard to actually hit your W stun so W in a way where you always get the shield. It's absolutely worth to trade ults with Kayle at every point in the game as she is much more vulnerable without it compared to you and your ult is significantly lower cooldown as well. Usually you want to instantly ult out as soon as she starts channeling it to avoid getting ran down with your ult being in a bad position, especially in teamfights. You can still stack and proc your passive on Kayle when she is in ult. You beat Kayle in 1v1 in sidelane as long as you are even with her and can fight with your lower R cd, even and especially when you are both lv16 with 3 items. Just make sure to go for small trades, EQ then run away with your W shield and repeat. Don't go for an auto attack battle unless you are very sure you will win and know your limits extremely well since you have no way of escaping kayle if you can't run away with your passive.

Azir matchup: This is a matchup that was commonly believed to be really good for Ekko in the past but eversince he got changed to be W max with Nashors rush it is not as free as before, but unless you are against a Challenger Azir or a pro player you should still be favoured. If he has boneplating and stands at the max range of his W soliders it's not worth to start E vs him lv1 as he will have a lot of space to outrange you to potentially deny your passive and still has time to hit you back while you likely miss most CS and make the wave push into him. You want to have the wave on your side, so ideally try to let him push while proccing his boneplating off lv1. If he just stands back and has the wave neutral you want to crash second wave so it will push to you eventually. Lv2 a good Azir will skill E when you jump into him to trade to absorb your damage with the shield. This will be worth it for you as his E cooldown is extremely long so you need to punish it when it's down. You can either punish Azir on his lasthits or when he is in animation to place a solider. The most important thing about Azir is keeping track of his Solider recgarge cooldown earlygame as it is very long before he gets some points into it. As a rule of thumb, if he uses 2 soliders he won't have another one for a while. Heavily trading pre first base is very good for you but if he doesn't let you it is also completely fine to use your stronger waveclear to secure a better first recall. If Azir ever uses his Q this means he cannot extend his dash so he will be very vulnerable to you and your W setup. Whenever Azir uses 2 W's and his Q he will not have a good E so make sure to track his cds. Heavy trading and basing all the time is extremely good for you if you can't get the kill on him as your component bases (darkseal dring boots etc) are way better than his. You ideally want to prevent him from getting to blasting wand for free. At lv5 his W already starts to hurt a lot so you ideally want to trade with your W shield and around his boneplating/E cooldown. If you jump into him on a long wave without those conditions he can shield your combo and then Q behind you to slow you and run you down a lot with lethal tempo autos as well as getting another charge of his W if he hits you with his E. Whenever you are receiving a gank or try to run down Azir you should try to place yourself between him and where he wants to dash away to block his E. This is really easy to do with hail of blades especially. Whenever Azir has his ult you should be careful about directly E2'ing onto him as he can ult you away or into his tower, forcing you to ult. You want to E1, then press S and pretend that you will E2 ontho him. This works even against very good Azirs. Make sure to only trade ults with Azir if you can dive him after as you ideally want to keep your ult to impact the map and Azirs goal is just to keep you in lane. After blasting wand and lv7 he already starts beating you in trades pretty hard 1v1 so make sure to abuse your waveclear and wreak havoc upon the map as his champion is severely lacking waveclear and skrimishing power. Whenever you have vision of his soldier you will also have vision of Azir. This is very useful to stop his bases and get very good W's on him as some Azirs won't expect you to see them. Azir is extremely strong if he can poke and stack his lethal tempo onto you, so make sure to let his stacks run out if he Q's you in the later portions of the lane as his extended trades are very strong. Azir becomes extremely broken once he gets to nashors tooth so try to respect his spike. If he gets some HP as well he will be very hard to beat 1v1 unless you have a good W angle on him. Azirs burst with R is not to be underestimated and he can auto you 1-2 times while you are knocked up so be careful about how long you hold your ult, especially if he goes for a high damage build with sorcs/shadowflame. The way to beat Azir is earlygame and through number advantages as he is extremely stationary and needs time to scale.

