Hi, i'm not sure if there are any threads like this but my searches have been in vain. Basically, this question I have always wondered ever since I started playing LoL back in September of '12. I'm level 30 now, and still the people I ask, whether LoL or Dota players are not sure why in LoL specifically. The top lane must always be an solo "Bruiser/Fighter" or a "Tank" and bot lane must always be "Support/ADC" or "ADC/ADC" if you're for the kill lane stuff.

Now do not misunderstand, I understand the importance of a solo top, gaining allot of experience and gold to be able to tank for the team later on, and the support giving the ADC allot of backup and allowing free farm on bot, but my question, why do these lanes in particiular must have these roles?

Why can't top be a ADC and a support and why can't bottom be solo bruiser? I used to believe that top lane and the bottom lane are symetrical, the grasses are in the same places and the length of towers isn't.

But, upon closer examination the towers on the bottom lane are a bit farther apart from the corner, and the towers on the top lane (First set going outwards) are closer to the grasses and the corner of their respective lanes. In addition, river grasses on top lane favor ganks for purple team, and bottom lane grass favors blue team in ganks.
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/a...dOfJustice.jpg
^ as see in this map.

it is also notable that top lane purple side has an inlet going in from the river, while blue's side top lane inlet is a bit farther down the river, and harder to access quickly. Bottom lane is the same deal, albeit teams reversed for the inlets. I'm not sure if the geography of the map has to do with why these roles are assigned to these lanes specifically, but it's my hypothesis on it. To me, the river distance also looks the same. So I ask my question.

But you can, havent you seen pro matches?

The main reason the the current meta has 1 bruiser/beefy top, 1 AP mid, 1 jungler, and the support/ADC bot lane is for dragon control. After dragon spawns it is easier to take dragon and keep tabs on dragon with 4 (AP mid, Jungler, ADC, Support) than 3 (AP Mid, Jungler, Bruiser).

Hope that helps your understanding of this game.

I'm actually into competitive fighting games (Marvel 3, Tekken Tag 2), LoL is just something I play casually, I don't really play ranked matches, or watch pro games really, so that is something i miss out on. But if they do that, then more power to it.

It's just my assumption that when I play with people, they are appalled at the idea of a solo bruiser on bot or vice versa. So I wondered if there was some "secret" information that kept these roles tied to these lanes specifically that i didn't know about.

Part of the reason is blindly following the meta, but the biggest reason is dragon control; having more people around to contest a dragon usually means that you get the dragon.

The reason the ADC is bot with the support and mid is generall a solo-lane is because mid is the easiest lane to solo in, as it's the shortest(It's also the easiest lane to manage a 1 vs 2 lane in, still sucks, but...) And APs and Bruisers scale more off levels(Hence solo EXP) while ADCs are mostly concerned with gold(Hence 0 CS supports)

Yeah, it mostly has to do with dragon. Of course, lane swapping is very, very common nowadays, but the "standard" sends two people bot almost entirely due to dragon.

In normals and low elo you go for the usual meta since everyone knows it, but there are some instances where you run a kill lane bot and put the adc somewhere else.
Or trade top to 2vs1, etc ,etc.

Since your adc is weak early game, but scales later as the game goes, its recommended to have a support (to babysit/support the adc). Dragon is bottom and you want to have as many people there to have dragon control thus the adc/support go there.

Mid is usually a mage caster because they are able to clear the lane faster than any other champ types and are able to roam and provide additional dragon control.

Top is left and is usually a bruiser because bruisers are usually strong early game, so sending your adc alone would be bad due to their bad early game.

At the pro level, as has been said, it's to allow more dragon control. You could easily take a free dragon if the other team only has three people in the bottom half of the map, while you have four.

At the normal level, it's just to allow a clear-cut way for everyone to know what to pick, and where to go. It adds a level of predictability.

I made a big post up about this sort of thing.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=2941414