Another season of League of Legends pro play has ended with the conclusion of Worlds 2024 on November 2. With the Worlds meta set to Patch 14.18, certain champions were naturally expected to take over pick/ban phases due to the potential power and threat they hold. For the top lane, only a few champs truly dominated throughout Worlds 2024, serving as both priority picks and formidable counterpicks in the tournament.
Worlds 2024 Best Top Lane Picks and Counterpicks
The meta for top lane champions did not change much save for buffs to Gnar and Jax which makes them more powerful in the game. K’Sante, Renekton, Gnar, and Rumble were the ones expected to dominate the tournament, valued for their balanced damage and durability.
While it came true for Gnar and Rumble, the other two didn’t see much success in Worlds despite being among the most played top lane champions in the competition. K’Sante, who was picked for 11 games (5-6), has a 45% win rate, while Renekton with 16 games (4-12) suffered from a 25% WR.
Jax
With the buffs to his ult, Jax rapidly became the second most played champion (42 games) as well as the 7th most banned (38 games) in the tournament. He has a pretty balanced win rate of 51% (19-18), being a difficult champ to master and having a lot of viable counterpicks.
Jax is the strongest top lane champion in the meta, which definitely contributed to his high presence. He was also favored by Worlds top laners who prefer late game carries with strong split pushing abilities. His teamfight presence becomes stronger as he adds more items while he also grows into a pretty tanky duelist. Most of the games won with a Top Jax usually had great scaling or dive comps that pay off in the mid to late game.
Counterpicks for Jax
- Gragas (3-0) 100% WR – Gragas was the best counterpick for Jax this tournament, as seen in the Bilibili Gaming vs T1 Grand Final. Zeus’ Gragas was able to neutralize Jax—Bin’s best champion—properly and outscale him all throughout. Gragas’ Q can easily bully Jax even more so in the early game without his items. In the laning phase, a Jax can only try to dodge while farming or gank other lanes until they get enough items to 1v1 the Gragas.
- Rumble (4-2) 66.7% WR – Rumble has also been picked against Jax throughout Worlds and had better results. While not a hard counter, his kit works well against Jax. His reliable long range poke, passive, and shield makes him a tough opponent early on, with his E especially hard-hitting. In the mid to late game, when both of them have leveled up, his flamethrower damage can still be a big threat.
- Gnar (6-4) 60% WR – While being a scaling champ like Jax, Gnar can still consistently poke him in the early stages and come through earlier mid game compared to a late game Jax. Not slowing him down and allowing him to join teamfights will be dangerous. In HLE vs BLG quarterfinals Game 3, Bin’s Gnar outscaled Doran’s Jax pretty early, maintaining the gold and CS lead so well that even in the late game, Jax was not able to counter the Gnar effectively.
Gnar
Worlds top laners have relied on Gnar a lot this tournament, with the second highest picks (32) and a 59% WR (19-13). The buffs to his base AD was a huge factor in his Worlds presence.
He is an effective counterpick to a lot of champions and is a relatively safe blind pick. His mid to late game scaling can make him the biggest threat or game-changer in teamfights, while his split-pushing abilities are also very useful in seizing objectives. The best Top Gnar player at Worlds 2024 was WBG’s Breathe, with a 100% WR across all 6 of his Gnar picks and counterpicks.
Counterpicks for Gnar
- Rumble (3-2) 60% WR – Rumble is a good Gnar counterpick due to their scaling being nearly identical. It is hard to win against Rumble as Gnar in the early game as his Q dishes significant damage and his W deflects poke. Getting a decent lead early on can set the tone for the matchup, and when it goes mid to late game, it’ll be pretty hard for the Gnar to catch up. By then, Rumble’s ultimate will far outperform Gnar’s in teamfights.
- Jax (4-6) 40% WR – With good control over the enemy Gnar, Jax is a viable counterpick due to his Q and E. In G2 vs T1 Swiss Stage Game 2, T1 prevented BrokenBlade’s Gnar after level 6 from joining teamfights or getting ahead of Zeus’ Jax. Just ensuring that he isn’t too far behind allows Jax to turn the fight, and with a gold lead in late game, he will be crucial to dealing massive damage and surviving teamfights even with the Gnar in mega form.
Rumble
Rumble has a 57.7% WR (15-11) at Worlds 2024 and is a great pick and counterpick against a lot of top champions. This pick is most prevalent among LPL toplaners, who despite previous nerfs to Rumble have made him a staple in the domestic league.
As he is pretty much the counterpick for Jax and Gnar, there’s not a lot of champions that has consistently and effectively countered Rumble. When the rival toplaner or team outperforms a Top Rumble, it usually is because of skill and not the draft. That said, honorable mention would be given to Zeus’ Camille, who was able to contest TES 369’s Rumble in sidelane pressure and outclass it in both laning and teamfights from mid game onwards in TES vs T1 Quarterfinals Game 1.
Counterpicks for Rumble
- Galio (3-2) 60% WR – Game 1 of G2 vs WBG in the Swiss Stage set up the precedent for Top Galio cheese picks which later found huge success in FlyQuest’s drafts. BrokenBlade’s Galio did not hard-counter the Rumble, but instead played into the teamfights and turned it against WBG. Galio’s E and Q are reliable for damage during the early game. E and W during teamfights can also help prevent the Rumble from getting his ult in.
Wrapping Up
Of all champions that were played in the top lane at Worlds this year, this list contains those with high win rates and significant presence in the pick/ban phase. These champs were also who gave us some of the most goated plays, especially when in the hands of powerful wielders like Bin, Breathe, and Zeus.
Looking into these picks and counterpicks gives us insight on the drafting and game strategies of players in the pro scene and how they adapt to (or go against) the meta in Worlds 2024. The stats for each pick may not be objectively indicative of how good these champions are against each other due to the small sample size, though. What we can say for sure is that in the recently concluded tournament, these were the picks that allowed us to see high levels of pro play from the best toplaners in the scene.