Irelia matchup: Level one you want to desync the minions so she can't Q all 3 at the same time and then jump on you. Take aggressive position in lane and try to auto the middle caster minion to reaggro the minions or auto one melee 2 times and another melee 1 time. If she tries to contest you and gives you range to auto you should AA Q AA or AA AA Q, be careful that she doesn't Q behind you to dodge your Q so holding it can be wise sometimes. If she doesnt give you range you can still E start on her but make sure you set up your cs beforehand. Irelia is very weak without her passive lv1 so make sure to abuse this. Trading with Irelia lv2 is possible with hob as you can EQ, proc passive and run out before she can hit her E on you. You need to be careful about trading with her if she can jump to minions and run you down with passive though, so make sure to ideally trade when she is in animation to lasthit or wait for the wave to be on your side to be extra safe. If her W is up you want to only trade when your W is up as well as she can block all of the damage from your passive and trade back after, but this won't be possible if you W before due to the shield. When you try to cheese irelia in fog or go for dives you should try to W where your minions are to prevent her from Q'ing onto them. Don't jump on her if the wave is on her side even if you have a lead in lane, she will almost always beat you with her passive if she gets to run you down with autos. Irelias main weakness is how extremely gankable she is when the wave is bouncing to you as she lacks mobility and needs to fight you. The same thing is also true when you are slowpushing into her. Playing around your jungle+support is very good in this matchup since she is also fairly weak in skirmishes compared to you. This is why even after securing a win in the early lane you want to try to avoid fighting her 1v1 to avoid throwing as this is her only strength as a champion and try to use your superior waveclear and roaming+skrimishing to beat her. The same concept applies later in sidelane. Even if you are several items up on her Irelia will be an extreme threat to you 1v1 after she gets Blade of The Ruined King but you don't need to play her game. Patience and scaling are the biggest Irelia counter.

Zac matchup: This matchup is extremely rare and changes a lot so this will only be about reference points and champ specifics. Zac has a lot of sustain but you are still a lot stronger than him earlygame (pre first base before he gets HP, MR), If you E on him lv1 you need to be careful that he is not in range to Q you and then auto a minion to pull you in so only do it if it is very free. This becomes especially scary if he gets his E as he can combo this to have an insane trade. His E has a very long cast time so you will get your passive off with HOB if you EQ him on a lasthit and it's easily dodgeable with your passive MS. Step on Zac's blobs so he can't heal with his W (it destroys them) or ignite him if you cant deny it and he is in lethal to deny his healing. After he gets some HP in lane and especially lv6 DONT try to fight him as he is way too tanky, oneshots you with his ult and has waaaay too much sustain for you to get through it. You can buffer both his Q knockup as well as his E and ult with your E2 in case you get hit. (useful either to stick on him or escape etc, u can be creative) IMPORTANT INTERACTION VS ZAC : If he is in his passive, you can Q him inside it as long as it comes together at the same time (sometimes if he dies inside a wall it can be a bit more tricky with the timing) To do this, you time your Q so the first and second part snap back when all the passive blobs get together. Eversince they buffed Zac only your Q alone doesn't kill if he gets some bonus HP but this still gave me a lot of kills. (example https://app.tryascent.gg/clips/wq8vcjcJg81 )

Nasus matchup: If he goes to Q a cs you can aa Q aa him for a very big trade. Don't E on him lv1 if he has boneplating as taking an AA Q trade from him is not ideal. Slowpush as much as you can early to deny him cs, then make the wave bounce just like you would in a Kassadin lane. Nasus W is a very big counter to Ekko as his wither makes it very hard to proc your passive, even with hail of blades. Luckily there is a way to counter this (at least in lane) : you want to space outside his W range and EQ in range when he is going for cs. (His W has 700 range) With how fast your EQ passive proc is with hob he won't be able to W you before you get it off and you will run away slower than usual but still fast enough to avoid getting ran down. Don't do this in a long lane when he has R though as he is extremely strong at lv6+sheen, he can easily run you down with lv6+ sheen + ghost in a long lane. Once he gets health or a nullmagic mantle you should play more to punish his team. as he becomes way too tanky and has a lot of sustain with his passive+fleet but has no waveclear or use in a skirmish compared to you. Whenever you think you can kill Nasus when he has his w up you won't be able to proc your passive or auto himeven if you have hail of blades so be very careful. His ult also gives him a lot of HP so don't get baited and just kite it out or ult away if he tries to run you down. It is pretty easy to land W's on Nasus in sidelane so if your jungler has a lot of damage it's pretty easy to kill him but ideally you want to avoid Nasus use the laning phase to get as strong as possible and kill his team instead. Even if Nasus is behind a lot of gold vs you he will beat you in sidelane once he has triforce and a bit of stacks and MR.

