Girls, why do you play support?

Tuition Fee·8/7/2019, 7:49:37 AM·5 votes·2,498 views

Absolutely no judge or hate, I also like playing support. Based on my friend groups, I know exactly one female who does not play support. Just trying to gather up some statistics and knowledge for my esports club next year, and to hopefully make it comfortable for both genders.

The "girls only play support" phenomenon is something I'm kinda curious about, and would like to look into.

Edit: title was a huge generalization of my part, I would like to rephrase it and say that I meant "Girls who play support, why do you play support?"

24 Comments

Linda de Mol8/7/2019, 7:51:49 AM5 votes

Played supp for 95% of the time although i changed to mid just this week

Supp is great because I can actually give my team vision. Whenever I dont play supp i tend to get autofill supports who have a vision score of 15 at 40 minutes and still bought no oracle lens.

Also, you dont have the annoying farming phase. I hate farming tbh.

And in botlane i am close to the drakes, and Im an objective junkie. I always aim to get all drakes and spam my jungler until he helps me. Since in low elo, i have to beg my teammates to focus drake/herald/baron and sell my soul before they show interest.

Zlera8/7/2019, 7:51:25 AM4 votes

"Why do girls only play support" - well this is a very BS statement, I know plenty of girls who play ADC, jungle, top, mid, and even some that play support. While some females PLAY support, it's because such a role suits them.

NY648/7/2019, 1:04:33 PM2 votes

Guy here. I played support because I started when draft existed in games where it was first called first served. I was always too slow to paste my role so I always ended up support. Now I just embrace the role. The true satisfaction of the role is cockblocking the enemy. They think they are so good with their assassins when you just show them who they truly are, full of salt. It’s like playing monopoly and you buy the last color space that your opponent really wants. That’s the true satisfaction of the role.

Imperial Pandaa8/7/2019, 1:26:22 PM2 votes

Panda boy here. (^_^)

I sometimes flip between top and support but this season has mostly been support. Currently my main support has been Alistar as he gives me a lot of options. Even if my bot isn't doing the hottest it is easier for me to roam from a support position without feeling like I'm losing anything. Most supports also give me a fair amount of CC to layer with others.

Shieda Kayn8/7/2019, 8:01:26 AM2 votes

Don't worry too much about your title or whatever: girls play support by a huge margin, that's true. Not all supports are girls and not all girls play support, but they very, VERY often go hand in hand. Personally I enjoy helping people and I feel like supporting is the role that does it the most.

Butterwood8/7/2019, 2:58:25 PM2 votes

Something something offended something something white knight something

RamenGurl8/7/2019, 10:33:32 AM1 votes

i actually don't play support. but it most likely has to do with girls being feminine. woman are care takers we are mothers its in our DNA. so its only a natural thing to be the helping hand. men were always hunters/gatherers. mean while we took care of the children. its a motherly thing.

TheUrbanKitsune8/7/2019, 2:57:27 PM1 votes

STORY TIME :D (I'll leave a TLDR at the end)

I actually started out maining ADC.

Didn't start dipping my toes into actually playing support until I tried out ranked for the first time (I played League for near a year before I touched ranked). Tried playing ADC but it wasn't working out. Supports had control of 99% of the lane phase and mine always seemed to be clueless.

That's when I picked up Zyra for the first time. And I actually started climbing pretty easily. I even skipped a division in Silver, but decided that was as far as I felt like climbing, and went back to playing nothing but ADC and Taliyah in norms.

The next season rolled around and I figured I'd continue to go that route for ranked. Plus, this was the beginning of season 8. Supports, especially ones who could build ardent, were strong as fuck. I picked up Nami and was able to absolutely destroy my placement games going 8-2 and landing myself at a solid Silver 2, a division above where I ended last year. I had learned a lot since then, and was able to carry a bunch of games and found myself around Gold 2 for a while, where I eventually was stuck for some time.

I kept up this for a while; ADC/mid in norms, support in ranked.

