Analysis and Opinion

Academy All-Stars: Summer 2020, Top Lane

As we catch our breath for a few weeks in the lead-up to the World Championships, I’m looking back at the LCS Academy Summer split to highlight some of the strongest performers in each position. Position by position, I’ll discuss two All Star selections and then briefly identify a couple of other players who are worth keeping your eyes on.

Today, the focus is on the Top lane.

Criteria

My criteria for being an All Star in the Academy league are:

  • Peak Performance: A high skill ceiling, with at least a few notable “pop-off” games.
  • Versatility: Ability to play multiple styles effectively.
  • Consistency: A high skill “floor”; ability to perform reasonably well even in poor showings.
  • Growth: Consistent improvement over time, both during and between splits.

The key difference between my assessment for Academy and for LCS is that in LCS I prioritize consistency and versatility more highly, while in Academy I mostly want to see peak performance and growth, while consistency and versatility are used more as “tiebreaker” considerations.

Fudge

9 Academy Standouts appearances in 9 weeks

Fudge will be the most sought-after Academy player in the upcoming offseason. He showed the highest, most consistent peaks of anyone in the league, carrying Cloud9 Academy to a second title despite the team’s bot lane taking a hit after K1ng, the best Bot laner in Academy in Spring, was forced to sit out due to visa issues. With even more weight on his shoulders, and a much bigger target on his back, Fudge stepped up to the challenge, became the central figure of his team, and delivered on the expectations.

For the most part, Fudge plays a heavy strong side role, with the highest counterpick rate in Academy in the summer split (82% in the regular season!) and a high-pressure champion pool. But he doesn’t need to be strong side to perform well; he played Vladimir, Gangplank, and Mordekaiser in three of the games against TSM Academy in the Finals (contributing to his low playoffs GXD10) and was just as good. And in Spring, he served well on Ornn duty in plenty of games.

Fudge’s growth curve has impressed: he had an impressive rookie split in the OPL in Summer 2019, earned second-team Academy All-Star in Spring 2020 in his first split in North America, and played even better in Summer 2020 to claim his first-team spot. Fudge could slot into an LCS roster pretty seamlessly; the question is whether his contract terms with Cloud9 will allow him that chance.

ZionSpartan

9 Academy Standouts appearances in 9 weeks

ZionSpartan is the most veteran player featured in this article. Given my focus on growth and potential, that might seem a little odd, especially if you didn’t watch much Academy this year. But in fact, ZionSpartan has been growing a lot, especially as a leader.

He convincingly won his lane, with the second-highest GXD10 among starting Top laners and a 44% First Blood rate—by far the highest of any Top laner—while carrying his team with the third-highest DPM and DMG%. More impressively, though, he led his team’s macro play with diligent wave management and rotational play, showing up in the right place at the right time and wrangling his teammates around objectives. His coach, Barento “Razleplasm” Mohammed, told me, “Darshan really became an in-game leader that showed a great ability to take in feedback. [He] greatly understood his matchups, made it clear for the team what to expect, and was excellent at building plans.” That kind of leadership is uncommon from a Top laner.

There are a few Top lane slots opening up in the LCS for 2021, and ZionSpartan is a free agent. At the very least, he has earned himself a few tryouts.

Other Top Laners of Note

Other Top laners worth mentioning include Dhokla and FakeGod. Dhokla had a good Summer as a strong-side Top, while FakeGod was usually relegated to the weak side but performed well in that role. (I’ll have a lot more to say about FakeGod in some other coverage later this offseason!)