League of Legends in 500 Words or Less: Brief Introduction to Roles in LoL

In League of Legends the current meta game (‘meta game’ generally refers to the perceived optimal strategy that is widely adopted by players in game) dictates that there are five very distinctive roles that are played on each team. Each one has their own responsibilities and in search of a better word, role in a team. The specific objectives of each role differ depending on a team's composition, enemy composition and sometimes (especially in solo queue) mere circumstance.  The roles are as follows:

Top: Starts the beginning of the game in the top lane. This lane is a solo lane and top players aim to farm as many minions as possible. Often (but not always) top laners will aim to have a high survivability in order to protect the more vulnerable members of a team. Top laners often also build to have reasonably high damage output to aid disabling the enemy carries.

Jungle: Starts the beginning of the game in the jungle. Gets gold and experience from farming jungle camps as well as supporting laners by ganking and helping kill enemy laners. They also play a key role in securing neutral monsters like the buffs, Dragon and Baron. Junglers help to control the overall map,  as they are a constant threat to enemy laners while hidden in the jungle.

Mid:  Starts the beginning of the game in the middle lane. This lane is also a solo lane and players aim to farm as many minions as possible. It is usual to see high damage champions in this lane, usually champions who rely on their spells/abilities to do burst damage. These champions often scale with ability power but it's not uncommon to see attack damage casters in the mid lane. Often mid laner champions scale in damage with levels and this is why they are put in a solo lane so they can get solo experience and be the highest level on a team.

AD Carry/Marksman: Starts the beginning of the game in bottom lane. A marksman's job is to provide the sustained attack damage on the team. A marksman's damage almost always scales with attack damage and often are reliant on auto attacks to dish out tonnes of damage in the late game. Marksman champions tend to be very venerable and rely on their team mates to keep them alive so they can output maximum damage. Marksmen scale with items so getting a high creep score is very important.

Support: Starts the beginning of the game in the bottom lane with the Marksman. A supports job is to keep their Marksman safe in the laning phase so the Marksman can farm. Supports help control vision on the map and provide their team with a lot of utility but usually no damage. The bottom lane is traditionally the duo lane due to being closer to dragon in the early game, so that teams will have more members in order to secure Dragon in the early stages of the game.  

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Thanks for reading! This post is part of my League of Legends in 500 Words or Less series, post #4, please read the intro for more information. This is just a quick intro to the roles used in League of Legends. Not very interesting but I might link back to it later in other 500 words or less. Also follow me on twitter @gerarda, I love feedback! =)