Top Lane: Home of the Bruisers

As the title suggests, top is where most of LoL's deadliest bruisers spend their time. If you don't know what a bruiser is, then here is a little explanation: A bruiser is a champion that can be built very tanky while at the same time being able to deal out a decent amount of damage. Champions such as Riven, Jax, and Renekton thrive in top lane 1v1 due to their survivability, and great damage output. While these champions may be excellent top lane candidates for 1v1, that does not mean that they will fit well into any team composition in ranked queue. These champions fall short of map-wide mobilization. What this means is that although they might win their lane in a game, they lack the power to compliment their team easily. \

Here is a situation: Team A is making a move on dragon, there is a 1v1 going on in top, where Shen is on Team A, and Riven is on Team B. Team B has the middle, jungle, and both bottom players begin dragon, however Team A sees this and moves to counter. At this time, it is a 4v4 as everyone has collapsed onto dragon, however Shen has his ultimate and he uses it to teleport down and Team A engages on Team B. It is now a 5v4 in Team A's favor because Riven is stuck top. This is an easy win and dragon pickup for Team A in this theoretical world.

With this demonstration it is easy to see the power of a global ability like Shen's ultimate. This is often why champions take the summoner skill, Teleport when they go to top lane, giving them that extra mobility that they need in order to join team fights from across the map.

While a map-wide presence is important, it can also be countered. Say that in our theoretical world, that the first situation is occurring, and Shen used his ultimate to get down to dragon pit to help. Riven could immediately shove his lane towards Team A's tower and begin putting damage on it while no one is top. If he is able to destroy the tower, and no one died in the dragon pit skirmish, it would be an equal trade in gold and would actually give more map control to Team B.

There is an obvious trade off between these two tactics. Having map-presence vs having push potential. Both are viable options, and each has their own advantages. It's up to the player to really decide what will be most beneficial to the team.