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With her popularity in China and Korea, it was only a matter of time until top lane Morgana made her way to the Rift in the LCS regions. In Week 6, she saw two appearances up North, both of which led to wins for the squads running her.
Team Liquid's Diego "Quas" Ruiz pulled her out against Counter Logic Gaming, and his performance earned him a huge -- and rather support-esque -- KDA of 1/1/16. Lolesports sat down with the top laner to find out exactly what Morgana can bring to the top lane.
MEETING MORGANA
Interestingly, Quas wasn't originally impressed by the Fallen Angel. "[Morgana is] something I've experimented with in the past, but haven't really found much success with until recently," he said. However, he was sold when Team Impulse used it to great effect against them in scrims. "They played it in a 2 vs. 1 and were really strong with it. It's got safe lane-pushing strategies, so I decided to adopt it for our team."
With hypercarry player Yuri "KEITH" Jew starting in the AD carry role, Team Liquid and Quas knew they needed a champion who could keep his Jinx safe while she spits out damage. "The thing that makes top lane Morgana work is her Black Shield. She has a lot of utility with that. Even if you're behind, if you're maxing that second, you'll have that for your carries in teamfights," he says. "Even though you're never going in on teamfights, you can always counter-engage with her [ultimate] and [Zhonya's Hourglass]. She's a counter-initiation champion. You're not going to be a Gnar jumping, it's the opposite. If they have a Vi or something, you can provide some protection for your team."
The Shield wasn't just useful for protecting KEITH's Jinx, though. It was just as effective on Jae-hoon "FeniX" Kim's Zed. "We were definitely talking about Shielding the Zed," he said. "I don't play Zed, so I don't know when he wants to go in and kill someone. So, he always told me to Shield him, he'd go in, and get an assassination off. Braum couldn't do anything to help their carries."
With Shields landing on their damage dealers, Team Liquid was able to set themselves up for victory in the tough CLG matchup.
THE FLEX PICK
Until recently, Morgana was primarily seen in the support role, with an occasional appearance up mid. Now, however, she's become viable in all three lanes, allowing for some Champion Select mind games.
Quas is fully aware of this, saying, "Most teams counterpick it because they think it's going to go support. For example, in the TiP game, they picked Annie into it, but then TiP rotated it top and picked Leona, which is a counter to Annie. In the CLG game, we expected the Braum pick, which is fine against Morgana, but we like Janna better into it, so we took Morgana top. That way, we can still protect the hypercarries and secure late game teamfights."
That doesn't mean she changes from a support-style champion to a carry, though. In fact, Quas says he prefers to play her as more of a support role. That means he maxes out his damage-dealing Dark Binding last in order to put more points into Black Shield early. "I like to have the base protection of Black Shield -- which is really high -- and have cooldown reduction boots with another CDR item," he says. "Maxed out, it's got a nine second cooldown, which is pretty efficient. It has a four second downtime. That's the safest way to make use of her. If you max [Dark Binding] and you miss it, you've got a pretty weak Shield. I go for the safe option and max the Shield, because it's the safer option."
Even though he likes the safety that top lane Morgana provides for his team, Quas says he'd prefer to play something with slightly more aggressive capabilities. "I think she's a very safe champion, but I like going ham with Kennen or Fizz better," he laughs. Forever the team player, he says he'll choose whatever the rest of Team Liquid feels will bring them the win. "I'll play if we get her and want to rotate her top instead of support, but it's up to the team."
Keep your eye on Lolesports for more innovative picks and if you missed Quas throwing down on top lane Morgana, check out the spoiler-free VODs page.
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Source: http://na.lolesports.com/articles/quas-top-lane-morgana-brings-them-pain