Before heavy nerfs a few seasons ago, Olaf was a monster in either the top lane or the jungle. He went a bit too berserk though, and was treated like Irelia, and nerfed to the ground and left there to think about what he did. Well, Riot slowly added back power over many patches, and right now, Olaf is seeing some competitive again. On goldper10.com, SpyDoc has a great piece about this fan favorite, saying:
In the most recent weeks, multiple teams have brought out Olaf in the top lane with admirable success, not only as a niche pick but as a contender against other FoTM picks. While the pick drew bans as early as Week 7 in the NA LCS, the Berserker made his first top lane reappearance of the summer in Week 9. Olaf, picked by Counter Logic Gaming, proved to be a nightmare for Team 8; splitpushing, dueling, and teamfighting, trouncing the opposition in under 30 minutes. Olaf has previously drawn bans in Europe as well, however exclusively as a target ban against Reignover.
Since his reappearance, top lane Olaf has been selected four times in two weeks; twice in the NA LCS, both times by ZionSpartan, and twice in the NA Challenger Series. For comparison, in the final week of the NA LCS (tiebreakers included,) Shen was selected 5 times. Olaf’s resurgence also coincided directly with the end of the Split, leaving most teams without enough time to fully test, and use him competitive play themselves. Throughout these games, the Freljord Fighter posted a combined KDA of 5.2 (22/9/25). More stats have been collected during his resurgence, and can be seen at various points throughout the article.
As a great counter to Shen, Olaf may just be back in the pro scene, ready to ignore all crowd control and run straight at you! Read more about this bruiser here.
