At the bottom of this article is a list of games between LCK and NALCS which included the use of Malphite. There were no games from LPL and EULCS in which Malphite was played. The links on the players provide their match history for their runes, masteries, and builds while the game links are links to the game in which they were played.

Above are team compositons played with Malphite. Blue represents a win and red represents a loss.

Above are team compositions played against Malphite in respective order to the list. Blue represents a win and red represents a loss.

Lately the current meta has been called the meta of the top laner by LCK caster MonteCristo, citing that picks such as Fiora, Gangplank, and sometimes Yasuo stating that this meta rewards top laners for getting ahead of their opponents and creating map pressure through split pushing. Aside from a the aforementioned champions not many surprises have come out of the top lane but shy of Malphite. I say that Malphite is a surprise pick because Malphite’s last buffs were on patch 5.11 and the earliest Malphite seen in the LCK was from the KOO Tigers who played Malphite on patch 5.15, well after the balance changes to Brutal Strikes (W) which came on 5.12.

This season has been the season of Maokai. Picked all across every region with many good results, Maokai has been a staple in the champion pools of many top laners. SKT MaRin having an amazing season on Maokai ending the season 24-0 and even expressed his confidence in a trash talk video on playing Maokai after his nerfs on patch 5.17. Although what brought Malphite into champion pools had less to do with Maokai’s nerfs and more to do with the bot and mid lane meta.

Game 1

Some interesting details about this match-up KOO Smeb vs NJF Duke is that Smeb purchases a Ruby Crystal as his first item which is atypical of most Malphite players, who usually start with flask. Smeb also chooses to max Seismic Shard (Q) which allows him to harass Duke’s Gnar but lacks the pushing power of maxing of Ground Slam (E). Smeb’s priority in abilities begins to show its weakness as he gets pushed in constantly and falls behind in minion kills during the first 10 or so minutes of the game.

Despite his seemingly strange choice in item and ability priority he reaches a respectable level of strength and tankiness, with a Bami’s Cinder, Glacial Shroud, and a Blasting Wand, during the mid-game in which KOO baits NJF into a choke.

NJF Duke goes for a split pushing build with the Hexdrinker whereas Malphite builds a Abyssal Scepter first. Bami’s Cinder assists Malphite in pushing against Gnar due to the fact that Smeb prioritized Seismic Shard first. Despite this suboptimal ability maximization Smeb is able to hold his own against Gnar and it is only during a lane swap with Malphite into the bottom lane that Gnar begins to whittle down the tier 2 top turret.

The game winning moment is occurs during a engage onto KOO by NJF. While Duke teleports first he arrives in a distant position compared to Smeb as shown in the image below. Malphite is able to follow up on Viktor’s damage onto NJF Pure and Watch, disabling them for the kill. While Malphite did contribute to this fight it is more of a case of a good teleport decision rather than a good champion pick from KOO.

Gnar’s teleport is represented in orange and Malphite’s in the red.

Game 2

This game is the third in the series of KOO vs NJF and features a blind pick. Something noteworthy from the pick and ban phase is that KOO’s draft looks to have predicted the Azir pick from NJF as KOO banned it in the previous games. KOO places their top and bottom lane for a standard set up but NJF initiates the swap. While Smeb was given the blue buff he started with a Null-Magic Mantle against Ohq’s Ashe. Smeb then advances his build to quickly obtain an Abyssal Scepter as NJF will have swap Shen back into the top lane once dragon becomes a more possible objective.

KOO sets the pace of the game when they dive NJF Duke by sending all five members into the top lane. The game becomes an uphill battle from there as NJF takes two towers and a dragon for Duke and top lane tier one turret. While this is appears to be a poor tactical choice from KOO it shows the strength of the Malphite pick when coupled with Ashe and the pick potential it demonstrates. Another example is in the bottom lane in which KOO recognizes Shen’s determination to split push. Sending Malphite and Ashe they are able to halt Shen’s advance into the bottom lane.

