With today being the final day of the LCK Spring Split and Nongshim RedForce having nothing to play for but pride, the two-win squad dug deep into its bag of tricks for one last chance at an upset win over the red-hot T1.
In game one of their final Spring series, Nongshim put top laner DnDn on LeBlanc, marking the first time in nearly 10 years any LCK top laner had selected the champion.
The last time top lane LeBlanc had been picked in the LCK, Incredible Miracle top laner Sylph chose the champion in July of 2013—coincidentally into SK Telecom top laner Impact, who was also playing Kennen in that game.
To make the pick even spicier, DnDn built full attack damage on the traditionally ability power-focused champion, pivoting from LeBlanc’s usual build. Nongshim ended up losing the League match (and the series), but DnDn’s LeBlanc top pick turned heads regardless. Could the pick actually have some weight to it?
Is LeBlanc a viable top laner?
In today’s Nongshim-T1 faceoff, DnDn’s LeBlanc was selected in the Nongshim’s first pick-ban rotation in an attempt to throw T1 off during the rest of the draft. It wasn’t until Nongshim picked the Lucian/Nami bottom lane combo with their last two picks that it became evident that LeBlanc was heading top.
And, although the champion drew plenty of attention during champion select, T1 was able to ignore her completely during the actual game.
During the battle, T1 snowballed their lead through mid and bot lane, funneling kills into the team’s two roaming threats: jungler Oner and support Keria. Top lane was by far the quietest lane in the game; DnDn only had a 0/0/1 scoreline at 15 minutes, and only managed to finish one item, a Blade of the Ruined King.
LeBlanc, although often played in mid lane, could be compared to other ranged top lane picks like Vladimir and Jayce.
Today’s matchup pitted LeBlanc against another ranged League champion in Kennen, and although the game was slightly unorthodox due to how uninvolved top lane was in the greater scope of the game, DnDn did technically beat Zeus in the laning phase, beating him in both total gold and CS at 15 minutes.
It’s still unclear whether or not LeBlanc is a truly “viable” top laner—largely due to how small her sample size at the position is—but there could be some merit to the pick.
Why build AD on LeBlanc?
DnDn’s first item was Blade of the Ruined King, which causes your auto-attacks to deal extra damage based on your target’s health. From there, he appeared to be building his Mythic, as a Cloak of Agility and Noonquiver were both in his inventory when the game ended; two items necessary for either Kraken Slayer, Immortal Shieldbow, or Galeforce.
While LeBlanc is most notable for her burst damage potential when built as a full-AP mage, a combination of BoRK and Kraken Slayer could serve as a halfway-decent source of consistent damage for the champion via auto-attacks. In the case of Nongshim’s team composition, the team had already selected Veigar in the mid lane, who is one of the strongest sources of AP burst damage in the game. In an effort to not double up on burst damage and have multiple threats that can consistently deal damage, AD LeBlanc was picked by Nongshim. However, if your team comp needs a bursty assassin-type champion,
Unfortunately, the game didn’t go on long enough for DnDn’s master plan to unfold, as he was stuck on one completed item by the time T1 took down Nongshim’s Nexus.
In game two of the series, T1 banned LeBlanc away from Nongshim, preventing any further experimentation. The champion still has only won one game all-time in major region LoL contests; a 2019 LPL game between Suning and OMG in which Suning top laner Angel went 5/1/6, albeit with a full-AP build, according to League stats site Gol.gg.
