A niche counter pick is finally turning into LoL’s best top laner

For years, Quinn has been nothing more than a counter pick in League of Legends; a champion that’s only used whenever the enemy team has an exploitable Renekton player on their team. Lately, though, the champion has been rising through the ranks, and judging by some of her solo queue stats, you could even make the case that Quinn is the best top laner in all of LoL right now. 

In Patch 13.18, Quinn owns the highest win rate among all top lane champions in games played at Emerald rank or higher, according to LoL stats site U.gg. No other top laner outranks Quinn’s 53.83 percent win rate, and the next-highest is Akshan, who’s got a mark of 52.42 percent. Only one other champion-position combination, bottom lane Swain, has a higher win rate than Quinn top on the current patch. 

What’s most surprising about Quinn’s spot at the top of the win rate charts is the fact that she was actually nerfed in Patch 13.17, with her Blinding Assault (Q) and Vault (E) both receiving direct hits to their overall damage at all ranks. Still, Heightened Senses (W) is her go-to ability she’s always going to level first, so it’s not like her early game (where she’s the strongest) was hit all too hard. 

Our hypothesis as to why Quinn is so effective at high ranks is because of the likely fact that the game’s top players just have a better understanding of how to use Quinn as a counter pick. In the games that she’s getting played, it’s mostly against melee champions that she’s had a strong history against in the past anyway. Champions like Renekton, Darius, and Aatrox—who Quinn has always crushed—are still getting crushed by her, as each of them has thousands of games at Emerald+ with win rates against her in the low-40s, according to U.gg.  

Quinn’s status as a go-to counter pick is still very much relevant, but now, she’s also finding consistent success to back that status up. 

There are no Quinn changes slated for League Patch 13.19, so it’s possible that she will continue to be a dominant force at the top of the high-rank meta for at least a little while longer.