Top lane is so worthless that people play zero farm/low farm supports top and roam

In some cases, if they are able to bully you because you’re weak early and susceptible to poke, they’ll get some extra farm. But in most cases, most top laners will have the ability to all-in them and kill them repeatedly. In response, they roam and snowball the rest of the map and ignore top lane. As a top laner, naturally your inclination is to shove and take free plates. That works if your team isn’t feeding. If they are, then you have to abandon this and roam accordingly.

Let me be clear: I am not saying some of these champions are OP (although solo lane Raka is a little bananas right now [pun intended]). Supports generally lose these lanes hardcore post-6, which is exactly what should happen. But what does this say about the state of the lane? That this doesn’t deter people from running such a cheese strategy and it’s actually being done successfully in pro play and solo queue is eye-popping. Top lane and general top lane characters are so heavily disregarded that low gold/low farm supports that abandon the lane entirely are seen as more valuable.

I like different strategies being viable, and part of me likes something like this being available because it’s a breath of fresh air from the ever-encompassing norm. That said, as I considered the ramifications above, there’s part of me that’s disgusted by it.

Riot, you cannot tell me you are looking at this and honestly telling yourselves everything in top lane is fine. Generally, I love the changes you’ve adopted this season. But damage is far too high, most laners have no control over their lane, and with the exception of a few tank supports and Ornn, there’s no way to feel remotely viable as a front liner. Moreover, ranged v.s. melee is at an all time discrepancy in relation to the balance of the match-up: range has far too many forgiving advantages (minion block, dumbfuckory minion AI that never seems to target ranged champions, just as much disruption/cc/self peel/mobility as their melee counterparts). Lastly, CC is out of fucking control and melee anything feels like total shit.

Again, I love the changes for this season so far, but the state of top lane might be at its all-time worst. Things have to change.