On May 19, 2024, MSI 2024 in League of Legends came to an end. In the tournament, teams could qualify for Worlds 2024. The tournament was also filled with a strategy that was used in almost every game. However, Riot wants to change that in the future.
What is Lane-Swapping?
- LoL has a fixed structure of lanes at its core
- One in Top, one in Mid, one in Jungle, and two on Botlane
- This is how every game in LoL actually starts
- Lane-Swapping refers to the strategy of swapping lanes in the middle of a match
- Typically, the Toplaner swaps with the two players on the Botlane
Professionals make lane swaps to gain a gold or objective advantage or to balance out unfavorable matchups. For instance, if an ADC stands no chance during the laning phase, they can swap with the top lane to farm comfortably there.
At the same time, an ADC can also grab the Toplane tower after the first Botlane tower to increase their gold lead. Another aspect, of course, is objectives. You can swap lanes to establish dominance for Herald or Dragon.
This strategy is a constant in the current professional meta. This can also be seen in the current MSI, where world champion T1 had its problems: LoL: One day after Faker kicked the Europeans out of MSI 2024, the world champion has to pack their bags themselves
There are too many Lane-Swaps happening
Why does Riot want to weaken the strategy? RiotPhroxzon announced on x.com that they want to weaken lane swaps because they feel this strategy is better than they would like it to be. While they do not want to make lane swaps completely useless, as it is indeed exciting for the viewers, seeing this strategy in every match is too much.
If you look at the opinions on Reddit about Lane-Swaps, you can see how unpopular the strategy has become from a viewer’s perspective.
- Bgndrsn:
People seem to forget that this meta existed among professionals ages ago and they got rid of it because it was incredibly boring to watch.
- MazrimReddit:
The last time this was the case, nothing happened in the first 20 minutes of a game.
- ColbyCovingtonisgoat:
Do you want to see 2 2v1 lanes where the Toplaners just play to get XP behind their tower?
In most matches, the strategy is primarily for the ADC to gain a gold advantage and snowball as quickly as possible. The Toplane usually has to bite the sour apple and has the harder lane, even though there are counterexamples with champions like Yorick.
Towers should stay longer
How will lane swaps be weakened? In the mentioned post by RiotPhroxzon, he already points to the possibility that the gold for the first tower and generally the defense of towers will be strengthened. Spideraxe reports on x.com that on the test server, the damage reduction of towers is increased from 50% to 75% in the first 5 minutes. This will make it take longer to destroy a tower in the early game.
The next patch is expected to be released on May 30, 2024. We will learn what other changes come in the next few weeks. What do you think about lane swaps? Do you find it boring or a valid and exciting strategy? Let us know in the comments. The next champion seems to have been leaked: New champion “Aurora” in League of Legends has been leaked
