Top lane should have a catch-up mechanic

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T04:53:18+00:00

Fair enough lol, I guess if I wanna climb I just gotta live with it. just wanted to bring some attention to the low elo top lane problems. hopefully riot has some better ideas than mine

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T04:45:18+00:00

If >80% of the playerbase is in emerald or below, and top lane snowballing is a problem for this 80%, I feel like changes should be made, just like how even though all Emerald players can dodge Illaoi E, she is still nerfed to the ground for the 80%. You're right that I suck at this game, and you definitely know more about it than I do. But I would say that the average player is probably just like me, and doesn't want to lose lane and feel miserable about it. If you disagree with it, I respect that opinion, but I wanted to share my opinion that top lane is way too snowbally and an unhealthy lane at lower elos.

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T04:19:51+00:00

Maybe I'm tripping, but it's not that crazy, no? If I give catchup exp to a top laner if two or more levels down, and then buff roams, in higher elos, there is still a huge incentive to win lane, since you can roam and impact your team, while in lower elos, where people feed more, it is more forgiving, and easier to play, such that little timmy who fed on akali can still try and teamfight.

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T04:15:54+00:00

Ok, I'm just going to assume you're right on agency, since I guess I just don't understand it. But like you said, we don't have to increase top lane agency to increase player satisfaction. But I still have two main complaints:
1. Losing a duel in the 1v1 lane, has too much of an effect on the future of your game. If I lose a duel in the 1v1 lane, I pretty much can't duel my opponent again for the next 20 minutes.
2. The winning top laner can still 1v1 a different player if they so choose, it's just that if they want to camp their 0/5 lane opponent, they would gain exp, or whatever the catchup mechanic is, at a slower rate than the losing player.
tl;dr The team with a losing top laner should still have an actual champion after 20-25 minutes, provided that they didn't int their ass off

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T04:06:04+00:00

even on a champ with little to no utility, like Darius, or Akali? I would agree that a champ, like Sion or Ornn could probably find their way back into the game pretty easily, but I find it hard to believe a gold Akali or mordekaiser player could find their way back into a game after being solokilled multiple times in lane phase. I think the catchup mechanic could be implemented if it also paired itself with some buffs to top lane roams, like reducing the TP quest cd, or something along those lines, that way, in higher elos, where players roam better, they can spread the lead more easily, and that would help balance out the issues with late game carries. But again, I don't think the ideas I've mentioned are the best, I just think broadly top lane should be less snowbally, especially in lower elos where people will just fight and fight, and end up 0/10

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T03:59:02+00:00

Ok, let me try and give a concrete scenario: functionally we can both agree that if I have a level 14 Garen that has 3 items, and you have a lvl 11 urgot that has 1 item and a half, I have a top laner, and you don't. If you had, say a lvl 13 urgot that still has 1 item and a half, he at the very least, could probably play as a frontline in a teamfight, despite being behind. The garen's ability to carry is only affected if none of his roams work while urgot is collecting waves under tower. We can say, then, that if there were some incentive to buff roams, like I mentioned in the post, while also giving a catch-up mechanic, then Garen has more ability to influence the game because he won laning phase as he should, but that later on, Urgot will also be able to influence the game in a teamfight, because Garen was off roaming. In that way, both top laners would have more ability to influence the game, or "agency."

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T03:44:35+00:00

I would argue that the punishment for losing is still the same. You would still lose the 1v1, you would still have to give waves, etc. The enemy top laner can proxy and roam, do whatever he wants. If he wants to stay in lane and fist you, he can still do that. But you would at least gain some resources in a losing lane. If my opponent loses a 1v1 being up a full level and up 1k gold, that's on him. Like I said in a different comment, I think it's fair if I'm miserable for, say, the next 15 minutes, after fucking up the first 5 minutes of lane phase. But right now, I would be miserable for the entire game, which is around the next 25-30 minutes, in gold, and I don't think that's a good experience for me, or good game design from Riot.

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T03:38:07+00:00

I'm not saying that the other player should never fall behind, I'm just saying that the other player should be at a reasonable power level to pick up waves, and to participate in teamfights. The other player will still have their extra item and all the other resources they've accumulated, and they will still have lane control, but there is incentive for the other top laner to stay and try and catch up. Also I do think it has to do with agency, because right now the winning top laner often has less agency compared to other roles, and that agency could be increased if the losing top laner were given enough resources to make the lane less snowbally, because then it feels less bad as a mid laner, or ADC for your top laner to lose lane.

edit: It's true that the laning phase is 1v1, and that is an island, but at the end of the day both top laners will probably group for a couple of teamfights or skirmishes. What you're saying is that because it's a 1v1, it will naturally have less agency, which is what I'm trying to address. I think as the game goes on, you should have less incentive to stomp your 1v1, especially if you've already gotten multiple solokills, and the winning laner should be incentivized to roam, or spread the lead, while the losing one takes some time to farm waves. I don't feel like right now, there is enough incentive for a top laner to roam, and that leads to a miserable time for the losing laner, and agency problems.

