I want to ask you guys, for you, which is the best top laner nowadays in Esports? To me it's between Huni or Impact, I feel like they're making the best performances right now and they can crush their enemies, even with Smeb being an awesome top laner at the moment. I won't post a poll because I want to read your reasons and kind of create a discussion about it.
Since the LPL has only had 1 week of play, I'll omit them from my discussion.
In general for S7, the top lane is like a "make or break" role for teams alongside the jungle. Despite it being early, there are only a few top laners that have really stood out among the rest. And frankly, it's a pretty small list.
For Korea, it'd be criminal not to say Huni (unless he falls apart in a few hours vs MVP). Under my radar however also from Korea is Crazy from BBQ Olivers. I would say Smeb but I haven't been impressed enough with his performance in tandem with the rest of the team despite still being undefeated in series.
For Europe, probably only one top laner comes to mind: Alphari from Misfits. Every other top laner so far has been generally average or lack luster; nothing too outstanding right now not based off of enemy blunder.
Taiwan's LMS as far as I've watched has had two relatively decent top laners so far in MapleSnow of HKES and MMD of FW. Chances I may need to tune in further into some HKES games after watching their two series.
North America, after week 1, I'd say Ssumday, Lourlo and Impact in a 3-way debate which Impact would've won and probably nobody else. Now I'm replacing Ssumday with Hauntzer and completely removing Lourlo. In other words, Impact is the only one being consistent with results.
So for me, once again not touching on LPL, that's Huni, Crazy, Alphari, MapleSnow, MMD, and Impact. Of those 6 it's probably contest between Huni, Crazy, and Impact.
For NA it has to be Impact for sure, he's constantly on point with his TP plays and previous split helped Cloud 9 make it to Worlds with his now famous "Top Die". Tho we have to give credit to Cloud 9 overall as they are playing great!
LCK Huni - I like Smeb and while SKT and KT both have 5 star teams we have to look at both teams. KT - Yes, they are good but at the same time they don't have the same structure as say SKT does and Huni has to learn the ways of SKT and he's doing a great job at it too.
Impact vs Huni - I gotta go with Huni and it's simple LCK > NA. Impact is on a NA team facing other NA teams while Huni is in Korea facing the top players in the World. The bigger question is, can Huni win a World Championship like Impact did with SKT?
in NA its hauntzer
I haven't watched enough to make a reasonable offer, but I am happy that Balls is back in a lineup (FlyQuest), with an opportunity to make his case that he is in contention to be included in such a discussion. :P
Among all the regions, it has to be Huni without question. Not only did he surprisingly make SKT scarier (having arguably the 5 best players in the world right now if you include peanut), but he did so playing the characters he's known for being terrible at. Noone thinks of tanks when they think of huni, yet he's not only making them work but doing so in such a way as to shift focus off Faker's pretty "meh" split so far.
