My team is closed to signing a sponsorship, in 1 week I will introduce the team (Im their coach and analyst)

This Guide is totally for team strategy and theorycrafting, so don't hesitate to raise your opinion about what I say in the guide.

Lane swapping is just the first part of this guide (for the first 10 - 15 mins of the game)

Lane swapping is when you want to be aggresive, push down quick towers, get gold and exp advantages, then snowball the game with them. Or you just want your duo ad/sp have easier time to farm and power up since you pick up a "not so strong" duo bot in laning phase but OP in teamfight.

When you lane swapping, what is the most important factor that will decide if you win/lose on the strategy?
- Exp and cs your top laner got
- Which tower going down first
- Did any top laner give up the first blood, and how can you react to that
- Creep control in top and bot lane
- The second Dragon

If you can answer all those question, you pretty much winning the first 10 - 15 min of the game

- Top laner cs and exp: when you lane swapping, you put your top laner in danger (he will constantly feeling 1 v 3 all the time with limited ward control). Your top laner need to be some of them champion which can farm well under tower (or aat least tanky enough to take some hits from enemy duo), or have some regen. Its not really matter if he/she is ranged or melee because probably enemy adc will freeze the creep wave and the sp gonna zone you out of exp range.
So it turn out in to 1 more question: how can you break that creep wave balance?

+ As a top laner, always stay in the jungle or bush until you know exactly who are you dealing with. Show yourself early in lane mean you dont have enough time for rotation as well as duo jungle - mean you give up the early exp and gold (can help you go to lv 2). Also, you and your jungler can take the chance to roam mid, get the midlaner snowball in cs and exp.

+ If you see enemy team fail to control the creep wave or trying to push, its still better to go with your jungler, get lv 2 then b with some more pots which can help you sustain in lane and take some more hits.

+ Creep control can not maintain forever, cause enemy team keep last hitting the minions, which mean the remaining damage of those minion will be forced on the others, and after 3 - 5 waves, they gonna reach your tower ( build up a huge number of ranged minions)

+ Some further things about some toplaners:

Dr. Mundo: tanky and ok in csing (have axes to lh), but he need so much farm, so gank him before hes 6

Gnar: He need farm to be effective, try to pressure him, hes not good with csing under turret (the bommerang hit other minions as well) and hes squishy in the gnar form.

Hecarim: horrible in 1 v 2, keep this guy down since he will running Teleport and Ignite, and hes not tanky at all (even tho he has regen), and w/o Trinity Force, he have a hard time deal damage, so try to minimum his cs.

Irelia: she have sustain, cc, cs well, and she can 1 v 2 well (dont try to dive her if you not sure 100% in a 1 v 3. cause 1 stun under turret mean you lost the lane swap)

Kennen: bad 1 v 2 , just too bad, frezze the creep wave, and even under turret, his cs will be suffer

Maokai: sustain and tanky, and he has cc, good for 1 v 2

Rumble: same as kennen (even worse since hes a melle champ)

Sion: One of the best in 1 v 2

Lulu: an ok champ, and she can be down on ccs but still shine in teamfight as she does not need to much cs to be effective (she just need 6)

Extra gold from the tower is very important as well as the creep control since the tower being taken down. With a good duo, you can take down tower fast and still zone enemy top laner out of the lane. Here are list of the ADC and Support and show what they can do in the lane swap:

- ADC

Caitlyn: long ranged, heavy poke, good for taking tower (just need to lay down some trap near the tower so their top laner can not go in and take cs for free)

Corki: good clearing, high kill pressure (can go 1 v 1 with toplaner pretty well). But you can pick him as midlaner as he harass with mix damage

Draven: not so good since he need to have kill and stack up his passive (his kit is not design for pushing tower)

Graves: the clearing is ok, but as a grave, you might want to 2 v 2 more

Jinx: very good at taking down tower with her Q

Kalista: she goes to swap mainly to farm, not to take down tower cause she also have nothing to fast push a tower

Kog'Maw: kog need time to farm his first item, so he can lane swap to farm if the enemy duo bot have high kill pressure

Lucian: good at take down tower with his passive, can clear creepwave as well. But he can also doing work with a 2 v 2 lane since his kit apply a lot of harrassing and can lead to a good first blood

Sivir: ok champ for lane swap as well as 2 v 2

Ezreal: not so good with take down tower, his skills can be better as a mid in double adc comp (he deal mix damage)

