Why are so many top laners being banned at Worlds?
Riot·9/26/2014, 2:03:00 AM·0 votes·16,088 views
Of the top seven most banned players in Groups A and B, five of them were top laners. Whether it was SK’s Fredy122, TSM’s Dyrus, or even Dark Passage’s FabFabulous, very few of the top laners at Worlds have thus far had their full rosters to pick from.
At first glance, it could be argued that those bans are targeted at the strongest players on their respective teams. And with Fredy122’s and Dyrus’s performances so far, it’s hard to argue that they’re not worth banning out.
However, top laners with less impactful play are also seeing bans. TPA’s Achie, for example, saw eight bans targeted against him, while star jungler Winds only received one. So what does make the top lane at Worlds so bannable? Well, it lies with how team compositions are created.
Alistar, Maokai, and Nidalee are among the most-banned top laners. Notice that they all have strong gap closers, designed to find and pick off low-mobility carries. As such, they’re immediately high-priority bans if teams are looking to build a composition around hypercarries.
Once those champions are banned out, it allows for a bit of variance in picks for the rest of the lanes. Supports no longer have to focus picks on disengage champions like Janna or Nami, and can now grab a Thresh or a Leona if they want to get aggressive. Who needs defense when you’ve got a good offense?
As such, to attain synergy of the bottom lane, supports and AD carries typically have to make sure they can pick their champions without interruption of a counterpick. So, if a team is looking to grab Tristana and Nami - champions that would struggle with a Maokai’s aggression - they better make sure that the Tree wouldn’t be able to get picked up as a direct counter.
Take SK Gaming’s Fredy122. He’s known for both his Aatrox and Nidalee play, and as such, had both of them banned against him in all six of SK’s matches. He responded, playing four different champions in six games, and performing very well despite his team’s losses.
In fact, of the 18 bans levied against his team, 16 were targeted directly at him. That’s called demanding respect, ladies and gentlemen.
Getting the band together
Think about it like this. In a meta where ranged hypercarries are ever-present and outright winning games, what’s the best way to take them down? The answer’s pretty simple: jump directly into their faces and lock them down long enough to kill them. Unfortunately for those hypercarries, the current most popular top lane champions do exactly that.
Alistar, Maokai, and Nidalee are among the most-banned top laners. Notice that they all have strong gap closers, designed to find and pick off low-mobility carries. As such, they’re immediately high-priority bans if teams are looking to build a composition around hypercarries.
Once those champions are banned out, it allows for a bit of variance in picks for the rest of the lanes. Supports no longer have to focus picks on disengage champions like Janna or Nami, and can now grab a Thresh or a Leona if they want to get aggressive. Who needs defense when you’ve got a good offense?
Pick order
With top lane champions so capable of single-handedly taking down entire team compositions, the order of picks during champion select is tantamount. If a blue side team picks a Kog’Maw as their first pick, for example, it opens up the red side for the counterpick of a dive-heavy top laner.
As such, to attain synergy of the bottom lane, supports and AD carries typically have to make sure they can pick their champions without interruption of a counterpick. So, if a team is looking to grab Tristana and Nami - champions that would struggle with a Maokai’s aggression - they better make sure that the Tree wouldn’t be able to get picked up as a direct counter.
Power player
Of course, not all bans are coming as a result of team compositions. Sometimes, top laners simply need to be denied their favorite champions.
Take SK Gaming’s Fredy122. He’s known for both his Aatrox and Nidalee play, and as such, had both of them banned against him in all six of SK’s matches. He responded, playing four different champions in six games, and performing very well despite his team’s losses.
In fact, of the 18 bans levied against his team, 16 were targeted directly at him. That’s called demanding respect, ladies and gentlemen.
? I mean they do have a heavy impact in the game and how it rolls out, but why are the majority of the bans directed to top laners? I know top laners are very important in teamfights and such, but the same with junglers!
