Viktor Top does not create a diverse lane. AP Ranged tops never have.

We go through this song and dance at least once a season; some mage or AP top laner becomes good and immediately starts bodying most of the top lane roster. They're almost always immense melee-lane bullies who will outscale you if you're a bruiser or match you if you're a tank - except they'll be ahead of you because they just bodied you in lane.

Remember how fun it was when other mages went top and were good enough to be prominent? Remember Ryze both before and after his reworks when he'd go top and dumpster you if you couldn't deal with his harass? Or Kennen, who'd pelt you with auto attacks and outrun you if you tried to all-in without a hard gap closer? Or Cass? Or Lissandra? Heimer? Rumble? Swain pre-VGU? Remember how diverse top lane was when these guys controlled the lane?

Because I sure don't.

Listen; some of these champions having counterpicks doesn't mean the lane becomes diverse. You could pick old Irelia into Kennen and you would have one of the easiest snowball lanes you'd ever experience in League. All that means is that you can no longer blind pick the champions you WANT to play unless you just resolve to permaban whichever mage could ruin you for the entire course of the game.

If Viktor top is about to be a thing, and he's gonna keep being a thing because suddenly THIS one is the messiah that will make top lane a diversity utopia, then make a choice. If he's going to shit on every juggernaut and tank that can't leap onto him or outrange him while he beats them down with pure base damages from his kit and his Iceborn first item while he also accelerates his snowball with Klepto, then gut his scaling so that we can at least match him later on. If he's going to be a top laner because he can find some safety to scale up there, then put a hammer to his ability to spam the shit out of Q and slowly push you out of the lane. This is my only issue and it's the same issue with all of these AP top laners; I could care less that his Q mashing is entirely targeted. I care a lot that he can effortlessly button-mash me out of the lane from level 1 and will be far more valuable to his team than me in a 5v5 even if he doesn't zone me or snowball.

Regardless of how you feel about whether or not Viktor can or should fit comfortably in top lane, he is numerically too good and something needs to be hit. Raise his Q mana cost, make his Q MS scale with hex core ranks so he has to delay IBG if he wants to run faster, reduce base damage and buff his scaling. I don't care, honestly. Keep him top if you want to. But given that League is a game that prides itself on having as few hard counter games as possible, address the fact that Viktor has so many lanes where he has to be trolling to lose.

Thanks for reading.