KOO really get rolling when they start the dragon at around 24 minutes into the game. Smeb initiates with a great Unstoppable Force (R) from a flank and in coordination with Kuro’s Yasuo they take out Azir and quickly deal with NJF Ohq. The rest of a game is simply great by-the-book play from KOO chaining CC and placing great walls with Yasuo and Braum and another great flank from Smeb.

Game 3

Game three features a game from the NALCS with TL vs TIP. Unfortunately this game is mostly a farm-fest for both top laners with Tl coming out ahead. Sion’s mix of magic damage, physical damage, and low mana costs made it hard for Malphite to itemize well and lane against him as we can see throughout the game that Malphite is struggling to keep up in CS.Something that TIP Impact does differently here from KOO Smeb is the prioritizing of defensive stats. Impact goes for a full tank build with a team composition that does not boast a lot of damage as Rush on Elise goes for a Cinderhulk build and Lulu’s primary goal being to protect Kog’maw. Without any true damage threats on TIP, TL is able to walk all over them and force them off of objectives. It also appears that Impact only used Unstoppable Force once during this game.

This game showed Malphite’s weakness in a low damage team composition while also being a low damage threat himself. Unable to start a winning fight and unable to split-push against Sion, Malphite was unable to contribute much in this game.

Game 4

This is the last game in a best of 5 with C9 and GV. GV picks a team composition which is organized around fighting and picking their fights. C9 on the other hand has a more defensive composition that wants to get to objectives first but also does well in engaging and defending their backline. A major difference in GV’s team composition and a composition in our game 2 is that KOO was able to give Yasuo the pressure he needed to succeed against the combined pressure from Elise and Azir. GV Keane is punished in lane by C9 Incarnati0n and GV having the weaker 2v2 are unable to get more resources onto Keane.

A huge teamfight in the top lane starts with a 2v2 of bottom laners resulting in a large advantage for C9. What can be observed as the deciding factor here is when GV Keane is unable to land his Chum the Waters (R ) onto C9 Sneaky’s Ashe as well as GV Hauntzer holding his ultimate. This forces GV to prioritize C9 Balls on Shen and while Balls does go down Sneaky remains alive and is able to apply slows onto Fizz. Using so many resources killing Shen and Keane’s chasing Balls over the wall left him vulnerable to Azir and Elise coming up the river. Had Malphite initiated onto Janna and Ashe GV could have potentially gotten both flashes.

Had GV followed in KOO’s footsteps and targeted Balls during his solo laning against Hauntzer things might have turned out differently as we can see in the clip that Balls saves LemonNation from death and does the same for Sneaky in a jungle fight. Had more pressure been put onto Balls there may have been a better chance for GV to win this game.

Game 5

Game 2 of a best of 5 with KT vs SKT of the summer playoffs finals. SKT has picked Fizz against Maokai in the past and shown Fizz’s strength in that match-up. KTs early Fizz pick looked to be a challenge to SKT to pick Maokai into the match-up but SKT picks Malphite here instead. Both team swap lanes putting the solo laners in the bottom lane and while Fizz has an easy time against Maokai we see Ssumday struggle a bit during the early game being pushed in and harassed quite heavily.

A huge fight breaks out near the mid-lane after a gank on Faker and MaRin is able to get an absolutely great Unstoppable Force onto four members of KT. This teamfight sets the pace for the rest of the game as SKT is able to ace KT. While MaRin was able to get a high impact ultimate it is also due to the skilled play of SKT that this fight was able to turn so much in their favor. Unlike Smeb MaRin prioritized an armor centric build against a top Fizz but even without an early damage item MaRin was able to deal significant damage to KT.

Game 6

This game represents one of the more important match-ups in regards to what we may see on the world stage. Fiora has become a strong pick and Malphite has been a champion picking up some momentum, how the two of them do in lane can be telling about what may happen in future match-ups.

