And a cherry on top

Cho'Gath

Go back to intro. Check requirements. Check Cho’Gath’s skill set. Exactly!

Cho’Gath was actually one of the champions that pioneered the lane-swap as he was able to sustain massive beating and still hold his tower, farming beneath it without even losing that much CS. With two CCs, innate tankiness and an extra Smite for objectives, Cho’Gath is a wonderful top laner. His ability to go both mid and jungle as well makes him an even more attractive pick and I have little doubt that the big fat demon will make an appearance.

In fact, it would be weird if he didn’t.


Darius

One of the very good duelers on the top lane, Darius will cut you, bleed you, hook you and chase you to the ends of the earth or until you get low enough for a guillotine. Sadly, this comes with the price of being somewhat squishy for a melee champ's health pool and a lack of sustain, making him very susceptible to 2v1 lane-swaps.

When left alone, however, Darius shines and has been seen to dominate both top and mid lanes. Westrice played and won with him twice during the regionals and although Curse will not be attending there’s still TSM’s Dyrus who showed unsurpassed mastery with Darius during the last TSM invitational. Estimation on the chances to see the axe lord in the World Championship: slim, but not zero.


Dr. Mundo

Mundo would probably not be here if it wasn’t for Dyrus’ recent experiments with him and my personal suspicion that he might just try to push him out since the pick/ban battle for the top lane is harsh and always includes Shen, Vladimir, Yorick and Jayce. A stacked on health regen Mundo (and one that is accurate with his cleaver) is a great laner and an unkillable piece of flesh come level six. His W allows him to clear creeps easily even below tower, his only real weakness being early-game ganks.

If Dyrus skips on Mundo we’ll most likely not see him on top, though, as the champions is much popular (and much more efficient) in the jungle.


Gangplank

Not unlike Mundo, Gangplank is another champion whose appearance heavily relies on one person - in this case SK's Kev1n - feeling like playing him. Once permabanned or permapicked in solo queue, GP's popularity has now faded but not completely, fortunately. Thankfully, he still has his global ult and irritating as f**k Q + passive combo which makes him a great laner. Additionally, since he's fallen out of junglers' favor even more, there is no more ambiguity in Gangplank: if he's picked, he will be top lane, period.


Irelia

Meet Irelia, the most-picked-to-be top laner of the World Championship just because everything else will be banned from here to the moon and back. Irelia proved to be very contested in all qualifiers but in SEA especially, even beating regional favorite Malphite in terms of getting picked. Furthermore, mostly European teams tend to ban her so she’s definitely going to be open most of the time.

Irelia has been around for a long time so there’s not really much point talking too much about her. Her true damage and dunking power are enough to win her red points and being the very effective AD killer makes her a tier one pick for the championship.


Jax

In the land of AFK farming, Jax is the monarch, a bruiser assassin that grows scarier with each killed creep. A leap into a stun can mean the death of opponents’ squishies and there lies the power of Jax.

Scary he can be, though Jax will be of the less picked top lanes because his vulnerability to poke champions, AD carries included, his farm dependency and his early-game vulnerability to ganks make him too much of a high risk, high reward pick. I expect that China/SEA teams to play him more extensively but for the more standard and safe western compositions Jax is just an odd fit.


Jayce

One of MaknooN’s most favored champions and heavily contested across Korean and Chinese/SEA teams, Jayce will see the light of play often. Jayce has been gaining more and more popularity due to his innate Shurelia, beautiful synergy with initiating junglers like Maokai and Skarner and the ability to fit well in both poke and anti-poke compositions and is probably one of the most versatile top laners. He will switch from a melee dunker to a powerful ranged poker in a blink of an eye and will do a lot of damage in the process, too.

Jayce’s biggest weakness is actually playing against Yorick but as I suspect that said Yorick will sit on the ban bench the majority of the time, there will be little to no reasons that teams won’t favor him on top lane.


Lee Sin

Although he’s always been and always will be more played as a jungler, Lee Sin is still a threat on top lane. Voyboy once carried an IEM with him and there’s no reason why he won’t try doing that again, if only to take him away from his opponents. Lee Sin’s lack of mana, self-sustain through W, unparalleled mobility and a built in disengage in his ult make him a great laner that is nearly ungankable.

The main arguments that speak against him as a laner are that he sucks late-game damage-wise compared to other top laners, Qs will miss more often than not due to the creep wall and that it’s easy to snowball him behind to the point of no recovery.

Then again, it will be unfair to have Mundo here but omit Lee Sin!


Malphite

There's a reason malphite's joke emote is "solid as a rock." Ganking the big boulder is very difficult and he farms pretty well thanks to his ground slam. If you can't force him out of lane he becomes a terrifying lategame monster - inescapable thanks to his Q. He initiates fights better than anyone in the game, which is the real key to his power. Malphite is one of the most contested picks in the game nowadays and the S2WC is unlikely to change that.

