Week 5: The NA Top Lane

This week, we're going to analyze how things have been going in the NA Top Lane.

I've always found the top lane intriguing, probably because it's the one lane that I understand conceptually but rarely excel at in practice.  The top lane provides that necessary missing component that makes the team composition work, and yet top lane is usually that quiet lane and unsung hero that did a whole lot, but doesn't get much credit for it.  Today, let's look at the impact (or the lack thereof) that the top lane has had on games this last week.

1.  Kill participators, kill enablers, those least likely to share, and the notably absent.  Two players this week had an extraordinary 100% kill participation: Cris from Team Coast (against Team SoloMid on Kassadin), and Impact from Team Impulse (against Gravity on Morgana).  Cris also gave over all those (2) kills, while Impact gave 86% (12 kills).  Across the two games, Impact had the highest KP (89%), followed by a two way tie between Hauntzer and Zion Spartan (80%); Balls was close behind them at 79%.

Avalon stood out as the one most likely to help and least likely to take the kill, taking an assist in 93% of the 14 kills he was involved in.  Dyrus was next, handing 89% of the 9; then Balls, who handed over 83% of the 23.

Impact, back in his SKT T1 regalia, now on Team Impulse.

Impact also took all three kills he was involved in against Cloud 9 on Dr. Mundo, and Quas didn't share too well in the game against Winterfox on Fizz, only giving over 1 kill he was participated in.  Overall, Quas was least likely to give over a kill (61% of his KP was assist--he went 7/7/11 this week).

Dyrus was notably absent in team fights, only participating in 29% of his team's 31 kills.  The next lowest participation was Quas, who was involved in 60% of his team's kills.

Gamsu, from Team Dignitas.

2.  Damage dealers.  Three top laners this week gave more damage than they took: Gamsu on Rumble against CLG, Balls on Rumble against CLG (noticing a trend?), and Impact on Morgana against Gravity.  Overall, Impact was the most likely champion to give as much damage has he took across his two games.

Balls, from Cloud 9.

3.  Indestructible tanks.  In individual performance, Balls took the cake by eating 34.5k damage without dying (against Team Impulse on Maokai); he was followed by Zion Spartan, who endured 18.3k against Team Dignitas.  Overall, the most indestructible tank was Balls (13.2k damage/death), followed by Zion Spartan (11.6k), and Gamsu (10.9k).

Dyrus, from Team SoloMid.

4.  Farmers.  Dyrus overall had the best farm (no doubt due to the waves of super minions in their game against Team Liquid) at 7.7 CSM.  Next was Gamsu at 7 CSM, and then Quas at 6.8.  In individual performance, Gamsu had the highest CSM numbers with 8.8 CSM against Winterfox on Renekton.  Gamsu was also the most likely to take a jungle camp while traveling from sides of the map, netting 5.6% of his CS from the jungle.  Next was Quas at 4.96%, and then Balls at 4.3%.

Haunzter, from Gravity.

5.  Damage mitigators.  Part of staying alive is mitigating the damage that you take; one way this is accomplished is by looking at overall damage healed.  Hauntzer stands out, with an overall 38% mitigated (on Dr. Mundo and Maokai).  Next was Avalon at 31% (on Maokai and Sion--although, well over half of that came from his game on Sion, where he died 5 times), and finally Impact at 28% (on Morgana and Dr. Mundo).

Zion Spartan, from Counter Logic Gaming.

6.  Warders.  Some top laners stand out because of the vision control that they contribute to the team--and with the new buffs to the Greater Stealth Totem, it's much easier for top laners to contribute to the vision war.  Zion Spartan leads this category, with .76 wards per minute.  2nd was Quas with .75, and 3rd Gamsu with .66.  Zion Spartan is especially good at utilizing the trinket ward, since he spent around 4.6% of his total gold on trinkets, but managed to place an average of 30 wards per game.