Lux matchup: Lv1 you should hold your level up and space aggressively. If she makes the mistake to E you, react with your E and dodge over it for a good trade. Otherwise you can just start Q. Lux is extremely broken early game especially if she can auto you to proc your passive so trading with her is extremely difficult. Lv2 you can try to bait her Q by EQ'ing and not commiting to the E2 to see if she will root you, but Lux will still trade pretty decently into you if she hit's her E on the ground, slows you and runs you down with autos. This is why it's usually only wise to trade with her when you have your W up. Whenever Lux tries to E you, you should dodge it with E reactively as it does a lot of damage. Try to avoid her passive autos at all cost. This matchup is all about having good movement and avoiding her poke until you can push and roam. Lux is extremely hard to punish before you have your first item even if she is extremely bad. Be careful about not getting stuck in lane as she can easily ult the wave so plan your recalls accordingly. Make sure to actually react to her spells and watch her animations as a lot of Lux players will try to predict your E. If you somehow get hit by her Q and you have your E2 up you can buffer the root with good timing, sometimes that is enough to avoid her R folow up. The longer the game goes the more you will outscale her and you completely demolish her in sidelane. In teamfights come from flanks to avoid her Q CC as getting hit by it when her teammates are around usually spells a death sentence due to how lethal her burst is.

Vel'Koz matchup: The only way Velkoz can beat you is if you overtrade too much early mindlessly. His Q slow is pretty significant lv1 so don't E on him lv1 as he can hit his Q to kite away with the slow and deny you from proccing your passive. Make sure to stand inside your wave to avoid getting hit by VelkoZ Q's from weird angles but keep in mind that Velkoz Q also has a little hitbox right behind it when it splits. Don't make it obvious when you are going for lasthits and constantly change up your movement patterns to avoid getting hit by his Q. At lv2 you can already start trading but his earlygame damage and waveclear is still pretty strong so only do it it for lasthits and ideally try to bait his Q beforehand. Lv3 onwards you can Bait his E by EQ'ing, waiting for him to E you and then jump over it. VelkoZ E is faster the closer it is to him and a lot of velkoz players will try to predict your E as well so don't make it too obvious. If you think you will get hit by his E while you E at him. you can always jump to a minion or buffer his E with your E2. Velkoz can fuck you up pretty bad if he hits his Q on you when you jump on him. Generally the most save way to trade vs Velkoz is to bait his Q and trade when your W is up. If you want to still trade when his Q is up you need to mindgame his E by holding your E2. To make this mindgame unwinnable for Velkoz you can EQ W, then he is very stuck in your Q slow while your W stun is coming on top of him, and just E2 reactively to his E. Even if he E's himrself you will get the shield and still proc your passive since he is stunned. This is however very hard to do vs higher level velkoz players as he has so much range with his Q so getting in range to EQ can be tricky. Don't blindly EQ him. Handshaking this matchup pre lv7 is completely fine as he has no ability to follow your roams and is very vulnerable in river and you beat him harder and harder with every item. Make sure to keep the burst of his passive in mind for your ult. His Ult also slows you so keep that in mind when escaping. You can edge his R damage pretty hard to wait for the last second until you need to ult for maximum healing. He can refresh his passive stacks by autoing you. Taking midlane t1 is very valuable as it severely limits his safety and push in the midgame