Nidalee

Played more and more rarely nowadays, Nidalee only gets love from Korean and NA teams and is used mostly in split-pushing or poking compositions. In Korean meta she’s a targeted ban against NaJin Sword and if foreign teams have paid attention to the regionals they might follow this example too. However, both TSM and Dignitas have been spotted to pick her for the top lane, meaning that despite being a sporadic in competitive, the chance to see her in the World Championship isn’t actually that low. Being the great farmer and chaser that she is, Nidalee’s only weakness is her terrible pre-6 survivability and lack of tankiness and usually fits in compositions that are tanky across the other lanes, mid included.


Olaf

The bully with the axes, Olaf is amazingly strong against the top laners that are currently most popular and weak against those that will get banned, making him that much more attractive as a pick. Strong literally through every stage of the game, Olaf sustains himself well enough, can chase carries better than anyone and, like Mundo, grows scarier the more you beat him. You can also put almost any summoner spell on him and still make him work, turning him into a chase/kill Ghost/Ignite monster, a damage mitigator with Exhaust (also helps with chasing) or more of a utility bruiser with Teleport. He doesn’t even need Flash to be safe since his ultimate literally makes him invulnerable and a force that cannot be stopped.

What will hinder him from making the top lane in this tournament? Probably only the fact that he’s equally unstoppable in the jungle as well.


Renekton

Renekton is a weird bird (also, a crocodile) and, in theory, he should not see that much play. He’s most strong in mid-game compositions that favor aggressive playstyle but the general aroma of the meta is one of laid back, safe, late-game compositions. He’s a monster in 1v1 and is absolutely ungankable but can and will lose to a 1v2 lane-swap or poking champions like Jayce and Olaf. Overall, whether he is played depends mostly on if he fits a certain playstyle rather than just being a well-rounded, flexible bruiser which he’s not.

Nevertheless, Voyboy still loves him and both Moscow 5 and CLG.eu grabbed him during the regionals so we can’t simply bypass him in this feature.


Rumble

Our statistics corner is adamant on this: Rumble will be played and will be picked a lot. One of the only two APs that ever make the top lane, Rumble is used primarily as a counter to the most popular laners, including Irelia, Vladimir and Malphite. Furthermore, he can sustain himself quite well after Hextech Revolver, builds tanky, deals damage and CCs in AoE and he really only sucks when he’s played poorly or is shut down due to carelessness or inadvertence.

Plus, his only real counters in Yorick and Jayce will be banned/first picked anyway.


Shen

With 94,3% contested rating across all regional matches (and banned in almost 75% of them), Shen is clearly balanced and will see a lot of play these next few days and only his rarely used ultimate and the popularity of Teemos in top lane can make him warm the bench instead of making it to the field. The ease with which he can double kill under tower and farm untouched in 1v2 are only somewhat valuable and he’s mostly picked because he looks like Sub Zero or Scorpion.


Shyvana

Shyvana will be an often played hero during the championship, there’s no argument there, but seeing her on top lane will be a bit of a surprise. She loses direct duels to almost everybody, lacks health sustain before Wriggle and can be bullied out of lane early-game by skill spammers like Yorick, Olaf or Jayce. In fact, she’s only strong when she’s left unganked, allowing her to grow into the pushing machine that she is, shoving her opponent under tower and allowing her to leave the lane to steal jungle or help with buff steals. She was mostly played by NA teams but always as a jungler but there’s always the slim of a chance that Darien decides to be crazy and picks her for Moscow’s top lane.


Vladimir

In the race for who’s the most contested top laner, Vladimir does not lag too much behind Shen and Yorick and with good reason. Like Rumble, he is manaless and has a perfect way to sustain himself with a Revolver, his pool makes him hard to gank, he farms well come mid-game and grows all the more powerful as he farms up. He fares indescribably well against the kings of the top and mid lanes like Shen, Malphite and Morgana and the only direct counter that is likely to be played at all is Irelia. Furthermore, the damage he can dish out in both 1v1 battles and team fights is ridiculous and is one of the main reasons why he’s targeted so often.

Junglers in the world championship will need to shut down Vladimir early when he’s weaker or else there will be all sorts of troubles flying their way. A tough job, to be frank, knowing how you can't actually click on him.


Yorick

To explain the phenomenon called perma-banned Yorick, we go all the way back to the first paragraph of the article and then follow every paragraph before this one. For the TL;DR of the readers who’ve just clicked on the anchor in the Table of Contents let me summarize:

Yorick has no weakness and counters everybody. Shens, Jayces, Rumbles and Olafs are all the same to him. He will hold a 1v2 lane with ease and will then beat them once he has his Tear of the Goddess. He can push a lane, hold a lane, take towers down or protect them most efficiently. He will make your carry live twice as long and he will have more HP than the abhorrent child of Nashor and the Nexus.

A highly contested pick and even a more contested ban, the “Most Wanted” percentages of Yorick in the World Championship are likely to be pushing 80% and above.