Curious as to what types of players play each role? Want to know if your personality matches with your chosen role? Maybe you’re looking for a better fit? Well, give this piece a read and you’re sure to find out!
The five roles of League of Legends are more than just their positions on the map. Each role has a set of core fundamentals, Champions, and popular play styles that come to epitomize the roles, and often players can come to find themselves stereotyped (positively or negatively) by the community based on their chosen lane and Champion preferences.
In an effort to understand not only ourselves, but our fellow competition, today we’re going to break down each lane and discuss what types of players are attracted to each role and the playstyles within. So, buckle in and get ready to learn something about yourself and your fellow League players as we discuss what your main role says about you!
For years now, Top Lane has had an overall negative impression in the community eye. Partly because some of the game’s most polarizing Champions call it home, and partly because it’s the most feast or famine lane in League of Legends, with many matchups boiling down to counter-picks. In my decade of experience, this has led me to encounter various types of Top Laners in terms of player mentality and often I can tie their mentality directly to their Champion choice to know what type of Top Laner I’m hitting the rift with.
Tank Top Mains are some of the game’s most tried and true Top Laners. These guys have seen it all and their experience often leads them to winning matchups that they shouldn’t due to their deep understanding of the players that gravitate towards the other playstyles in their lane. They’re also typically regarded as some of the game’s chillest and team-focused players, always being down to lock in Champions like Malphite, Maokai, or Ornn into any matchup, especially if it benefits the team. Overall, these guys are a 10/10 to have in any Solo-Duo Draft.
However, despite their rock-solid mental and general chillness, Tank Mains don’t bring that extra oomph that the other Top Mains have. While they might shine when things get to teamfighting, sometimes Solo-Queue never gets there. And these players typically struggle at Top’s core fundamentals since their Champions aren’t necessarily focused on wave-states or trading and are more focused towards teamfighting.
Skipping over Bruisers and jumping to the opposite end of the Top Lane spectrum, Duelists are one of the Champion Archetypes that appeal to the ‘carry-minded’ player in Top Lane. These Champions are all about cranking damage over extended teamfights, utilizing deceptive defensive tools to outplay their opponents, and are often a bit more mechanically inclined than their Tank and Bruiser contemporaries.
Due to this, Duelist Mains are often players that want to -be- the carry for their team. This leads these players to often inhabiting a very lane focused and aggressive mindset. They eat, sleep, and breathe, their Champions which brings them to understanding every ounce of damage they can take and put out, bringing them to truly understand their Champions limits. And with knowledge and aggression comes punishment, they make the lane phase hell for their opponents and truly make them earn their way out of it.
Unfortunately, this aggression and lane focused mindset tends to lead them to having paper-thin mental. Duelist Mains, as mentioned before, want to be the carry. They want to have the ganks focused on their lane, they want the gold advantage, they want the perfect wave state, they want everything to go their way or no way at all. If you tax their lane or take a kill from them by accident, there’s a 50-50 chance of you either getting flamed for the rest of the game or they’re self-muting, building Hullbreaker, and staying Top Lane until one of the Nexuses explodes.
The best Duelists understand that not every lane is perfect, and that their Champions almost always scale well into being side-lane monsters, but the majority have that deep-seated desire to be the star and they’ve no reservations when it comes to playing towards that desire.
Centering ourselves back between the Tanks and Duelists, Bruisers are the melting-pot of Top Lane. You have some more lane focused mindsets that want to really push their opponents and focus heavily on their early to mid-game performances, and then you have some that are completely chill with riding the side wave until teamfight phase like Tanks. You almost never know what you’re going to get with these guys, but there are certain picks that you can bet have one mindset or the other.
For example, Darius and Renekton Mains? They’re going to want to be the focus. They’ll want all the ganks and all the attention, otherwise, they know they get outscaled and zoned out of the game. Nasus or Illaoi Mains? They’re perfectly fine with being left on their island for the whole game. These guys pride themselves on farming solo and becoming unkillable 1v5 monsters. They’ll take a gank if it’s free, but it’s certainly not needed for them to get to where they want to be.