Veigar matchup: Lv1 don't give him free Q stacks in the open and don't jump on him lv1 if he has boneplating. If he doesn't have boneplating however, you can try to wrap around the raptors and gank your own lane lv1. This works very well vs Veigar as you will still be able to jump on him even if he Q's the wave from max range as long as you have good auto spacing with your HOB. Try to always be in positions to EQ him if he goes for CS, even if he W's it at max range. A second wave crash is a good way to accomplish this as long as it resets or bounces to you. Veigar has no defensive ability to deny your passive vs you when your HOB is up as you can proc it before the cage even goes up so the only thing you need to be careful about is how much minion damage you take on the way out and if you are gankable or not. Good Veigars can put the edge of the E on top of themselves so you can't E2 on them without getting stunned to buy space for themselves to farm, but vs most veigars you can E2 through the cage to follow them. Even if you somehow get stunned by the veigar cage you can buffer the stun with your E2 to potentially escape and avoid his WQ followup. Dont tank his E or W for free though as getting hit by every ability from veigar gives him stacks. If you struggle to dodge Veigar W's inside his cage or run into it you should practice utilising the S key. Once Veigar gets Catalyst you should focus on impacting the map as he has no way of following your roams since he's very immobile and slow at moving + weak earlygame. The only useful ability he has in a skirmish is his E which you can easily avoid with your kit. Mercs or tenacity runes can be very valuable vs Veigar if he has other CC threats on his team as you will be able to tank his cage and go on him after. With DND he has no counterplay to you if you ever jump on him as you can dodge the cage with your passive MS. Be careful about Veigar's ult exeute damage especially in teamfights and when going for dives. You can dodge it with your ult.

Ziggs matchup: A very similar matchup to VelkoZ. The only way you lose is if you get hit by too much poke early. Ziggs has a very strong lv1 due to his passive auto so wait for him to use it on the wave before jumping in on him. He has a very short CD on his Q though so you won't be able to hold the wave which is why it's completely fine to start Q unless he wastes his Q on the wave. His Q's are very hard to hit unless he splashes the wave and clips you with the AOE so try to not stand next to your minions. Dodge his Q's and W's with your E if you think you are going to get hit . It costs you much less mana than him and you want to stay as healthy as you can to threaten jumping on him. After lv2 you can already start trading if he wastes his Q on the wave. Most good Ziggs players will go W at level 2, so you can EQ and hold your E2 a bit before jumping on him. If he tries to W you instead of placing it on himself you can buffer the knockup with your E2 to connect to him. This is a very useful interaction throughout the whole game vs Ziggs. Even if you dont get to connect to him trading like this is going to be worth it for you as his W has 20seconds CD and is his only way of stopping you from going in. Just be careful to not go too deep because he can push you into tower with it and run you down with his relatively short Q cd if you dont get to proc your passive. To make this mindgame unwinnable for Ziggs you can EQ W, then he is very stuck in your Q slow while your W stun is coming on top of him, and just E2 reactively to his W. Even if he W's himrself you will get the shield and still proc your passive since he is stunned. He might try to instantly W you when you E, in which case you can either E2 to a minion to buffer it and avoid his combo or just be happy he wasted his W and trade on your next rotation. Ziggs is a very slow champion so if he starts to just Q CS at max range you can start roaming the map as he can only realistically impact it with his ult that is very slow. You need to be very careful with overcommiting your roam though as he does immense damage to your tower with his W and passive so treat him like an AP Tristana. It is very important to pull Ziggs around the map and split him up from his team as Ekko. This holds especially true in sidelane. Once you have Dusk and Dawn you can ignore the W mindgame as you will always proc your passive through it with EQ. Ziggs E slows you A LOT later into the game so try to avoid chokepoints and just E away through it if you have to instead of walking. Keep in mind that his Ult does more damage in the center. Ziggs can W you into his Q's if he has good angles so keep that in mind to not get caught of guard. Taking midlane t1 is very valuable as it severely limits his safety and push in the midgame.