Until I tried out for my college's League of Legends team. I saw this as an opportunity to try and get back into playing more ADC again and improve enough to climb with ADC in ranked. Unfortunately, I was but a wee gold player. The only two diamond players trying out were both ADC players. Wanting to have the best possible shot at still making it onto the team, I tried out for mid primary/support secondary.

This really upset me because I knew if I made it I'd likely make it as a support, and I really wanted to break out of that. Half the reason I wanted to join was to learn and get better at ADC. I hate the stereotype around girls only playing support, and its really not my favorite role to begin with.

I played mostly mid at tryouts regardless, and crushed it. I was considered heavily for the mid spot, but it was ultimately decided that they could get the most out of the roster if they placed me on support. Go figure.

That's when things were pretty much sealed. I started picking up and playing new supports to expand my champion pool, I played more ranked than ever before, I practiced pretty much nothing but support. I've improved a ton in a very short time, even if its not necessarily the role I want to play the most. Ended last season in platinum, and managed to get to diamond pretty quickly this season. Playing on the team has been a ton of fun, too. Easily the most fun I've had since starting college.

So that's why I play support. ADC is more fun in the regard that you get to be the one running around killing everyone and there is a lot more mechanical skill expression IMO. Support is more fun in the regard that you have a TON of agency in the lane phase, and are kind of the mastermind behind the scenes of your team. It still makes me kind of sad when I do a ton of work to win lane, the ADC gets fed, and they're the one getting all the honors, though.

Sorry for the novel, kind of got carried away with explaining there.

***TLDR; Mained ADC, supports in ranked were bad, started playing support to climb in ranked but still played ADC in every other gamemode. Tried out for my college's League team, got selected as the team's support, now I play support all the time. ***

Tele II8/8/2019, 2:38:20 AM1 votes

Now this may sound sexist, obviously im generalizing... deal with it.. but I think a lot of females are introduced to the game by a male friend/acquaintance. The most obvious role to suggest to them, would be support. This way they can play close by them, observing them while teaching them lessons on how the game is played and not just leaving them with some stranger who may flame them to oblivion for being a newb support. Just a thought that I havent seen mentioned.

P.s. im a male who loves playing support. Ive always played healers and buffers in rpg type games. Its just my style. I like healing people and saving them with utility type moves.

In DND i was always a cleric. In awesomenauts i liked voltar the healer. In diablo 2 i liked the Paladin and would level up his auras just for when a friend would play with me. In starcraft2 I play Karax to give my ally a speed boost and support him with orbital strikes. Tons of games I've forgotten over the years, I just always went for whatever was the most supportiest.

Kai Guy8/7/2019, 7:58:15 AM1 votes

Support its by far the easiest role to one trick because idiots overvalue KDA. Edit. im a dude thou. Realized ya had a gender thing in your title. Meh.

CrazyMonkeyCZ8/7/2019, 8:03:43 AM1 votes

Dude here, I find fun and satisfaction in saving/synergazing/taking care of my little adc/any team mate(with like Ivern or Ori/any cc bots as well). Multiplied when playing in premade. Hard to climb in lower elos tho. Personally know 3 females, all 3 supp/mid players.

AJStarhiker8/7/2019, 8:12:33 AM1 votes

Originally? Because I started back when roles in Draft were first pick, first choice. I ran into fewer arguments and dodges if I volunteered for support.

Now, I find Top as my other favorite role.

Linda de Mol8/7/2019, 8:13:35 AM1 votes

Oh i forget; you never get autofilled when queueing for support.

Also shorter waiting queues, usually.

Koiyaki8/7/2019, 10:30:55 AM1 votes

Was an adc main before i started tryharding in ranked way back when. Then when i did start playing ranked i realized...noone knows how to support cuz noone wants to. So i just pulled 'if u want something done right do it urself'.

So now i mainly supp in ranked with adc as offrole. Anything besides ranked i go adc with supp off role.