Lesson 1 of 5 · 5 min
The Island
Top lane is the furthest point on the map from everything that wins the game. That one fact decides how you farm, when you fight, and why nobody is coming to help you.
// What you will be able to do
- Explain why a gank in top lane is the most expensive gank on the map
- Judge a trade by whether you can survive the follow-up, not by who won it
- Set the wave before you need it, because help arrives late in this lane
Every other lane is a short walk from an objective. Bot lane sits on top of the 
pit. Mid is thirty seconds from either. Top is the far end of the map from the , the 
spawns on your side but the fight for it happens without you, and the only thing you are close to is the enemy jungler's 
. Players call top an island as a joke about being ignored. It is not a joke, it is the constraint the whole role is built around.
| In bot lane | In top lane | So you |
|---|---|---|
| Help arrives in 15s | Help arrives in 40s, or not at all | Play the wave, not the fight |
| Dying costs the | Dying costs a wave and a plate | Can afford to lose, cannot afford to lose repeatedly |
| Two people, four hands | One person, and a jungler who is elsewhere | Own the whole lane state yourself |
| Roams are short | Roams cost you the lane | Leave only with a wave that survives without you |
- 1
Your top lane - Where you farm alone. Forty seconds from your team at best, and often nobody is coming at all.
- 2
Topside river mouth - Where your jungler enters if he comes, which is why this is the first place you
.
Why is a jungler far less likely to gank top than bot, even when the top laner is winning?
You take a good trade at level four, you land your combo, they walk away at forty percent, you are at seventy. Fifteen seconds later their jungler walks out of the tri-brush and kills you, because a trade you won is a trade that left you standing in the middle of a lane with a big wave and no cooldowns.
The fix
In top lane a trade is not finished when the health bars settle. It is finished when you are back in a position you can be ganked in and survive. Before you press anything, check the wave, if it is on their side and you are pushing, the trade you win is the one that kills you.
8:00. You are 20 HP ahead in a mirror matchup and your combo is up. The wave is four minions in their favour and slowly pushing toward you. You have not seen their jungler since the first camp.
- You are slightly ahead on health, cooldowns up
- Wave is pushing toward you, you are on the safer side
- Their jungler has been missing for 90 seconds
- Your own jungler is bot side, doing drake
- Where is the wave going to be in eight seconds, not where is it now
- Is their jungler top-side, and if you do not know, assume the answer is yes
- Do you have an escape after the combo, or only during it
- If this trade goes badly, do you lose health or do you lose the wave as well