I don't care how many gems he uses, it's a pretty great achievement in this game. I have maxed troops, and lose more than I care to admit. He knows how to raid, and to say gems are the only reason is ignorant of the game. First I've heard of him, but he's got my respect since I've tried pushing (with and without gems) and he's got me beat with lower level troops. Unless of course he just searches thousands of times for an easy base to get trophies...
no th8 can get to champ by raiding, let alone th7.
only way to do it, stay online for a long time, buy shield, snipe, raid only when find lower opponent who snipe too.
yup, my premature th8 before get almost 2800 by doing this alone. except buy shield (so i get revenge -59 everytime i kickout 6hours by system). i stop doing it when TH8 is Great finish.
Anything is possible in the CoC system. They way it's designed is that you just need to sacrifice time, and time for most players equals paying money to speed up the process. This is guy is very dedicated, props to him.