Top Five Meta Top Lane LCS Picks For 2021
League of Legends evolves rapidly with each season, and professional esports teams set out a bunch of potent champions to play in each role for everyone. These 'meta' picks generally originate from different leagues worldwide and provide an expert opinion on the current strongest champions in the game. While many powerful champions are banned in the drafting phase, some champions come up as a priority pick for many teams.
The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Lock In tournament has been very interesting, with the knockout stage showcasing some high calibre teams mixed with underdogs. However, the group stages pulled some champions that consistently performed in the top lane and snowballed their lead to the other lanes to make their teams victorious.
Top laners have a crucial role in out-duelling the enemy top laners while joining their team during the mid to late game. They also serve as spilt pushing champions and pressurise side lanes while giving numbers priority to the ally team against the enemies. The current meta has seen many skirmishers and champions with global ultimate to help in team fights and turn the tides of the battle. Some of the champions have become excellent counters to the existing meta picks; therefore, they present a very high win-rate in the competitive matches.
TOP FIVE TOP LANE CHAMPIONS WHO HAVE EARNED THEIR SPOT IN LEAGUE OF LEGENDS META
1. Renekton
Click to enlargeThe Butcher of Sands, Renekton comes as a self-evident top-lane pick. Jeong "Impact" Eon-yeong from Evil Geniuses has soared to new heights with this champion and showcased the true potential of him while winning Player Of The Week with this champion. Renekton's strength lies in his early game, and he has a bit of everything in his kit. His Q heals him, W stuns the enemy target, and E can mobilise the champion and close the gap between enemies. With fury on top, it allows him to empower these abilities and land a lot of damage to the enemies.
His ultimate ability, Dominus, makes him bigger, gaining bonus health and range on his attacks making him a great counter to many champions in the meta. He gains early leads in the lane by pressuring the opponents and snowballs that to the other lanes to win the match. Moreover, with items like Goredrinker, he could opt for tanky builds, or traditional bruiser builds depending on the opponent he faces in the top-lane.
2. Gangplank
Click to enlargeComing from Bilgewater, Gangplank is a great top-lane pick for players who are skilled at this champion. This champion has a steep learning curve attached to him, making him a reasonably hard champion to master in the Summoner's Rift. However, once the player has mastered his Powder Kegs combinations, he can deal poke damage to enemy top-laners. At the same time, Gangplank sustains damage through their W ability, which heals him and removes all crowd control off him. Gangplank can use his ranged attacks to bully melee top-laners, countering many champions in the current meta.
One of the main reasons Gangplank is selected over other champions is his ultimate global ability known as 'Cannon Barrage'. It can be upgraded to deal damage and slow enemies standing near the circle, and it serves as a fantastic tool to zone out enemies and push favourable fights for your team. It can be upgraded using Silver Serpents to slow enemies, buff allies, or deal more damage.
3. Camille
Click to enlargeCamille has been one of the strongest picks for top lanes with her sustain based builds. She has a great pick-up rate in LCS and other regional leagues all around the world. Her Q deals damage, W heals her and slows enemies, and E stuns the enemy. There is a correlation in these abilities; she can prepare the lane for the junglers and do well in almost any lane. Her passive shields keep her healthy during the poke battles and her ultimate forces the enemy to fight her when she's ahead in the matchup.
She is a lane bully, and she scales very well into the late game as well.
4. Ornn
Click to enlargeOrnn is a reliable pick for the top-lane as he could be blind picked into almost any champion in the game. His abilities grant him to a ton of damage to gain lane priority, and his passive is arguably one of the best in the game. Being a Forge god himself, he has the ability to craft out items while being out of the base by using his gold. Therefore, the only reason to go back to the base would be to refill his HP and mana pools. Moreover, in the mid to late game, he can upgrade some ally champions' items to make them more powerful in the battles.
His ultimate ability, Call of the Forge God, serves as a great engage tool in the team fights near Baron and Dragons. Ornn can use it to dish out damage and deal a massive amount to the enemies. Therefore, despite the meta, Ornn always stays relevant and is a concrete tank choice for many top laners in the competitive leagues worldwide.
5. Gragas
Click to enlargeWe shouldn't have caught you by surprise if you are following the international leagues, as Gragas plays brilliantly into early game skirmishers and sustains through their damage with his passive and other abilities. He doesn't gain a lane priority; however, he is a very safe pick for scaling into the late game and dives the enemies using his ultimate ability.
His kit is very versatile, and he has all the tools required to stop the top-laners from out-farming him. He becomes instrumental in team fights and serves as a great asset to the teams.
Images via Riot Games