You’ll come to find that the more you play the more you can type-cast what type of Bruiser player you’re getting by the Champion they lock in. So, if you’re a Jungle Main especially, always keep in mind who you’re going to be playing with in the sidelane. Speaking of, let’s move on to our Jungle cast!
Being a Jungle Main is a lot like being a musician. Sometimes games are just mild variations of songs you’ve played before, but instead of you being the soloist for the piece it's one of your laners taking the spotlight. Other times, it's like sightreading a song you’ve never heard before with people invading your Jungle at random, laners stealing your camps, and your teammates booing you like an angry crowd.
So, to be a Jungler, you must be confident, steady, and practiced in what you do. You’ve got to know your routes, know your win-cons, and play towards them, all the while performing on your Champions. And this in addition to you adapting to your opponents’ moves by playing properly against their major threats, protecting your own, and calling shots for your team towards major objectives.
Anyway, like any other role, there’s a depth of Champions to pick from when it comes to Jungling. Unlike other lanes though, they can pick from almost any variety of Champion archetype. This makes Jungle a diverse role in terms of player attraction, but I do think there are two paradigms of Jungler out there and you’re either one or the other.
Carry Junglers, as their name implies, are players that want to be a primary carry for their team. I mentioned before that sometimes you’re the soloist when it comes to your games as a Jungler, and other times it’s your laners. Well, to be a Carry Jungler, you’re pushing to be the soloist every game. You’re like a salty back-up guitarist trying to consistently prove to your lead guitarist that you’re better than them and that you deserve the spotlight. So, to that end, you’ll often find Carry Junglers attracted to Champions that are known for their copious amounts of damage or their flashy plays. Champions like Lee-Sin, Evelynn, and Rengar fit this bill. If they get an inch, they take a mile, and players that master their carry Junglers are some of the most terrifying presences on the ladder. So, this line of play often attracts players that want to be a true map-wide bully since Jungle has the ability to hit every corner of the Rift.
Unfortunately, their aggression or strict play pattern around their spikes can make these guys feast or famine. Carry Junglers typically have their one phase of the game where they need to go insane, or else they’re relying on their team or adopting a role-playing position, often one of disruption. This pattern can also be disconnected with your laners, especially lanes that want their own leads to dominate the game. So, again we find ourselves in that backup guitarist mode where we’re competing with our lanes as far who is going to take over the game, and while the best players don’t care since it’s all about that sweet victory, League is an ego game and players often let theirs get in the way of the progression which brings rise to in-game conflict. And, as with any ‘Me Carry’ focused playstyle, there’s a tendency to have paper-thin mental that leads to egos and mentals popping like balloons tied to a dart board.
The next set of Junglers are those that don’t mind taking a back seat. These guys, like Tank Tops, don’t mind playing that big beefy Jungler like Sejuani or Zac and pride themselves on being solid and reliable presences for their team. Unlike their Carry-Focused Counterparts, you’ll not see these guys compete for the spotlight with their laners since their Champions and play are all about making sure everyone else can become the best version of themselves on the Rift, and generally despite the flame that often gets directed towards their role, these types of Junglers have a cool head and always see the larger map. Where Carry Junglers might be able to make the flashy micro plays, Facilitating Junglers focus on the wider macro-oriented plays of the game. Knowing when to steal camps, when to sneak an objective, or when to help push down lanes to setup future plays.
Unfortunately, Facilitators are just that, facilitators. These types of players often lack that killer instinct, and since their play patterns are often methodical and responsive, they have a hard time directing the flow of the game themselves. And since the Jungler can affect every lane in League, this can be undesirable since you want someone playing the role with an adaptive and confident mindset. To use another music analogy, where Carry Junglers are the salty back-up guitarists, Facilitating Junglers are the bassists. They strum along to practiced rhythms and do their best to keep the entire band in a state of flow, rarely ever breaking out of their shell to be the shining star themselves, which can lead them to holding themselves back.
Of course, not all Facilitating Junglers hit those scaling Tank or Supportive picks. Some enjoy playing their carries. In fact, this might be an often-overlooked trait of Facilitators. These can easily slot into the Champions like Elise or Hecarim and really run tempo when gold starts hitting their pocket, but when games start to auto-pilot as they always do, it’s hard for them to use their lead to close out games since they’re often relying on their team to be the primary source of closing. But, as these players gain confidence, they can become the best team-focused players on the rift. They just need to iron out their own carry mentality.
