Lane Swaps and Buddy Cop Roaming Supports, Why Support Don't Need Levels

What's Riot going to do about lane swapping in pro play this season? We know they hate it. With the first dragon less snowbally than ever we see lane swaps every game. Don't get me wrong; I love lane swaps. I love seeing these Chinese teams 4 man gank a lane then proxy farm as 4 for 3-4 waves until the tower is down. It's so badass.

Because of these lane swaps we're seeing the jungle/support buddy cop gank squad meta. Which brings Annie support back as a top tier point and click stunner. Last night as I was flipping between LPL riot and LPL China(China was lagging, but has a far better camera operator, and the English casters are nothing but distracting) the English casters were encouraging Annie support to get into a lane to soak up experience. Which made me realize why it's inefficient to run a duo lane.

Why supports don't need levels early. Have you ever had a support or ADC disconnected for the first 5-6 levels? Then they come back to lane and within a few waves are almost instantly caught back up? That's because of the system Riot placed at the beginning of season 4. It was implemented to prevent split pushers from gaining 4-5 levels on their opponents. Essentially the creeps give experience equal to the average level of champs in the game. While it prevents splitpushers from getting 5 levels ahead. It's a double edged sword and allows team mates who are far behind to catch up in experience very quickly.

While, this highlights how little the LPL English casters actually know about the game. I'm not sure I would've figured out why the buddy cop gank meta works so well without them showing their ignorance. In any event, I'm sure we'll see a lot more Ezreal and Caitlyn picks in order for ADCs to farm in 2v1 situations while support Annie roams the mean streets,