In the recent match against Afreeca Freecs, DWG KIA debuted a very unusual lineup as the players of the reigning champions of LCK Spring 2021 swapped positions. Notably, Ghost – the player in the AD Carry position was benched, ShowMaker moved down to play AD Carry while Malrang took the jungle role and Canyon went mid lane.
This swap proved effective on a day when Canyon and the “substitute” Malrang performed excellently, and AF surprisingly dropped in form after impressive displays. Although ShowMaker did not achieve remarkable games in his first outing as an AD Carry and was thoroughly exploited by AF’s strategies, overall, DK still implemented timely countermeasures.
Explaining his unusual lineup choice against a team that has been performing very well, especially after DK’s not-so-good performance streak, coach kkOma stated: “We exploit the best choices to win, so in the future, we will use players in different positions. League of Legends is a team game, so depending on the results of our practice, we will arrange players in positions where we have the best chances to win.”
It can be seen that lane swapping has rarely occurred in League of Legends during an ongoing season, except in special cases. And especially for larger teams, there is a greater demand for stability in their framework to always achieve the highest efficiency. However, with DK’s seemingly successful experiment, other teams may soon follow suit to have more options for their lineups, avoiding being read by their opponents.