Although Malphite scales well with armor, is naturally tanky, and slows attack speed JAG Trace begins to lose trades and gets pushed back during the early game. Trace dies to a gank and Fiora receives the kill, starting the sort of snowball and split push this meta has become and this shows as at 15:18 Fiora is 30 CS above Malphite. But without the right ward coverage NJF Duke dies to a gank from Kennen. With the kind of help that Trace is receiving they are able to kill Duke once again but despite dying in a bad dive Duke obtains a heavy CS lead over Trace and eventually takes the tier 2 tower.

JAG showed NJF that they had the tools to deal with the Fiora split-push but also the pressure of Gangplank who was a ticking time bomb that game. JAG GBM farmed very well and was dealing a lot of damage. Able to assist Trace with his ultimate once Malphite could trade more evenly with Fiora they were able to shut out the split push strategy. NJF Ohq unable to land Enchanted Crystal Arrows onto priority targets and JAG’s accumulated gold lead in combination with dragon stacks, what ended the game for NJF was a great baron steal by GBM leading to kills and a push for the nexus.

This game showed that Malphite has some trouble dealing with Fiora in the early stages of the game but it did not help that Trace rushed for a Frozen Heart as his first item as opposed to a Sunfire Cape which many other Malphite players have built early or at least prioritized the Bami’s Cinder for wave control. NJF also did not supply Duke with the appropriate amount of vision for Fiora to push up as far as she did.

Game 7

Taking a look at the most recent history of LCK games teams on the red side have historically banned Kalista but in this game of JAG vs NJF, JAG chooses to leave Kalista open. While this can be telegraphed as a bait for NJF to pick Kalista they show their lack of preparation for the open pick on Kalista as they are also forced to pick it less they hand Kalista over to JAG. This is a telling moment for LCK teams as teams who are prepared for Kalista won’t be so pressured into taking her as a first pick. Were NJF ready with a strategy for Kalista they might not have picked it into a Malphite + Ashe, a combo in which we’ve seen from the KOO Tigers and one that saw great success in that game.

This game is the first time we see Malphite vs Maokai match-up and it is one that does not go so well for Malphite who is more armor centric against the magic damage heavy Maokai. It is only after a bad dive from NJF Duke that Malphite is able to get some breathing room. While Duke is able to keep Trace on his toes even after dying in lane, Trace is able to get a teleport gank turning an aggressive move from NJF into a kill for Trace. After obtaining both a Specter’s Cowl and a Bami’s Cinder Malphite is able to trade evenly if not favorably against Maokai.

Simply having Malphite is enough of a threat that pushes teams away and forces them into less than optimal map movements as shown here in a mid-lane oriented push from JAG which results in a free base tower in the mid-lane. Once again Malphite is able to display his powerful engage with Unstoppable Force, able to catch enemies out of position on command, something which was extremely valuable in quickly closing this game in a fight in NJF’s base.

Curiously enough Trace always prioritized hitting multiple targets who were taking the most damage or enemies in the position to take the most damage from his team rather than always gunning for Ohq on Kalista but in that regard Kalista was fairly weak this game.

Game 8

In game 3 of JAG vs NJF, JAG chooses to pick Malphite once again in their second rotation. The casters mention that picking Malphite denies NJF Duke from picking carry top laners similar to SKT vs KT in game 2 in which Ssumday blind picked Fizz and was counter picked by MaRin on Malphite. This composition is similar to JAG’s composition in game one, favoring the initiation from Ashe and Malphite.

JAG gives Sivir the solo lane against Malphite in the top lane in order to get her to a fast level 6, potentially giving NJF the opportunity to make plays earlier in the game. Despite this lane swap NJF falls behind after poor invade in the JAG red buff. This culminates to a fight in the mid-lane which is promptly started with a Unstoppable Force after forcing the flash summoner spell Viktor and a wombo-combo from JAG. As said by the casters, Malphite is an extremely strong ‘go’ button and with layers of armor he is able to tank the turret for long periods of time.