Tristana: good at take down tower as well as quick push, secure quick farm for fast BF

Twitch: need to lane swap to farm as hes poor in a 2 v 2 lane

- Support

Annie: after zone out the enemy toplaner, you have to make some kills with annie, shes a very good roamer

Janna: best champ to fast push as she have the shield to + damage for her adc (should stay in lane to fast push and zone enemy toplaner out)

Leona: same as annie, a roamer

Lulu: her W can help adc take tower faster, and her kit good at bullying enemy toplaner than ganking early

Morgana: her Q last for ages so try to help your mid

Nami: a good lane bully, not so much for a roamer (can counter gank)

Thresh: flexible champ, you can do everything with him ( he has cc, but good AS as well)

5 dragon buffs:
1/ DRAGON'S MIGHT: +6% attack damage and ability power
2/ DRAGON'S WRATH: +15% damage to towers and buildings
3/ DRAGON'S FLIGHT: +5% movement speed
4/ DRAGON'S DOMINANCE: +15% damage to minions and monsters
5/ ASPECT OF THE DRAGON: Doubles all previous bonuses and your attacks burn for 150 true damage over 5 seconds. This stack only lasts 180 seconds.

Why top team always ignore the first dragon and put more effort in the second one?

- With the new change in dragon (does not give money, but give different buff), then the point of when to take dragon is even more important than before.

- The first team take dragon will be the disadvantage team, why?

+ You lost time to take the dragon (or course), that time will be the time enemy champ farm and pushing your tower, taking resourses from your jungle and more stuffs

+ The first dragon buff (+6% ad/ap) is not worth before 15 - 20 mins (depend on the team comp) since before that, the amount of ad/ap + 6% will not make any different

+ For lane swapping, it is important to push down fast tower rather than kill the dragon which give you no money (when the laning phase is all about farm and build up for a strong mid game) - this will be wrong if you are playing in LPL when 5 man rush to enemy jungle (I still dont know if that 6% still worth)

+ For the team which take the first dragon, the only way that make sense for them is they are an early game - early mid game oriented, or an double ad comp (they need to rush down that first dragon to get as much damage as possible to group early, take down tower to snowball. The longer they delay the dragon, the more they will likely to lose that dragon since double ad comp need time to build up. Normally it is when Ezreal or Corki have their trinity. Maybe Ezreal goes greedy, and go for tear into muramana. Then his spike time is even longer, around 25 mins. So its better for double ad comp to take the first dragon fast, then they can give up 2 dragons in a row to farm up, after they hit their spike and group up, they will likely be unstoppable)

+ For the team lost the first dragon, either you are the team who swap your ad/sp duo to top, or you just decide that it is not worth the creep wave that push into tower and rush down to dragon and take the risk of not getting the dra + jungler death. In this case, the best thing you should do is note down the dragon time. Even if you fail to do so, the second dragon buff is still not that important for you to take the risk. As I have said before, the 6% ad/ap will be worth in 15 - 20 mins of the game, and the second dragon buff is not relevent until the later stage of the game. So you can give up 2 first dragon, BUT YOU NEED TO HAVE THE TIMER OF THE THIRD DRAGON AFTER THE SECOND ONE BEING TAKEN DOWN. The second dragon itself is not important, the timer of it will give you advantage for the 3rd dragon, which give you MS, is what important. Thats why you can wonder the second dragon buff is not so strong in the early stage but is considered to be one of the most important dragon (less than the fifth one), because of the timer and preparation (warding, push the lane, make a dead bush) that you can make to quickly brust down your third dragon or attempt to stop the enemy third dragon.

There are 3 situation will happen when you lane swapping:

- You swap the lane, and the enemy adc/sp duo swap as well. This will be cover in the later of the guide.

- You swap the lane, freeze it, and enemy toplaner come in. In this case, a 1 v 3 stituation is made since your jungle will likely to stay near the duo ad/sp for more support with his jungle, as well as better gank/roam to mid with supporter and maybe toplaner.

+ When you in red side: It is very important to scout out your opponent lane to choose the best possible lane for you, so here are choices you can make to decide your lane:

This is the best situation possile for your team:

Red arrow, the invade route:

1/ Midlander rush to mid and put his tricket ward down in the middle of midlane (you dont need to see the tower, but you must see the path way: this ward is to protect your team from a quick 5 man rush in mid then turn into the side bush (both top or bot) as well as scout out who going mid (rune, ad/ap, item he/she has).

