Gangplank

Forget everything you know about the modern version: in this mode Gangplank is a fighter with no barrels and no chain detonation. Parrrley is an instant shot, short ranged but far longer than his sword, and it hands you bonus gold every time it finishes a target. The champion lives on that button: he farms from range, he pokes, and he funds his build at the same time.

Everything else is pure utility. Remove Scurvy strips every crowd control effect on you and restores health, one of the very few built-in cleanses in the mode. Raise Morale hands attack damage and movement speed to your whole team, and Cannon Barrage reaches any point on the map.

His real strength is tempo. Parrrley has a very short cooldown and a manageable cost, so you never miss a ranged minion, you bank coins nobody else collects, and you keep constant pressure without ever stepping into your opponent's range. Add a built-in cleanse: compositions relying on one lockdown to delete you lose half their plan, and Cannon Barrage swings fights you aren't standing in.

The flaw is structural. Gangplank has no way to reach a target: no dash, no charge, no reliable slow. He loses most honest duels against fighters with a gap closer, and his passive poison does not make up the difference. Without an item lead he becomes a slow carry the enemy team can simply ignore.

Your lane is about never trading in melee. Take every low minion with Parrrley, keep the ability available to shoot your opponent when they step up to contest, and back off. A Gangplank trying to fight a real bruiser with his sword loses; a Gangplank chipping from range ends up three items ahead.

Save Remove Scurvy for what it's actually good at, cancelling the lockdown on a gank, not for topping off after poke. That's the difference between a jungler who kills you for free and a jungler who wasted the trip. Take Raise Morale early if your lane turns into a footrace: the movement speed gets you out of a dive as readily as it gets you into one.

Your first spike doesn't show on a health bar, it shows on your gold. From the earliest ranks of Parrrley you bank coins on every execute, which compounds into a full item over the laning phase and is the only genuine early advantage the champion owns.

The combat spike arrives with your first large attack item with an effect, when a sword swing stops being harmless. Cannon Barrage is a map spike rather than a duel one: it lets you join a river fight or rescue your botlane from your own lane. Your last threshold is defensive: once you can stand in a brawl, the Raise Morale aura stops being a bonus and becomes a reason to keep you alive.

You don't open fights, you set them up. Cast Raise Morale before contact while your team is still bunched, not mid-brawl when half your allies are out of range. Then place Cannon Barrage on the enemy retreat path or the entrance to the corridor, never on the spot where bodies are already swinging at each other.

In the fight itself, play second row. Use Parrrley on the enemy carry while you can't reach them, and only commit your sword to a target an ally has already slowed. Hold Remove Scurvy for the crowd control that would decide the fight, not the first slow you eat: spent badly, it just costs you your life two seconds later.