Oh, Mid Lane. To this day Mid is the most fought over role in League due to it being the heartbeat of the map. Where the Jungler might be the blood that courses through the Rift’s veins, the Mid Laner is what the blood flows through and everyone, both Carry and Facilitator, believe they have the best approach or strategy to help regulate the flow of the game. Mid Lane attracts all sorts, just like Jungle, but probably the two biggest type-casts of Mid are the, ‘Me Carry (me mid)” and the “Strategist”. These guys are two sides of the same coin and want to be in Mid due to its safety, income, and positional ability to affect the map at large. So, let’s break down these guys a bit more.
Mid Laners that truly identify themselves as a carry are probably the majority players within the Mid Pool. These guys, like Carry Tops and Junglers, find a Champion or playstyle they absolutely love and absorb all they can about the game’s approach into their being until they become one with their chosen approach. Often, due to it being literally the most popular archetype, Mid Laners of this mindset get attracted to Assassin and Duelist Mids. Champions like Yasuo, Yone, Zed, Akali, Fizz, and Leblanc. These picks are not only flashy in their approach and extremely dominating in the right hands, but they’re also often the go-to picks of the game’s best players. Everyone’s seen Faker’s Zed and Leblanc and almost any Mid Laner would sell their soul to be able to pull off the things he can on those Champions. Players that master these high burst and delete picks become some of the most fearsome players on the Rift, and it's also simply guaranteed fun when you can wander down to Bot Lane and completely delete the enemy ADC off the map before they can Flash or Heal your combos. (Sometimes that’s not even enough to protect them.)
But that’s not the only approach to carrying in Mid. Mage Champions are the second most popular playstyle in Mid, and unlike their high-risk high-reward Assassin contemporaries, they’re all about measured plays. We’ll discuss in a moment how Mages attract facilitators, but they also suck in their fair share of Carry minded players too. And this is due to Mages having the ability to utterly influence and dominate spacing in the game. With their range and poke, Mages whittle away at their lane opponents, punishing them for going in for farm and experience, while having the ability to quickly snatch their enemies should they use an ability improperly, or take a risk that’s too big for their health pool. Champions like Orianna, Ryze, and Syndra come to mind in this regard. And if these picks start catching advantages off of forcing backs or even picking up kills here or there, they can become a lot like Assassins in their one hundred to zero persona, just with a little less micro behind things. Players that enjoy this approach are like ‘Control Players’ in competitive trading card games. They value maintaining and building their resources until they inevitably have an answer for anything you try to throw their way, which can be really frustrating for their fellow Assassin minded players across the aisle.
But just as we mentioned before, Carry minded players want the attention. Regardless of flavor in Mid, they want the ganks, they want the perfect waves, they want the resources trickling their way, and few are ever fine with taking a backseat to their Jungle, Top, or ADC. You’re more likely to find a willing role player in Mage players though than you are Assassin focused players since Mages typically have the scaling factor to rely on at the end of the day, but with Assassins, you better hope they catch a lead or lucky shot here or there, or they’re going to be all-chatting their Jungler about ganking their lane.
Facilitating Mids, like their Facilitating Jungle contemporaries, are players that don’t mind playing towards what the team needs. They understand that not every game has to be about them being the focal point of their team’s body. Sometimes it’s enough to simply make sure the blood keeps flowing by enabling their Jungler or another carry on the team. Often players within the facilitating mindset get attracted to Mage Champions before they pick-up Assassins since their ability to control space and crowd control opponents serves well towards enabling other members of their team. Facilitating Mids are also the type that are more willing to be a bit experimental in approach to their gameplay in my experience. They don’t mind slapping down a Karma or Lulu Mid pickup if their Jungler is locking in Master Yi, for example. Or they’re quick to adapt picks like Ornn or Nautilus into their pools whenever Pro-Play shows a patch has viability for those options since those Champions fit their overall approach of enable and control.
