There are three lanes and five roles for League of Legends players to choose from in-game. The lanes are top, bottom, and middle, while the roles for these lanes are one top, one mid, two bot, and one roaming jungler. This is day one stuff to any League of Legends gamer, but to spectators or gamblers, understanding the differences in gameplay between these roles can have a steep learning curve.
League of Legends has been one of the most popular “free to play” games in the world for the past several years. Its combination of tower-defense and role-playing gameplay also makes it one of the most difficult games to follow as a new spectator. Starcraft and Counter-Strike are not necessarily easier games to play, but for viewers they’re both much easier to understand at a glance.
One may see competing space armies, or a guy with a sniper rifle scoping. With no League of Legends knowledge, the screen can look like a jumbled mess (especially with the number of silly skins mixed in). While many of the game’s ins and outs, like which champions have longer ranged stuns, roots, and skillshots (a must-know to be an effective LoL gambler) require first hand gameplay or more in-depth study, one seemingly confusing aspect of the game (that seems to cause a lot of players and viewers to drop off) is actually pretty easy to understand. And League just made it even easier!
Revamped team selection
Something the pros never had to worry about, due to their previously agreed upon coordination, is ‘Champion Select.’ This first part of the game is when each player selects the character they’re going to play in-game. The old system of ranked champion selection did not distinguish which champion went in which lane. You had to agree on that in the chat box. This used to be a nightmare for lower-tier competitive players (and confusing as hell for viewers).
However, the new system of ranked champion selection now allows players to pick their preferred role, as well as a backup in case of duplicates. With this simple change, a spectator who has never played a game in their life can look at the load screen and understand who is going where, and why.
What’s farming?
One last “need-to-know,” before explaining the different roles for different lanes, is the basics of farming. Much like
Dota, League of Legends includes both a player versus player aspect and AI enemies. This forces a champion to contend with waves of enemy “creep”— low level minions that come at regularly scheduled intervals and can be killed to give your own champion (and nearby allies) experience to level up. There are only three lanes with waves of creep. At specific areas throughout the map, and apart from the three lanes, “jungle monsters” may spawn, which are mirrored on each side of the map, but (unlike creep) are not helping one team or the other. They are also referred to as “neutral monsters,” and while all four other roles rely on farming creep for their experience points, a major part of the role of the jungler is to farm these neutral monsters while putting pressure on the lanes.
Jungle
This brings us to our first role. While champion select is often referred to as “choosing your lane,” jungler is the one role that spends most of their time out of a lane. A good jungler can be an assassin-type or a beefy tank. Either way, it is imperative that a jungling champion farms their own jungle monsters quickly and effectively, while also trying to steal the neutral monsters closer to the opposing team’s camp, all without getting caught.
The role of jungler is equal parts an experience points arms race with the opposing jungler, and a gank-fest. A “gank” is when another champion comes out of their standard role to help another lane catch an enemy out of position, and kill them before they can retreat. A good jungler knows how to keep the other team constantly terrified of an impending gank, while not giving up on their imperative jungle farming. Certain jungle monsters grant buffs, and bigger ones like
Baron often require team coordination to kill, but the basic gist of a jungler’s role is to roam the map, get strong, and exploit poor positioning on the enemy’s team.
Top
One of the loneliest roles in the game, each team has only one champion for the role of
top. These two champions battle it out one-on-one while also trying to farm their own waves of creep. Top can be a frustrating lane because it is the furthest removed from the rest of your team, and if your opponent gets a few early kills on you in top, it can be really easy for them to snowball into an unstoppable juggernaut. Top’s only hope when outmatched is some well-placed ganks from their jungler.
While ability power assassin champs can play top, these champions tend to be attack damage bruisers or beefier tanks.
Mid
Another solo lane, mid champions tend to be more assassin, ability power, and “burst damage” champions, that can wipe out huge chunks of the opponent’s hit points if they get an opening.
Mid lane tends to be a less lonely position, but also a more frightening one since they are the most vulnerable to ganks coming from either the top or bottom lanes.
Just as the shortest distance between two points is a straight lane, mid lane also tends to be the place where late-game “team fights” occur in greater numbers, as teams push to end the game with a straight-shot charge to the enemy’s nexus.
Bottom: ADC and Support
Of the three lanes, bottom is the only one with two people. This lane includes the champion often referred to the team’s “carry,” or
ADC (which stands for Attack Damage Carry.) That is because this champion is expected to be the heavy-hitter who may be light on defense, but can pack a punch, and hopefully get enough kills to “carry” teams in their teamfight, carrying them to victory. A difficult nuance for newbies to understand, ADCs are
always ranged champions. There are plenty of attack damage champs, but the mechanics of League’s meta require a ranged champ (meaning one who doesn’t have to be up close to hit) to take this role.
The other bottom role, a “support” champion, is one that is beefy and tanky enough to absorb the damage their ADC cannot, or one that otherwise can provide healing or another helpful support mechanic. Whereas a good ADC has a lot of kills and few deaths, a support is expected to die with a little more frequency, but make up for it with a lot of kill assists and ADC saves!
This was not a how-to-play guide
Still confused? That’s to be expected. You can’t learn a complex game that people spend years of their lives trying to master by reading a single article. But at least now when you’re watching two pro teams duke it out, you can understand why different champions are going where, and have a little bit of insight into the strategy and gameplay behind it.