Taliyah matchup: This is a very free matchup for Ekko. Lv1 you don't want to jump on her in the open since her Q does a lot of damage and most taliyahs have either phaserush+boneplating or electrocute setups. You can jump on her if she has no boneplating and the waves start meeting. Ideally you wait for her to use her Q on the wave (most taliyahs do, even very good ones like odysseus), wait for her to auto the wave and jump from the side to have the most ideal lv1 trade. If these conditions are not met, you should try to poke her boneplating off and hold the first 1-2 waves on your side. You don't want her to perma crash waves early as she can just reset and TP back. Try to get lv2 around the same time as her but as long as you can get the wave to stay on your side that is all you need to achieve. You can EQ at taliyah lv2 for free. Her E cannot do anything vs your E2 and the only way she can stun you is if she predicts you. Even if she does predict you, as long as you EQ at the max range of her E (your EQ rang is much longer than that with the slow) you won't get stunned in time. Taliyah is extremely squishy earlygame but don't extend the first trade as her Q cooldown earlygame is pretty short. Proc your passive and run. When dodging Taliyah Q you want to move to the side first before you go behind your minions. Taliyah Q has a pretty significant AOE if she hits your minions, so make sure to not stand directly behind them to avoid getting poked for free. This is especially the case with her worked ground Q. You can use this info to bait her Q as well. After she gets her W you can still EQ at bad taliyahs instantly, but a lot of good taliyahs will try to put their W when you will appear. Even if she manages to do this you won't be too fucked unless your wave is in a bad spot and she can run you down so skillchecking her this way is fine, but if you play in higher elos you should try to hold your E2 a bit before you connect and dodge forward/to the side right after you connect sometimes. This mindgame is extremely hard for taliyah to win so switching this trading pattern up especially when she is going for a lasthit will work even against the best Taliyahs in the world. To make this mindgame unwinnable for her you can EQ W, then she is very stuck in your Q slow while your W stun is coming on top of her, and just E2 reactively to her W. Even if she W's herself you will get the shield and still proc your passive since she is stunned. You can buffer her W with your E2. It's very possible to take trades under tower vs taliyah during the whole game as long as you have your W shield and especially once you get your dusk and dawn. The only way to lose this matchup is trading when she has a big bounce and you manage to not get your W shield while getting hit by her whole combo and a lot of minions, but you can even trade in a big wave as long as you have your W shield. In general you want to be thinking about her Q a lot. If you ever hit a combo/stun on taliyah after around lv5 on your side of the lane you will generally have the damage to run her down the whole lane and kill her with 2 combos. Taliyahs will usually hug the walls to get passive MS from their passive. This makes it a lot harder to get range to EQ her or land W on her, but if you clip her with your Q this means she will be in a choke for your W as well. Taliyahs strongest point in the lane is when she get's around lv7-8 with a lot of CDR from cdr boots and chapter. You can just avoid her through W'ing yourself and Q'ing the wave while holding your E for her combo. Make sure to react to her E animation before the mines are on the field so you can get out if you are getting ganked or she tries to combo you. The rest of the game becomes about who can play the map better in case you still didnt get a lead so make sure you are at least always even tempo with taliyah so you can punish her roaming with her ult and ping it way in advance. Taliyah is very vulnerable to you after you have dusk and dawn and you can start going for very crazy dives with your W shield. If you ever meet her in sidelane just run behind her so she can't hit her Q's on you.

Kog'Maw matchup: Most KogMaws go PTA nowadays with the Dusk and Dawn build. If he has no boneplating you want to wait for him to hit the wave while spacing his W, as soon as he is in an auto animation you can E on him and proc your passive with HOB. If you dont wait for his auto animation he will run you down with W start and PTA proc which is not that bad for you but very easily avoidable. (his W gives him a lot of bonus range) After that you can constantly EQ at him off CD, even without hob as he has no way of denying your passive proc. Make sure the wave is on your side to get multiple opportunities to combo him. Since kogmaw has no mobility and is forced to auto while having very low base MS, clipping him with your Q slow will almost always guarantee you hitting your W if you EQ W E2 or EQ E2 W. Make sure to not stay inside the wave to not give him value to hit his E on you and the wave. Ideally you should be in position to hit your EQ on him when he is in the E cast for a free EQ hit. Once he has some levels in his E (around lv5) you should W first before trading since his E slow scales with levels and he will be able to run you down with PTA + EQ + W range for a nasty trade. You should focus on impacting the map as he has no way of following your roams since he's very immobile and slow at moving once you have a lead since he can farm waves with E+R and perma trading with him will just make the game a 4v4 which benefits him more than it does you. Make sure to be aware that his Q shreds your resistances if you get hit by it and his R does a lot of missing health damage and his W applies 2 Pta and W stacks so dont get caught off guard by it when deciding if you need to ult or not. His DND spike is very strong. Once you get into sidelane you will still be able to run him down but make sure to go for EQ's and space him until your passive is back up since you dont want him to get autos with his W for free.

