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Switch Bot and Mid?

msk51·4/4/2017, 4:43:17 PM·4 votes·1,405 views

So, a completely radical and mind-blowing idea, but what would happen if we moved the bot duo for both teams to the mid lane and the mid laners to bot lane? A friend and I were talking about this and we actually played a few games in customs with 10 people, all roles the same. The only thing we changed was putting the bot duo in mid lane and the mid lane in bot. This is what we gathered from that.

Pros -

  1. Since your supp is mid lane, you get a ton more vision control in the river and other key areas of the map. We found that the supps become much more focused on warding and clearing wards because they now have two sides to worry about, not just one. It provided a ton of great vision throughout the laning phase.
  2. Roaming is much more threatening. While the supp roaming mid is nothing new and fairly common, having the supp in mid lane opens the opportunity for them to also roam to top lane. In addition to this, now instead of one person roaming from mid, you have the option to send two. Ashe, Varus, Jhin, Twitch, Lucian and a few others excel at this because they either offer hard cc or they can take the enemy by surprise by dashing over a wall or being invisible.
  3. For many teams, Rift herald isn't a viable option because it requires more resources than the dragon, which means bringing your bot lane all the way to the top of the map. If your duo is in mid lane however, the rift herald becomes a much more viable option.
  4. Your mid lane has a much easier time and doesn't have to worry about ganks as much. In normal games, the lane with two people (bot duo) only has to worry about one side of entrance for ganks while your mid lane (one person) has to worry about two. In this set up, the duo which has more wards goes to the area with two sides to worry about while the mid lane with less wards only has to worry about one side. It takes a lot of pressure off of your mid laner while not adding much to the supp because combined the duo lane usually has 6-7 wards available in the laning phase.
  5. If a gank does happen, the turrets in mid are much closer than they are in bot so retreating to turret is much faster and easier.

Cons -

  1. Ganks. If you don't get the crucial vision in river your immobile ADC will get torn apart.
  2. Tower fortification. Mid tower has a defensive bonus in the early game while bot does not. Therefore, taking down the mid turret becomes a bit harder.
  3. No bushes to set up traps. Many supps with good cc like to sit in the bushes at bot lane to set up a cc trap. It's much harder to do that in mid lane.

Overall, we saw major benefits coming from putting the duo lane in mid, but we also saw some pretty big pit falls. While I do think that in the end there was a net positive, I'm still not convinced that it's enough to change the system. It's one thing for a team with voice chat to do it, it's another for a supp and ADC who have never played together to do it.

What do you guys think? And benefits or pit falls I missed?

Clarification - This is an awful idea if one team does it. I am talking about this in the light of what if both teams did it and switching your duo lane to mid was standard to all teams and all league games. :D

11 Comments

HalcyonDweller4/4/2017, 5:19:00 PM3 votes

This looks really fun, I only see two three problems.

First is lane safety, as described here by Level 18 Feeder

[{quoted}](name=Level 18 Feeder,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=XbAEyG6E,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2017-04-04T16:58:46.200+0000)

The midlane is gank protection for the midlaner (usually immobile mage) due to close proximity to turret. The side lanes have a much further distance from turret safety so putting the solo mage in a long lane makes then VERY easy to gank.

Second is access to jungle buffs; if you end up on the bottom left side of the map, your mid laner is farther from blue buff. This is more a relic of the meta, since not all midlaners are dependent on blue buff now, but it is still significant. This could be solved by switching top and bottom lane.

Lastly, whoever goes bottom lane will need enough sustain and waveclear to hold off the duo lane bot that they will likely face. If they can't protect their tower then there's little benefit to it unless you can trade for mid and open the center of the enemy's map.

TTK Dreadnought4/4/2017, 4:53:14 PM1 votes

my buddies and i have done this in customs also and we prefer it also. we've also done three solo lanes and a counter jungler and it worked well too.

Kirius Dark4/4/2017, 4:58:46 PM1 votes

The midlane is gank protection for the midlaner (usually immobile mage) due to close proximity to turret. The side lanes have a much further distance from turret safety so putting the solo mage in a long lane makes then VERY easy to gank. This is why you need a support in the side lane as gank protection, and top laners are often fairly safe due to the champs picked in that lane being durable or having escapes

Making duo mid with closeness to turret will make then very hard to gank, but you're giving double gank protection while leaving another lane totally open

FooDang4/4/2017, 5:28:36 PM1 votes

Its a bad strat.

vs a competent enemy duo bot the solo bot laner will be denied cs AND experience due to it being a long lane.

Most midlaners abilities are AOE and if they use any on the minions it will auto push lane and pretty much zone themselves out of significance.

Once zoned they will be starved on levels and items.

After that bot will be juicy for a 3 man dive
for first blood AND first blood turret due to no fortifications bot lane.

Its not a recommended strat imo.

Kaioko4/4/2017, 6:58:20 PM1 votes

I disagree with you that there is a net positive overall for several factors:

  1. The best position to roam is the mid laner. They have the better tools to do so and the right combination of damage and CC as well as mobility.

  2. Mid lane is the position that levels up the fastest due to the fact that it takes less time for minions to reach that lane. Mages are the ones that scale best with level thanks to the base damage on skills so it makes the most sense for them to be there.

  3. Although bot lane only has to ward one side -- you end up having a longer lane meaning that if you're immobile you will not be able to reach back to your turret in time even if you do see the jungler approaching.

  4. Mid turret provides the most important map control objective. If you're ADC is not one with high wave clear like most immobile mages and even some assassins are; you'll lose that turret which is more strategically important than bottom or top.