Why do certain roles go to certain lanes?
Why do certain roles go to certain lanes? Example mage and assassins go mid, fighter and tanks go top and support adc bot.
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You're up for some reading?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlrf7E72-GM
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3112440
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4194900
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/243oiv/history_of_the_meta/
But really though, people should stop paying that much attention to the meta, it's the community's fault to sheep around it and it's the company's fault for building and balancing the game around it (while keeping its bias Unchecked). It's just a vicious cycle if you ask me.
Because metagaming.
Mage and assassins typically go mid because they scale better with levels than the adc, because of base burst damage and ability power is strong mid-late game. Plus it makes it easy for them to roam when fed, and gank whichever lane needs it the most.
Adc and support tend to go bot for dragon control (support wards pit, adc deals sustained damage which helps kill dragon). Adc also has the weakest early game unless they snowball, so they have a support to secure them kills and protect them.
Top and jungle, imo, are the most flexible.
But seriously, do whatever the hell you want. IN normals, you don't HAVE to play by the meta, just have fun. Hell, even beat a Galio in mid lane as Garen of all champions. Take Sona top, or play Graves mid.
In ranked, competitive play, do what you know works. Practice that stuff before you ttake something new to the game.
Due to distance between towers, mid needs to have someone good at outlaning their opponent. Bursty poke mages just seem to get the job done well, and they also gain the most from pure leveling up (which is best in top and mid in our meta) so that's where your best burst mage on your team tends to end up.
Jungle tends to be champs that can A) clear the jungle really well (i.e. Lee Sin) and/or B) can't do well in lane but have amazing ganks (i.e. Amumu, Rammus, or Nautilus). It's basically where you send specialized champs who are best at clearing the jungle and making use of what they get from that. It's also the person you want roaming the map and ganking. As for why we do this... well as a whole the average money and experience across your ENTIRE team will be highest when you have someone jungling.
Bot has two people to prevent dragon from getting taken early and/or take dragon early (depending on what goes down). Basically, it's a lot easier for 2 people to prevent opponent's from taking dragon and/or take it safely. Adc's have the best damage late game but the lowest survivability in the laning phase, so they just end up in bot lane with any champ good at keeping them alive while harassing opponents (i.e. Thresh or Blitzcrank); aka "The Support". ADC means attack damage carry, and it's really just a lazy abbreviation nowadays applied to this role.
Top Tends to be a tank or melee bruiser....... because that's the easiest lane for variety to occur in. Basically, anything your team wants to have in its comp that doesn't really fit well into a different lane, which is why hyper scale tanks like Nasus or hi damage melee bruisers like Darius tend to end up here.
And that's why people do that.
Notably, there are some anti-meta picks like DUO top that create unique problems for an opposing team and imho are viable. It's just that people don't do that because it's riskier then the default and over time your entire team will have less gold than if someone jungles. It's also possible for you to have the dual lane somewhere not in bot lane, but then someone is going to end up 1 v 2ing the opposing bot lane and it's hard for most tops to do THAT. So.... the meta is just an agreed upon thing? that people do because it tends to work the best over time.
I'll just talk about the solo lanes:
why not mages top, here defined as long range, skillshot dependent, immobile APs like Xerath, Lux and Orianna? why fighters top? why not usually fighters mid except as a counterpick?
The reason is lane size and the type of damage is best for the length of the lane.
Mid is the shortest and I believe narrowest lane. That means that to deal damage to your opponent, you need burst damage, otherwise they can just run back to the safety of their towers. Because the towers are close to the lane, with sufficient range you can stay at tower and still get farm at the middle of the lane. The closeness of the towers denies sustained damage dealers the space they need to deal damage. The classes that deal burst damage are mages and assassins.
Top is a long, wide lane with lots of space for maneuvering and difficult to escape from ganks. This favors sustained damage dealers, as they have alot of room to close the gap with long ranged champs, chase them down, and kill them with high sustained damage.