The Tank From Top Lane: A Strategy Breakdown of Ssumday's Top Lane

During the last Spring Split in the NALCS, Team Dignitas made a great run towards the end of the split, even at one point hitting an amazing 6-game win streak. A big part of the team's success is how the team was coordinated and making things happen around the map as a team. One of the biggest parts of the team is the frontline, which enables the carries to position comfortably and initiates the big fights to win footing and objective control.

In this article, we'll take a look at how Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho plays tanks in the top lane and the steps he takes to ensure the team's success.

 

Laning

In lane, the goal for a tank is to push the wave up and jam it into the opponent.  Most of the time against another tank in the top lane, it becomes a battle of who can manage their cooldowns and minion wave better. Because both players will be relatively tanky, the health advantage when trading blows comes from minion damage and Corrupting Potion management.  This is why it becomes easier to duel your opponent in the minions if you're pushed up. 

To get the lane exactly where he wants it, Ssumday will very often start Corrupting Potion in order to beat his opponent back, get an optimal back timing in, and come back with double Doran's Rings to help with his mana consumption. 

Here's an example VS Gragas. 

Ssumday is playing Nautilus, and uses his Corrupting Potion start to bully the Gragas. Unfortunately, a gank comes in from the enemy team. Unfazed, Ssumday sticks to his guns and grabs a Doran's Ring.

Gragas, after getting a gank in, decides to get another Doran's Ring. This helps Gragas with mana and waveclear, but Ssumday utilizes his Corrupting Potion to actually keep the Gragas at bay. The Doran's Ring on Nautilus helps with mana sustain and the boots help with barrel dodging to keep a good health pool. This way, the lane continues without incident. 

Seeing a good back opportunity, Ssumday goes to base and picks out his second Doran's Ring to begin jamming waves again. This time, he's got a Control Ward to scout out the river and prevent another gank. The plan goes on!

Against someone like Fiora, Ssumday opts for a similar strategy.

This time, however, Ssumday recognizes that there is going to be no skillshot dodging and opts for a Cloth Armor over boots. 

Nautilus' waveclear with Double Doran's Rings is unmatched by the Fiora and when she tries to dance in to harass, the Corrupting Potion and minion wave are able to trade back any damage she might deal. Fiora has just been forced to back from losing trades and actually Teleports back into the lane. Look at how pushed the wave is.

This frees Ssumday up to move around the map and secure kills for his team:

Against Rumble, Ssumday is aware that he's going to get pushed in.  Rumble is a cooldown based champion and will win in a war of resource attrition. 

To avoid this, he starts Doran's Ring on Maokai and waits for a gank from Chaser. Rumble pushes in as expected and the two set up a beautiful gank to put Ssumday ahead:

Looking good with the double Doran's Rings early! Getting a Control Ward will also negate any ganks from the enemy team to win the lane back through ganks.

Midgame

The items are stacking up and the meaning of the word "tank" starts to change from "tough" to "unkillable". Also, at this point in the game, many of the carries are starting to find their footing, but are still very fragile. A "tank" at this point in the game can do a considerable amount of damage.

Ssumday always maximizes this part of the game as hard as he can. In many of his buildpaths, he finishes his first item to deal against his lane opponent, and then rushes into a Sunfire Cape. This allows him to secure his own tower, jam the wave up (which is only possible with his tankiness), and then rotate out when the opponent team commits resources to stopping him. 

In fighting objectives and Teleporting, there are two types of Teleports that Ssumday utilizes. 

Defensively, the rarer case, Ssumday will come in from behind his team and peel off the divers from his carries. This gives the sense that the team is bundled up to protect its carries while outputting as much damage as possible.

The more aggressive and the strategy usually chosen by Team Dignitas, is the flank Teleport.

When a fight looks good and the team is in position, Ssumday will flank the entire enemy team. This prevents the enemy team from backing out of the fight. If they decide to turn around and counter-engage on Team Dignitas, Ssumday can rush in and disrupt the flow of the enemy team with crowd control and draw the enemy team's attention by force. 

Look at that beautiful teamfight set-up. Flanking and damage absorption aren't the only parts of a tank's kit. Disruption and properly using crowd control is a huge part of it. If the situation calls for it, Ssumday will jump in by himself sometimes to make a play happen. Look at this Baron fight for example. 

Chaser knows that the Baron is low. The enemy team knows that Chaser knows, so Jarvan IV initiates over the wall and Malzahar suppresses with Nether Grasp. Ssumday comes in with a clutch knock-up to enable Chaser to come in and Smite Baron away. What a clean steal! And he even gets away at the end! 

Late Game

By this point in the game, everyone is getting dangerously close to full build and any big objectives or teamfights might seal the deal.  The "tank" role is very similar to a brick. You throw yourself into the middle of the team and deal as much damage as possible before getting bursted and becoming a paperweight.  It is your job to make sure that your carries are left alone and free to unleash themselves on the enemy team. 

Ssumday really shows his presence in every fight. He initiates onto priority targets and sticks onto them, Flashing forward to proc his Courage of the Colossus and absorb even more damage. This is especially important because if a tank shows this much pressure, enemies who rely on positioning are never going to be on point. This gives your team an edge and they are free to deal with the enemy team and enemy carry separately. If there's someone you know that you need to isolate to win the game, save your cooldowns and summoner spells to punish them if they step too far forward. 

Check out the zoning at the bottom of the teamfight:

Ssumday and Keane both rush to blow up the enemy carry, Sivir. At this point in the game, Sivir's entire kit comes together to shred entire teamfights if not properly dealt with. Ssumday recognizes this and immediately makes Sivir his priority. It is fortunate that Keane was able to deal with Jarvan IV at the beginning of the fight very quickly with one combo and was able to make use of Ssumday's disruption to erase the Sivir and go on to annihilate the rest of the enemy team. 

Even if the carries don't come to your rescue immediately, remember that you are still the tank. That early game of getting ahead through bullying and tanking up to become virtually unkillable in the midgame still shines through. Look at how Ssumday creates enough pressure to turn a Baron fight into a 4v3 in favor of Team Dignitas.

By zoning out the enemy ADC/Support combo, the rest of the team is able to run through the enemy team and survive with Baron Buff.  Ssumday even survives by Flashing out towards the end of the fight. 

The tank role is something that Ssumday expertly pulls off in every situation. Although the goals of the tank are the same every game, Team Dignitas greatly benefits from at every point in the game. Making an impact and carrying through the tank role is difficult, but hopefully this strategy breakdown of Ssumday's plays and focuses helps your understanding of top lane tanks and how they function.