Game 9

CJE ban Malphite against JAG game 1 but spend their bans on mid-lane champions in game 2. Despite doubts about JAG and their seeming over reliance on Malphite, JAG is able to win game 1. As mentioned earlier when teams are prepared for Kalista they are less likely to first pick it when they are playing on the blue side. JAG first picks Elise over Kalista, giving the Kalista + Alistar lane to CJE.

JAG shows their ability to deal with Kalsita in a bottom lane team fight, where other champions would be forced to let Kalista walk away Malphite locks down Kalista low enough for his team to kill her. Much of the rest of the game is methodical play from JAG but also poor play from CJE Ambition who was caught in the mid-game giving JAG an opportunity to get Baron.

Game 10

JAG picks a Viktor + Malphite combo which works together very well chaining the Gravity Field (W) with Unstoppable Force. Gravity Field’s stun activates once enemies are within the AOE for 1.5 seconds and Unstoppable Force’s knock-up lasts for 1.5 seconds, perfectly layered the two abilities can total for up to 3 seconds of stun.

To stunt the lead Fiora can gain from the match-up against Malphite JAG targets KT Ssumday with a gank. With the pressure placed on Fiora, Trace is able to do better in this game against KT than he did against NJF. JAG looks to be doing well during a team-fight in which Ssumday is CC chained into death. Fiora proves persistent as KT Ssumday is able to slowly accumulate a gold lead and begins the split-push once again. To break the split-push JAG Trace tries to initiate onto KT Nagne on Azir but is unable to land it. JAG is able to win a stalemate in the mid-lane with a good ultimate onto Azir. The end come the game comes from a teamfight at dragon which the casters highlight JAG seemingly indecisive call to fight or kite back, as soon as Vayne goes down the teamfight is lost for them as KT takes the game.

This game shows how Malphite can be used to shut down carry top laners and to stunt the split push from Fiora. While JAG had the majority of the control this game they lose it at the very end. It appeared that Trace’s last use of Unstoppable Force, while landing on multiple members of KT, did not have the impact they needed as there was not enough follow up. Viktor works incredibly well with Malphite but was not in range to follow up, leading to some missed opportunities and the loss.

Game 11

Perhaps feeling as though KT is skilled at playing around Malphite, JAG opts to pick Maokai instead in game 4 of the series. While we saw Trace having some trouble in the 1v1 lane back in game 7, Ssumday seems to fare very well in the Malphite vs Maokai match-up. Given jungle help KT is able to kill Maokai. Things get enough worse for JAG Trace after a lost teamfight as he dies in the top lane.

This game shows a good example of the type of pressure Malphite creates just by holding onto the ultimate. In a teamfight at dragon we can see that JAG Pilot is wary of walking forward in order to deal damage as the fight starts as he knows that Unstoppable Force is still available for KT.

Strengths and Weaknesses

What we can see in the images above is that mid and bot lane picks are largely immobile champions and while this has been a trend for several patches few teams have picked Malphite during the time in which these picks were seen. Many of the mid lane picks have been dubbed as control mages, mages who excel at clearing waves, controlling the map through pressure, obtaining farm, and scaling into the late game for those big 5v5 fights around objectives. Malphite serves as an initiator that takes advantage of these control mages who want to farm and control the map by providing a safe and reliable engage onto these types of champions whereas Gnar, Fizz, Maokai, and Shen may have a harder time breaking the farming stalemate.

With so much riding on these carries in the mid and bot lane Malphite has become a strong pick against these less mobile champions. With the inclusion of the teleport summoner spell Malphite is able to flank and catch the backline. In addition Malphite is unsurprisingly good with AOE magic damage from his mid-laner. Both Oriana,Viktor, and Gangplank displayed these kinds of synergy when played with Malphite.