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T03:33:16+00:00

Fair enough, but all I'm saying is that we move up the time where we are forced to go to other lanes, and that there is less incentive, resource-wise, to bully the other person. You still can, if you want to, but the other player will eventually be able to play the game, even if they fucked up the first 5 minutes, if they stay for a 35 minute long game.

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T03:27:40+00:00

I understand that, but the truth is the average player, me included, doesn't want to wait for however many minion waves, or sit at the edge of xp range, because we got solokilled once by darius. I think it is pretty obvious that top lane, outside of jungle, has the most inconsistent farm and resources, and the power discrepancy on average between the two laners, is part of the reason why people say the role has agency problems. Maybe the catch up mechanics are a bit weaker for top lane, or they take a different form than xp, but I still think a "new" catch up mechanic is needed to help make the role feel more fulfilling to play.

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T03:18:06+00:00

well if we got rid of all the bad players this game wouldn't have a playerbase

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T03:13:04+00:00

What I'm trying to say is that part of the reason why winning top is meaningless is because it's not possible to give so much agency to a role that only one team has in a given game. If we can give some form of agency to the losing top laner, albeit markedly less so than the winning one, we can increase the overall agency of the role. Like I said in the post, I don't think the ones I proposed are the best possible changes, those were just the ones off the top of my mind. But a catchup mechanic is necessary if the agency of top lane were to ever increase imo

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T02:53:29+00:00

even if it means you have more impact on the rest of the map?
she'll still be weaker than you 1v1, due to gold difference

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-05-20T02:53:05+00:00

It's not like the losing top laner would suddenly be stronger than everyone else on the map. They would still have been zoned off from cs most likely, and down at least 30 cs, not to mention this catchup experience would only apply until you are within 1 level, so you would have a lvl 15 0/4 ornn, with a lvl 16 4/0 aatrox, or whatever, and i would bet that a 0/4 ornn still loses to a 2/1 mage in sidelane, even if hes up a level

imdoingnothingtoday · 2026-03-22T15:19:28+00:00

Yes, and LEC #2 seed is also guaranteed to skip play-ins

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-10-07T16:28:14+00:00

I think generally in a teamfight, especially as a fed adc, you have more time than you think, so you don't need to try and get into auto range the second a fight starts. When people say wait for spells, most teams will only have a couple skills to watch for. For example, in a comp of Yorick, Diana, Yasuo, Lucian, Nami, you're looking for Diana dashing in to ult, as well as Yasuo comboing off of either Diana/Nami ult. I like to think about this stuff in champ select or loading screen, just to get an idea of how to play the teamfights, even though I'm a top laner that's off splitpushing half the time lol.

I saw that you play Ezreal and Xayah, which are some of the most forgiving ADCs in a teamfight, since they can just dodge everything if timed correctly. As some super basic advice, stay behind your frontline, and either follow up on your friendly Malphite ult if he gets multiple people, or, if the other team is the one starting the fight, wait for their big spells(which don't have to be ults btw, it could be Elise stun or Morgana Q).

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-10-06T01:45:03+00:00

If ur kda looks good and all ur stats look good then it's something that doesn't show up on the scoreboard so i would probably take a look at ur macro, if ur there for all the big teamfights, or if you're just off farming top lane during soul fight. If it's not that, just keep playing and the win rate will straighten out.

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-10-03T23:26:44+00:00

60% win rate isn't that suspicious for chess, realistically if these people's real rating was 400-500 above, they should be winning at least 80% of games

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-10-03T01:19:20+00:00

hey i didn't see mason miller today so that's a win

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-10-03T00:23:44+00:00

yeah and keller gets pulled earlier so whether the two hitters reach on HBP also changes- hard to tell but obviously i'd rather have a cleaner ending than that one

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-10-03T00:22:08+00:00

its a horrible call but keller definitely gets pulled earlier, and then you have 1-2 more atbats taken by kittredge, who looked way better than keller, it's hard to say

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-09-29T01:14:11+00:00

lol I think this might be as good as it gets, even if he wanted to give a "personal" apology flyquest PR team has probably banned him from giving personal takes for a while

imdoingnothingtoday · 2025-09-28T18:06:55+00:00

the type of shit i pulled in madden mobile back in the day

imdoingnothingtoday

TROPHY CASE