Aurelion Sol matchup: The only way to lose this matchup early is if you take too much damage lv1. If he has boneplating you should not E on him lv1 unless he is facechecking you in a bush and even then you need to run out instantly. You can walk into his Q range lv1, wait for him to use it, walk out to avoid the passive stack and then jump on him after since it goes on a 3 second cooldown. If he doesn't have boneplating you can freely E on him lv1. This will make the wave push into him though so it is also fine to just let him push and start Q to farm and have a better lanestate later on. Try to have the wave on your side as early as possible so E'ing on him is only worth if you can chunk him a lot. Once you are lv2 you want to trade with your HOB and run out after your passive. If he W's away you will still be able to proc your passive so you can start trading very aggressively from this point. Try to space in a way where you can instantly hit the EQ slow part when he is locked in his Q animation. This is the reason this matchup is so favourable for Ekko since you can avoid his Q range but still be in range to combo him. (If you hit the slow you will get in range to E2 him since he is going to be stuck inside your Q). You can do the same with your W. If he Q's you W slightly behind him to account for his W, EQ hit the slow and usually you will also hit the W stun because of hitting the slow. Hitting your W on asol is relatively easy even without this because he can only go in one line but you will need to get used to predicting it a bit. One thing you need to be careful of against asol is trading without your W in later stages of the lane since he can Q, reset his Q with his W and fly you down the long lane, but as long as you have your W he can't do that because of the shield. Try to W in a way that zones him from flying after you while also getting the shield if you go for a trade when the wave is on his side and walk behind your minions to break his Q laser. Try to stand outside of the wave when you think he is going to use his E to not get sucked into it so you can combo him. Keep in mind that his E gives him more stacks if you are in it. You want to abuse asol in the 1v1 as long as you have realistic kill threat on him, but once he gets a giants belt you should already be thinking about impacting the map while he is still weak. Asol spikes very hard on 1 item already with his rylais so don't mindlessly jump on him especially without your W as he can slow you and run you down very hard. Try to avoid ARAMs especially when he has his big R as he can't match you in sidelane once you have your DND.

Xerath matchup: If you E on him lv1 there is a chance he skills his E so only do it if you see him use a spell. You can stand inside the wave to bait him to push you in, then react to his W/Q with your E if you space aggressively. Xerath is completely vulnerable to you and has relatively long CD's and limited mana costs and waveclear until around lv7+chapter. Xerath will try to poke you from fog of war as his Q range exceeds it if he channels the full duration. When going for push against Xerath you always want to E his W or Q poke if you can't jump on him. Xerath slows himself massively when he is channeling his Q, so whenever he uses it (even in Fog of war) you can W directly on top of him and gapclose with the W slow to get in range for EQ, slowing him again and landing a very easy stun so whenever Xerath is channeling his Q your alarm bells should be ringing. You don't need to be afraid of his E when you are combing in on him as his stun duration is only 0.5 seconds when he hits you with it in melee range, so as long as you hit your Q you will always be able to proc your passive even without hail of blades. If you want to be fancy though you can also blink over it just like with any other linear spell. It's also possible to buffer it with E2 but in this matchup you don't need to do any of this because of how useless his stun is melee range. Pretty much the only way to lose this matchup is if you get poked too much but that is nearly impossible with how long his cooldowns are compared to your E and even if you take a lot of damage you can pretty much always push and base without him being able to contest you. If you feel like you are getting hit by too many abilities you are probably making it too obvious when you are going for CS. You can even trade under tower as long as you have your W shield to absorb a tower shot because of this interaction. If there is nothing to do on the map Xerath is a pretty free dive after lv6 if you got one good trade off before that as long as you know where his jungler is. If he plays too safe it's also just as viable to roam the whole map as Xerath is way too slow and vulnerable to follow you into river without dying. This matchup truly becomes unplayable for Xerath once he is forced to match you in the sidelane. You can constantly ambush him and he is dead to dive with a jungler that has remotely any threat on him. Taking midlane t1 is very valuable as it severely limits his safety and push in the midgame.

