League of Legends history has always had a constant rule: The position of the best top laners always belongs to Koreans.
Marin
There are many proofs to show Marin’s greatness, but the only MVP title of the World Championship for a top laner is the clearest evidence.The whole peak of Marin’s career was only encapsulated in the 2015 season, and it was also just enough time for the former T1 captain to turn himself into a “10 point measure” for this position.
Normally, map control will be responsible by 3 positions: Jungle, Mid lane and Support. Before Marin appeared, the top lane was usually known only for sharing the burden of resisting damage for the entire team, in the context of the junglers at that time often preferred the form of damage or open teamfight.
But Marin is different, in addition to completing the task of winning or drawing in every lane solo, he is also the shot caller of the team, and the ability to use Teleport “match every frame” of Marin practically is a result of exceptional talent in sweeping the map and reading the situation extremely well. n short, Marin of 2015 converges all the comprehensive elements, even surpassing the perfect for a player in the top position.
TheShy
TheShy was once referred to be a “Top Faker”, that was enough to understand his rank in this position. Contrary to the other 2 names, TheShy represents the modern play style of League of Legends in the past 3 years: Works independently and prefers face-to-face skill matches.
The skillful individual technique allows the IG‘s player to play every match, even using champions to go against the meta. The peak of TheShy’s career is clearly in the second half of the 2018 season – early 2019, when he and IG were crowned world champions and won the LPL championship cup.
Compared to Marin, TheShy lacks the necessary stability, but his biggest difference is that the future is still wide ahead, and IG is not in pursuit of their brightest star playing stably. Just need to achieve a drop of style and agressive play, it is entirely possible that this player can carry IG alone.
Looper
Next to Marin or TheShy, it seems that Looper is a less popular name. It’s easy to understand because Samsung Galaxy White’s superstar team won the 2014 World Championship with many outstanding names, like Mata or Dandy.
Looper’s play is also somewhat about resistant and ready to make the background for the team to shine. But because of this, the status of the former SSW player was judged correctly, because he was the one who raised the top lane playstyle into an art form.
Like Marin, Looper only really maintained his peak state for only one season, but that was enough for fans to see a different tanker model with unexpected champions, which Singed is the pinnacle of Looper.