College Class Essay on Lane Swapping

Note: This analysis is not specific towards the meta right now, but rather goes over the history of lane swapping over previous meta's as well.

In this analysis, I will dive into the thoroughly discussed 2v1 lane swaps in macro play in League of Legends (LOL). There are many reasons to perform the 2v1 lane swaps but most importantly, we must consider how lane swapping will affect the transition into mid-game and how it will dictate which side will be able to use their power spikes effectively.
The most common reason for a lane swap is to accelerate the game into mid game. In the meta currently, there is an emphasis on choosing champions that are mid game focused, and coincidentally, lane swapping synergizes with it well. The most beneficial part about lane swapping is the ability for weak early game champions to become less vulnerable to early game lane bullies. In play that focuses around these bullies, we see teams snowballing around the lane bully, but in mid to late game, those champions fall in terms of raw DPS which causes their team to fail. One method to counter these champions is to choose late game oriented champions and hope to not fall too far behind in early to mid game. Unfortunately, pro teams have become too efficient at taking a snowballing lane and winning the game before late game is reached. As a result, teams have been shifting their focus to lane swapping which allow the weak early game champions to survive into mid game without too large of a gold deficit. The best example is 2014 CLG vs ROC game 1 at the IEM Cologne Semifinals. Rumble versus Gnar at the time was highly in favor of Rumble at the time, so ROC lane swapped their duo lane into top, which effectively destroyed Rumble’s ability to CS and limited his gold income. As a result, Gnar had an easier time getting into midgame and ROC were able to win due to their consistent mid game pressure.
I want to consider a relatively new reason why lane swapping is effective: dragon control. We have seen teams fight for control over the dragon pit countless times, and in general, red side always has an advantage. However, lane swapping will negate that advantage because red side’s duo lane will be top. As a result, that yields even control of the dragon pit due to blue sides duo lane and red sides geographical advantage. Thus blue side will always have a reason to lane swap because it will allow them to negate red side’s inherent advantages. However, this may not as simple as that for blue side due to pick/ban phase. Say, for example, blue side picks a very strong solo top laner, Fiora. This champion excels at both early game lane dominance and mid game split pushing. As a result, blue side will lose that champion’s inherent advantage if they lane swap. But if they don’t lane swap, red side will most definitely be guaranteed vision of dragon pit which will probably result in a free first dragon. Though first dragon isn’t too much of a benefit early game (+6% of your bonus AD and AP), it allows teams to have a smooth transition into mid game power spikes due to the additional stats that dragon gives them. Blue side must weigh the costs and benefits of lane swapping in the scenario and decide whether they value dragon control or top advantage.
While this review is geared towards the advantages lane swapping has to your mid game power spikes, we must consider that lane swapping also has its detriments as well. To name a couple reasons: first, it requires the highest amount of communication between your top and duo lanes and second, it can easily be recognized by the opposing team and they can counter by swapping their lanes as well. In both cases, we see catastrophic results that will result in either a miscommunication related mistake or an enormous disadvantage your top laner has to face.