Zilean matchup: Zilean is extremely useless earlygame. If he just throws bombs max range it's hard to E on him lv1 unless he severly misspaces. You can try to play for lane and solokill earlygame by baiting him to push you in. His Q cooldown is extremely long earlygame so he will just be a sitting duck after he Q's the wave. A trick you can use is to step on the bomb intentionally and move it away from cs or make it run into your casters to ruin his later cs and make the wave push into you. If the wave is not on your side it can be pretty risky to trade vs Zilean as his gank setup is pretty strong. He can E you to slow and then double bomb you to stun, with some CDR he can even slow you twice. Make sure to not panic E too early and dodge the second bomb that will actually stun you whenever he does that. After around lv5 it usually becomes unworth to punish Zilean 1v1 so look for plays with your jungler and punish his team unless there is literally nothing else to do. Take plates, invade, go for roams and dives etc. You should view this lane as a method to just become as strong as possible yourself instead of setting Zilean behind as he will be useful no matter what gold he has pretty much. Zilean is useless if he has no team. There are multiple ways of playing around Zilean R as Ekko. If he ults someone in a teamfight you should usually just R out instantly without proccing it. If he ults himself 1v1 you can either keep him alive if you have time and he can't get away OR you can kill it if you have enough damage and he is getting away. After you make him go into his R you can easily time your W and Q1Q2 connecting at the same time to kill him again (same trick can be done in GA, Zhonyas and Bard R or TPs) If Zilean has a high threat jungler or a fed carry you should be a bit more careful about sidelaneing as he can be very fast around the map while making it hard for you to escape with how stupid his E slow is later on.

Morgana matchup: Another free scale supportive mid matchups. Most Morganas will start W to farm so stand outside the wave to be ready to punish with E but still be able to move inside it in case she tries to Q. Try to keep the wave in middle or on your side early as she is extremely weak early on. Her Q is extremely easy to avoid with good movement but even if you EQ at her you can hold your E2 and dash over it to bait it. If she still holds it you can W before just like in the Taliyah and VelkoZ matchup. Once she gets to the point where she can just W the wave and blackshield herself to avoid your damage you should push and roam as you are faster on the map and stronger in skirmishes pre6. After lv6 you want to be really careful about when she can Q you while she is ulting as she has extremely long chain CC. Usually you just want to ult out when she ults if you can't avoid it but you if you can proc your passive you can easily run out of her R. Playing to have high ressources and sidelane is the best way to play this matchup and once you have DND she can't really react with Q since you proc your passive instantly and run to dodge it with your passive for her to Q you after. Keep in mind she can blackshield herself and her teammates to deny your stun and a lot of your burst.

Brand matchup: You can E over his W level one if you contest his range earlygame similar to Lux. Skill it when you see his W animation and proc your passive with HOB on him. As long as you avoid his W or E he can't proc his stun on you early but if he's in animation to W you can jump over it and proc your passive on him with EQ+hob because his W cast time is relatively long. The main damage of Brand comes from him spreading his E from minions on you. It has some pretty good range so try to stand outside of the wave and jump on him when he sets up his E spread with W, then you will never get damaged by him. You can also E away from the spread range similar to the Ryze matchup but he has a lot more range. If he W's you and you are not in range to E on him it's completely fine to just E his W to avoid poke. The rest of the matchup is pretty similar to every mage matchup in the game, once you can't punish him in lane if he goes health or you reach your waveclear breakpoint at lv7 you can roam and influence the map while he is stuck mid with much worse waveclear than you and he can't follow your roams because of how easily you can ambush him. Brand is also very immobile and slow and animationlocks himself when waveclearing so hitting W's from fog is very realistic. Once you get your DnD you can completely ignore his stun as you will be able to proc your passive beforehand. If he has every ability up you should only trade with your W to avoid taking damage. You can E2 over his Q and also buffer the stun from it with your E2.

Malzahar matchup: Let him push you in lv1 and hold the wave on your side. If you didnt proc his passive with Q before, you will need to E2 on him, auto, then Q so your Q doesnt get blocked by his passive. Malzahar is so squishy that you can kill him on your third combo so all your attention needs to be focussed on early wavestate. After he has his W you want to wait a bit before Q'ing the wave to kill his voidlings. After lv6 you want to be a bit more careful depending on how much damage the enemy jungler has. When you think he will ult you, you want to always W in a way that stuns him as you jump in to cancel it as he is ulting you. QSS is only acceptable after 3 items.