But again, these players tend to lack that decisive edge to truly take over games. They don’t approach the moment-to-moment aspects of their lane with the greedy intent on winning, they instead pace themselves towards the ebbs and flows of the game that evolves around them. While that might serve them well in most regards, Carry Mids take their leads and direct the flow of the game themselves instead of adapting to the flow of what’s happening around them. Carries, unlike Facilitators, show no hesitation on going for the ‘And One’ play so that they can secure that much of an extra edge over the opponents. But naturally this all comes with risk and sometimes the tempered slow and steady play of a scaling focused team player can really lead to the enemies having to fight through some of the most disabling strategies in the game.
There’s not a whole lot to unpack with Bot Lane. They’re a 100% carry role. They attract players that simply want to carry each and every game. These guys want to slap Vayne down into three tanks and shred away, or get hard fed in lane on Samira or Draven and flash their mastery as they win casual 1v3s over and over again. Bot Laners are the true egotists of the game. Of course, you might find your more reserved ADCs, like your Ashe, Varus, or Mage Bot players, these guys don’t mind turning over a few kills here or there, but again, they don’t play the role to sit back and watch their Mid or Top Laner do all the work. They play the role to put out tons of unavoidable damage and secure turrets, dragons, and kills all throughout the game.
Bot Laners are always in a measuring contest of risk versus reward since their Champions lack defensive ability without their supports and they’re 100% in on offensive build paths (typically). So, they become masters of positioning themselves relative to the threats on the enemy team and then learn how they can apply their range to dish out damage while not dying to said threats. And beyond that, it’s all farming and understanding waves, baby!
Last but not least, Support is well, Supportive. Their entire role dictates that they set aside their own desires to better promote the success of their ADC/Mage Lane Partner. They’re simply facilitators through and through. Naturally, that comes in several flavors. Players that like defensive strategies might gravitate towards Enchanters or Wardens like Janna or Braum since these picks can really disable what the enemy looks to accomplish when they go aggro. (There’s sick delight in ulting away diving threats to your carry after all!) Other Supports might like that go-hard and get fed now approach with Champions like Blitz or Alistar being their mainstays since these Champions are all about punishing the missteps of the squishies that call their lane home.
Players in the more traditional Support modes like these tend to be practiced but fixated on their approach to the game though. Often Enchanters lack roaming and map influencing skills that Catcher Players have, and Catchers often lack the same depth of threat assessment and teamfight impact that Enchanters have. The best Supports come to blend the strategies and evolve and adjust them from game to game, but it’s sometimes hard to accomplish since Supports (self-flame here) often get tunneled on how well, or not well, their lane partner is doing.
If your ADC isn’t responding to your plays or isn’t adjusting to what the enemy is delivering, it's sometimes hard for Support players to hold back their disdain and they can get pretty flamey despite most in the community viewing Support players as mellow individuals. Additionally, as an overall facilitating role, defensive Support players tend to lack that same moment to moment greed that’s required to dominate lane, it’s hard for them to see and develop leads from nothing since their Champion choices often boil down to punishing the mistakes of your opponents, instead of creating advantages for yourself (though Defensive Supports are perfectly capable of doing so.) The same can be said for the flipside of the coin where aggressive Supports simply don’t know how to stall their tempo or adapt to what their opponents are giving to them, often pulling the first target they see (the wrong one usually) or all-inning the wrong threat since their Champ focus is simply ‘go-in and let me ADC do the damage’ without much more thought.
Of course, there’s also the wannabe Mid Laners (self-flame here again) that main Champions like Xerath, Zyra, or Swain. These guys often are players that are really good at hitting skillshots, but they just suck at farming, so they opt for Support where their poke can net them gold and their minimal crowd controlling makes them passable enablers on ganks. But, if these guys get going and they end up stealing a kill or two away, they can become terrifying threats to deal with, often putting down as much damage as a traditional Mid or Carry can. Just don’t expect much from them if income doesn’t start rolling their way. Afterall, they’re just going to be diet flavored Mid Laners since they can’t really push towards those AP items on a Support’s budget.
So, there you have it! Maybe you found a reflection of yourself in the midst of all the above and maybe you found yourself in a role that might not even be your current one. Regardless, I hope you had fun reading and I wish you luck on the final push towards the end of this Season’s first split!
