I think it's about time we renamed the support role

I believe I can state this for a fact: support is by far the least popular role. Few people legitimately enjoy playing support, and those that do are often the targets of scorn and abuse at the hands of the teammates they try so hard to protect. But the question at hand is WHY is support the least popular? Sure supports may not get the spotlight as often as the carry-oriented roles. But there's no denying supports play a huge role in the success (or failure) of their team.

Let's put aside all the commonly circulated stereotypes regarding supports (supports get carried, supports are just ward bots, supports don't matter, etc.). They're simply untrue, platitudes born out of a history where the term "support" was synonymous with "slave". These days, a good support player is a veritable gold mine of utility, safety, and coordination. What's more, there are support players in the LCS that have just as much impact on the outcome of the game than the ADC or mid laner.

In fact I would go so far as to say that supports are the backbone of any good team, not at all the ward bots of seasons past. A good support will turn the tide of any fight, save your ass a million times over, and will always be the most underestimated player on the team. The problem here lies in the fact that neither the terminology nor our attitudes as players have updated to the changing of the role. Despite all that Riot has done to improve the aesthetic of the support role, it remains the least favored in the game, to the point where Riot has implemented autofill, a system that literally FORCES people to play support.

This is where we are in 2016: supports are nowhere near the stagnant ward bots they used to be, but the playerbase still thinks of them as such. So what can we do to change this? To be honest, it's going to take a lot. At the risk of triggering every SJW who ambles into this thread, supports are the oppressed black slaves that exist within the mindset of an early-1800's League of Legends. And obviously the slaves cannot be freed with a single thread. That said, every movement must have a first step forward, and I believe that it would be in the best interests of the game to begin to distance itself from the antiquated terminology that defines its roles, specifically the support role.

If Riot (and support mains) want to change the way players view the support role and get more people interested in playing it, we need to stop referring to them as "supports". Such a term barely covers the gist of what a good support player does. Support players are the anchor that holds the team together; they are the shotcallers that decide where and when a play will happen. They are the tacticians that read a situation and determine the best course of action for the team. They direct the flow of play, and allow their team to adapt when necessary.

Good support players, I mean REALLY good support players, do more than just ward and get the ADC fed. They determine how the game will play out, leading the team forward at one moment, disengaging and regrouping at another. For a role that is so multifaceted, "support" is hardly an applicable term. And as long as the playerbase keeps viewing the role through the bias of Riot's arbitrary naming system and the dark history of what supports used to be, nothing will ever change.

As a support player, I yearn for change. So I'd like to take this opportunity to put forth a list of suggested new names for the support role. If a new name is adopted, every instance of the word "support" should be deleted from any League of Legends-oriented website, including the League game client, and replaced with this new name as soon as possible. Only then will things start to change, slowly but surely, towards a future where all roles are viewed equally in terms of importance.

To all support players out there, please make yourselves heard in this thread. If you don't like any of the suggested names, feel free to offer up your own! How would YOU like to see the support role change going forward? Keep in mind this is NOT a thread to discuss balance. It is to discuss the state of the support role as it pertains to its popularity, how the playerbase in general views it, and what can be done to get rid of the negative stereotypes surrounding the role.