2/ 4 people rush to the bush enter red jungle of blue team and wait for the midlaner to return. At around 1 00, start to invade to their jungle. 1 people put ward in the middle of tier 1 and tier 2 midlane, then 5 man rush down and put 2 more wards, 1 is in the middle of tier 2 and tier 3 of top lane, and 1 more over the wall (in front of the blue side top gate): as long as you done put down those wards, you can cover all the rotation of enemy until 2 20 (since you start invade from 1 00, at around 1 20 you will put the other wards down)

Blue arrow: the return way

3/ After warding, your jungler can decide if he can be greedy, start at your blue and then turn into your red. If he take this way, sure it is risky, but he can gank top and mid after he done his 2 buffs. If he decide to start at your red, he can choose to take enemy blue by calling the help of your support (assume that eneny dont know you lane swapping and doing the original lane). After having 2 buffs, you can try to create a 1 v 3 dive top and quick push top. If your jungler start at enemy blue, he can power farm all of enemy blue side, then b and return to his redd side, deny enemy jungler farm as well as create pressure since it is always a 3 v 4/5 (enemy duo are at bot, and can not help when your top can use teleport to help your team)

4/ If you scout out enemy toplaner heading top, adc need to go to top lane and hide himself in the bush nearest to enemy top tower, then freeze the creep wave by taking aggro of melee minions, then go back to your creepwave. By this way, 3 enemy melee will atack the your first melee minion as he come to the aggro range. Your creep wave will be cleared faster and will push into your side of the map, after that the support can return and zone him out of exp range.

Yellow arrow: Top laner goes to bot lane to take exp and cs

5/ Since the enemy duo dont know about your lane swapping, they will try to push the minion wave as quick as possible (they assume you are doing grump, and want to get lv 2 first). After clearing with your jungler, top laner can have some extra pots to got donw and sustain under bot tower.

TO SUM UP: after all of those rotation, you want to create a situation when your supporter can roam easily as your creep wave is frozen and you already zone him out (enemy supporter cant roam because he/she need to harass so your toplaner can not take free cs). Enemy top laner can not get exp and cs when your top laner get exp and a little bit of cs.

You did exactly the same 5 steps on the former part, but the enemy response as:

Situation 1:

Red arrow: invade path

1/ Midlaner do the same, ward the middle of midlane to provide vision as well as hold enemy midlaner from rotating to his teammates (if he rotates, his teammates position or at least a part of early rotation will be exposed)

2/ 4 others people also invading the blue side of the red team jungle and put down wards between turret to know exactly your team rotation, adc go to the lane bush to freeze the creep wave

Blue arrow: retreat path

3/ After done putting down all the ward, enemy team can choose to take your blue, then do the 3 man gank to mid. After that, supporter go back to lane to leach exp as well as zone out your toplaner (if he return to lane). If the toplaner does not show up or show too much repect to the zoning ability of other team supporter, hide into the lane bush and recall, make further rotation.

Yellow arrow: top lane rotation

4/ After taking level 2 and got more pots, enemy toplaner can return with his toplaner with the supporter. Also, jungler goes to top to counter gank and clear other jungle camp (always remember to that the Scuttle Crab for undeniable vision in the river - make other team jungler has to chose more obvious way to go to the lane (less chance to make a successful gank)

Situation 2:


This is the worst possible situation for your team as enemy team can have a lot of exp as well as cs, and also can secure 2 buffs as your blue jungle side is also their. After clearing the small camp, enemy toplaner still have enough health if he goes with Crystalline Flask and 3 Health Potion or Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion, the duo toplaner and jungle can easily power farm the whole right jungle side, then b with a lot of money and exp. Also, the duo adc/support start in the golem so they will have exp advantage, as well as they show late in the lane. This can make your team confuse and wonder if the enemy team do that late rotation (1 thing to be notice: if your start at the golem or the krugg, the possibility of lane freezing is 50/50, so enemy still have chance to control the creepwave equilibrium).

- This 2 rotation is purely to response to the laneswapping strat of other team, as well as leach as much exp from the jungle, abuse the lack of ward in early state of the game to make aggresive farming (always compare the 2 toplaner cs and exp to know if you win at the lane swap or not)