BeastMode Gaming

When starting a blog about high level play in League of Legends, it seems best to start with the basics. Now, I don't mean explaining the basic gameplay of LoL, but rather the current structuring and style of play as it stands today.

If you don't like to read, or just really could care less about what I have to say, here's a link to one of the somewhat recent NESL matches. Take note of how most of what I say applies to the team comps of both sides.



For those few that are not familiar with the current method, generally referred to as the "meta game," allow me to explain. The general lane structure is as follows:

Support & AD Carry bottom lane.
AP Carry mid lane
Tanky DPS / Tank top lane
Whichever of the top lane options that wasn't chosen in the jungle.

So the first question to ask: why utilize this structure? Well, let's analyze each role. An AD Carry, such as Ashe or Vayne, is incredibly farm dependent. When reading any decent guide on such a champion, the word "FARM" will appear between 10 - 250 times. In short, an AD Carry is farm dependent. Normally, a solo lane would facilitate this desperate hunger for farm. However, since solo lanes tend to be more easily ganked and more harass dependent, a fragile champion like an AD Carry generally doesn't do as well as an AP Carry or Tanky DPS. Thus, the support comes into play.

As it stands today, considering recent patches and their effects on Supports, a support character such as Sona or Taric functions as a few things, but to summarize - they are there to babysit the AD Carry. In other words, the Support does not kill creep. He or she harasses the enemy, heals the carry, and utilizes stuns / buffs / auras / and other tactics to secure kills for the AD Carry. Thus, the support can continue to use GP/5 items to purchase wards, cooldown reduction, and other related items while the Carry farms like a boss and... well... carries the late game.

Now the middle lane is interesting. For many, it is home to any champion with a combination of sustainability and farm ability. At a higher level of play, this is often reserved for the AP Carry. Such examples include Brand, Malzahar, and the like. The reason for this is that the caster can harass easily, last hit at tower easily (if the lane is pushed either direction), and easily escape or avoid ganks. The lane is fairly simple. Farm, harass, gank. Easy as that.

The top lane is an interesting one. Sometimes, you'll see a Tank like Singed farming away up there. Other times, a Tanky DPS like Irelia will be doing boss things up top. In short, this is reserved for someone beefy as all hell, able to farm fantastically, and mobilize to secure dragon or a team fight. Sometimes top will be ganked thirteen times by 20 minutes, other times the two laners will simply wave at each other on the way to last hit a creep. In my opinion, it's the most dynamic lane, but perhaps the most predictable based on who goes there.

The jungler is often the one that didn't go top, but could have. In other words, if there's a tank top - there's a Tanky DPS jungling. And so on. You can figure it out. Anyways, jungling is an article in of itself. The dynamics of ganking, tanking, controlling jungle, counter jungling, controlling dragon, and so on is too much to cover in such a general article. Long story short, if you aren't familiar with what a jungler does - google it.

Something somewhat important to notice, perhaps a disclaimer, is that this is a very general set of statements. Should you go browsing tournament play, there will be plenty of teams that don't follow this structure perfectly. What is interesting, however, is that the teams aim for this structure. In short, though not always accessible, this team comp is the goal.

So, now that the obvious is out of the way, what's the point? Well, this is one strategy to the game. This is how a vast majority of ranked and tournament games play out. But there's a keyword in this paragraph - one. There have been other strategies, and there certainly will be more. But, at the end of the day, this is just the current and most popular. Here at BeastMode Gaming, our goal is to recognize, analyze, and explain. And perhaps more importantly to me as a player, I want to know what the pros are doing. Maybe I can capitalize, maybe I can embarrass myself by trying to play support Gangplank like Voyboy does. But at the end of the day, I'm just here to do the research so you don't have to.