The three stealth gods of the top lane: whoever masters these heroes well will determine the KPL championship.

September 7th is the day of the 2025 KPL Summer Split finals. Who will take home the title? It might be the top lane players’ performance that ultimately decides the winner! And among these three heroes, the better the player, the higher the probability of their team securing the championship!

In fact, it’s not just about the KPL arena. By the end of Season 40, if you can master these three heroes, reaching King rank, even King 50 stars, won’t be a problem!

Charlotte

When mentioning Charlotte, many people initially think she lacks lane control early on, has to stack her passive, and her skills can’t engage in team fights effectively. Indeed, Charlotte is weak early game, but that changes after level 2! After level 4, combined with this season’s Sky Phoenix set, Charlotte’s power level rises significantly. Her invincibility, knock-up, mobility, damage reduction, slow, and healing make her extremely well-rounded in all aspects.

Her healing rivals that of Kuangtie, her mobility surpasses Kuangtie’s, and her ability to dive onto carries is leagues ahead. As for the passive stacking issue, the old Charlotte was indeed hard to use, but since her passive was changed last year to decay gradually instead of all at once, stacking it has become much easier.

Though Charlotte relies heavily on skill accuracy, the combination of Sky Phoenix, Black Cleaver, cooldown boots, and 5% cooldown reduction from runes perfectly caps her cooldown at 40 seconds. At full cooldown reduction, Charlotte’s skills are so fast in team fights that you can barely keep up. Recommended build: cooldown boots (or resistance boots), Shadow Battle Axe, Pure Sky Phoenix, Ice Grip, Phoenix, Bloodthirsty Fury!

Shadow

Shadow is considered a strong top lane hero but definitely not overpowered. This season, Shadow’s strength ranks around Tier 1 or 1.5! Using Thornmail instead of brain, and Tenacity instead of thinking, it’s still a very viable pick for climbing ranks. You can treat this hero like Dark Trust, but with higher burst, better mobility, and faster tower pushing than Dark Trust.

Shadow can keep Dark Trust from joining team fights forever. Although Dark Trust is good at tanking, Shadow’s tanking is average, but his threat to squishy targets is very high. Once core items are complete, as long as his second skill hits, combined with the damage boost from his first and third skills, he can instantly eliminate full-health squishies.

Cao Cao

KPL viewers have likely noticed that Cao Cao has become a must-pick top lane hero in peak matches! Yet many players still doubt the strength of the new Cao Cao. His strong poke, sustain, and triple slither mobility make him dominant this season. Don’t play new Cao Cao like the old version; now his ultimate ignores health bars completely. His triple long slither combined with flash allows him to reach any target he wants in team fights. Build: cooldown boots, Shadow Battle Axe, Pure Sky Phoenix, Ice Grip, Phoenix, End of Days!

Mastering just one of these three heroes will easily get you a gold medal! Climbing to King rank has never been simpler!