I was wondering one thing, and one thing only.
Everyone in LCS seems to have an assigned role that they play. Are they allowed to change that up at all? Like can they be in champ select and then the mid laner decides to ADC and the ADC goes mid lane? If not, why isn't it allowed?
Im pretty sure they could but considering how much they practice champs/lanes it would make them lose if they tried to switch roles right before a game.
I'm pretty sure they can from my viewing of years back and somewhat recent memory.
Aphromoo subbed in for Stixxay when he was out but still switched from Support to ADC, 2013 Dyrus and Regi switched lanes for 2-3 games, and Link and Chauster played 10-15 games of Link Jungle and Chauster mid.
I don't think it's in the player's contracts to stay in 1 role but like what FallenReaper said the players spend hrs on that 1 role and practice as such for to just switch lanes is a waste of practice. The players can switch roles but it's similar to say in 2K games you take a good shooter and switch their position from SG to SF and while they could be decent it's not their role.
Technically, while they do play for a team in a specialty role, they are not definitively required to play said role. There have been instances where role swaps have occurred despite the starting order. Off the top of my head, there were at least 2 cases like that in recent LPL play and one well known in the EU LCS a few seasons back with GIA Pepiinero and his contractual obligation to willingly play bot lane versus Rekkles (effectively putting his partner Adryh into mid lane...which kind of sucked for him). There's plenty more like it and I doubt the rules have changed to completely remove that option.
There's no obligation for any player to stick to their own lane in professional play. If, for example, a team thought they would have an advantage by putting an ADC mid and swapping the mid laner down bot, they would absolutely do so. Or if they had a flex-pick in the top lane, who picks smite to go jungle while the "jungler" (without smite) covers top, they could do so. There are no rules preventing that.
However, teams rarely, if ever see an advantage doing so. This mainly comes down to practice. Most professional players don't have the time to practice outside their role. They don't know the matchups and intricacies of the lane/jungle pathing. Even players that regularly practice other roles, or used to play other roles get completely smashed when playing an off-role (Piglet in mid, Aphro on ADC, and Alex Ich in the jungle)