When Malphite misses or doesn’t have his ultimate he is incredibly weak compared to other top picks as shown in game #10 so naturally champions that have the ability to dodge or block Unstoppable Force will punctuate this weakness further. Malphite also has a many losing match-ups against top picks and will require some assistance to become self sustaining. This either forces the team with Malphite to apply pressure on the lane, opening up the rest of the map to pressure, or force the Malphite player to play a back seat and try their best to survive the lane which risks the enemy top-laner getting too far ahead for the team to deal with.

Going into Worlds

It has been a long time since the LCK regionals which were not played on the juggernaut patch. Since then we have seen the ups and downs of Garen, Darius, Mordekaiser, and Skarner throughout solo queue and on streams. In addition to this even more time has passed since the KOO Tigers played in the summer season playoffs where the split-pushing top laner meta was just beginning to emerge. The qualities of a split-pusher generally encompass the ability to win most duels, requiring one or more champions to stop them, the ability to clear waves well or with a core item, and the ability to deal significant damage to a tower. Of the juggernauts Darius may present the most trouble to Malphite at worlds. While Garen can still be considered strong in multiple regards his Villain mechanic is unreliable and constantly shifting throughout the game making him a less desirable pick in addition to his other problems on the competitive stage. Darius is also a challenge for Malphite in the lane due to the impending activation of Noxian Might which significantly bumps Darius ahead of the damage curve in which Malphite can deal with.

A match-up in which we have seen is the Fiora vs Malphite lane. In #10 the Jin Air Greenwings have been on a pretty hot streak making it all the way to a series against KT where Ssumday picks Fiora. Throughout the LCK regional it has been no secret that JAG has heavily defaulted to the Malphite pick for Trace. JAG picked Malphite fives times during the regional of the twelve games they played and picked Malphite fives times of the nine times in which he was available. This makes the Malphite games look a bit stacked up as JAG picked it so persistently but during their games they have showed that Malphite can be used to counter the meta favoring carry top-laners.

What we can expect

I believe we can expect Malphite from teams that will be playing against top-laners with reputations for carrying such as SKT, KT, and Fnatic as the world championship patch enables them to be that extra carry for their team. I predict that teams with Malphite will want to pick Ashe for that pick potential as we saw with the KOO Tigers in #2 in which they used the two champions to relieve map pressure on the split-pushing Shen as we can expect champions like Fiora, Riven, and Yasuo to do. I think an ideal team composition would also include Viktor, Oriana, or Gangplank who follow up well with Malphite’s Unstoppable Force. Elise or Rek’sai can apply pressure early against those teams that have carry top-laners as we saw in game #10. Has mentioned earlier Malphite can also be an answer for Kalista and as pick and ban history shows, teams tend to ban Kalista when playing on the red side. When red side teams don't ban Kalista they force blue side to either pick it or give red side Kalista and another priority pick but teams prepared for Kalista will most likely opt from first picking it.

While we have seen a lot of full tank builds on Malphite I’d like to see more damage oriented builds as well. My personal opinion is that Rod of Ages can be a good choice in certain match-ups, giving Malphite that sustain in lane as well as the stats he needs to be tanky, Rod of Ages will make him more of a threat and give him more angles to work from aside from being a press R bot.

#1 W KOO Smeb Malphite vs NJE game 2 FLAT MR BLUES vs Gnar. Regular lanes

SHARD MAX/DMG+TANK

#2 W KOO Smeb Malphite vs NJE game 3 FLAT MR BLUES vs Shen

SHARD MAX/DMG+TANK

#3 TIP Imapct Malphite vs TL game 3 STANDARD RUNES vs Sion

SLAM MAX/FULL TANK

#4 D GV Hauntzer Malphite vs C9 game 5 STANDARD RUNES vs Shen

SLAM MAX/FULL TANK

#5 W SKT Marin Malphite vs KT game 2 STANDARD RUNES vs FIZZ

SLAM MAX/FULL TANK

#6 W JAG Trace vs NJE game 1 MR/LVL BLUES vs FIORA

SLAM MAX/FULL TANK