Why is the meta as it is?

[quote=kmph]So, I sorta know the so-called "meta" - that is, for example, an adc is supposed to go bot, paired with a support. But, but, are there any guides or articles explaining why is that so? Why, for example, can't the ADC/support pair go top? Why must ADC lane against another ADC, and not for example against a fighter? I tried searching this side for such a guide but I didn't find any.[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje]The meta you're referring to (the lane distribution) has come to be over about two years of gameplay after the game was launched. Basically, the reason for the common lanes we see right now are: Top: generally more isolated due to the absence of dragon (rift herald isn't as important and baron doesn't spawn until 20 minutes), making it a great place for a bruiser (a role that excels in 1v1 situations) to go and utilize TP when necessary. The fact that the lane is longer than i.e. mid also makes it more suited for longer brawls (longer means it's harder to get away so you need some innate tankyness or mobility; try playing Anivia top and you'll find it much harder to farm properly without getting ganked/1v1'd by bruisers). Mid: as already mentioned above, the shorter lane makes it quite ideal for mages or other relatively immobile and squishy champions. You'll also find that it is much easier for those mages like Ahri/Kassadin or assasins like Talon to roam to sidelanes. This obviously because mid is in the centre of the map and therefore can influence sidelanes more easily than toplane (which relies fully on teleport). Bot: again discussed above, due to dragon it is somewhat optimal to have the duo lane (ADC+support) on the bot side. If you were to swap your duo lane to top the enemy can essentially take dragon whenever they want. Furthermore, it is optimal to lane ADC vs ADC because AD Carries are super vulnerable early on and most of them will get obliterated in a ADC vs mage/assassin/bruiser lane (some examples apply: Corki is a great midlaner!) In competitive League of Legends you'll regularly see teams swapping lanes around, most commonly the duo lane to top side. The reason for this is often when teams think they cannot win the duo lane on bot side, so they swap their lanes to 2v1 top side and 1v2 bot side. This often means the enemy can take a free dragon with their duo lane on bot side, but as dragon is as important in the current meta this generally is not a problem. Note however that this is very complicated and generally not suited for more casual gameplay.[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]Adding onto what Vynertje said, teams can optionally send their ADC + support top lane to 2v1 the enemy top laner to both shut the top laner down and allow the ADC to free farm when they might have been in a losing matchup, or been a late-game scaling champion that's weak in early 2v2's. The disadvantage of doing that is that because the enemy ADC + support will be bot lane, they'll always have more members on the bottom side of the map, meaning the team that lane swaps gives up dragon control. That's not as big a deal these days because the first dragon these days just gives 8% higher AD/AP, whereas back in the day it used to give a lot of global gold. Still, +8% AD/AP isn't nothing, and it's the disadvantage you face if you choose to lane swap in a solo queue game and give up dragon in the process.[/quote]

[quote=H4xDefender][quote=Vapora Dark]Adding onto what Vynertje said, teams can optionally send their ADC + support top lane to 2v1 the enemy top laner to both shut the top laner down and allow the ADC to free farm when they might have been in a losing matchup, or been a late-game scaling champion that's weak in early 2v2's. The disadvantage of doing that is that because the enemy ADC + support will be bot lane, they'll always have more members on the bottom side of the map, meaning the team that lane swaps gives up dragon control. That's not as big a deal these days because the first dragon these days just gives 8% higher AD/AP, whereas back in the day it used to give a lot of global gold. Still, +8% AD/AP isn't nothing, and it's the disadvantage you face if you choose to lane swap in a solo queue game and give up dragon in the process.[/quote] Its 6% I believe. Which is prettty bad for most of the game.[/quote]

[quote=Ekki]I haven't seen much competitive, but isn't duo top into Rift Herald control for faster pushing (i.e. quicker global gold from turrets) a viable strategy? Or is it the pushing power not worth it?[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje][quote=Ekki]I haven't seen much competitive, but isn't duo top into Rift Herald control for faster pushing (i.e. quicker global gold from turrets) a viable strategy? Or is it the pushing power not worth it?[/quote] It is but only if you're trying to push inners and the enemy doesn't respond.[/quote]

[quote=kmph]I cant help but notice that ranged marksmen seem to be effective vs fighters or tanks early on in lanes! So...? Well, sending a ranged ADC top seems to be a good idea to my little brain... Since on top we usually see those like Garen, Nasus, Poppy, etc, etc, ... which ranged adcs are strong against during laning phases. What am I missing?[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark][[lucian]] is a pretty good lane bully against tank top laners early on. The only issue with that is that if you're playing [[lucian]] top lane, then you're not a tank. And losing lane on a tank is arguably better than winning lane as [[lucian]] top lane in this meta, as Huni so kindly demonstrated in the first game of IMT vs TSM.[/quote]

[quote=Re4XN]I actually had a lot of fun playing [[jhin]] top in the past few weeks. Sucks not to have a tank top, but it won't impact much if you finish the game fast (which might actually become a problem, hence me playing this in normals only).[/quote]