Lane Swap Detector: New League of Legends Fix for Lane Swaps
Lane swaps have been plaguing the highest level of play in League of Legends in recent years. Lately, though, the issue has been worse than ever, affecting both player and viewer experience in professional play.
For any of you out there who are not aware of the issue, lane swapping refers to a case when two (or sometimes one) of the bot lane players in a team decide to go top lane instead, so as to avoid an unfavorable matchup in the bot lane.
Now, Riot Games is testing out a new mechanic coming to League of Legends that promises to rid the game of the issue: Lane Swap Detector. All of the following information on the new Lane Swap Detector came from an X (Twitter) post made by Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison, League of Legends' Lead Gameplay Designer.
"We want League of Legends played in Pro to look as close as possible to the League of Legends we all play. Due to lane swaps, this is not true for many Pro games right now. While Fearless Draft and Tournament Draft pick/ban might have different rules for regular players and Pros, the actions in game are governed by the same rules."
HLE Viper and Delight swap to the top lane during the 2025 LCK Cup. (Credit: LCK)Lane Swap Detector: How does it work?
Aimed at nullifying lane swaps as a viable strategy, Lane Swap Detector will automatically detect an enemy lane swap taking place, powering up your turrets and granting enemy champions less experience and gold.
The new Lane Swap Detector mechanic will only apply to the outer top and mid turrets, and will only become active when two non-jungler enemies (no Smite summoner spell) appear in one of those two lanes. Here's everything you need to know about how Lane Swap Detector will work once it is activated:
- Defending turret takes 95% less damage.
- Enemy champions gain only 50% experience and gold from minions.
- Defending turret counts as fully heated up.
- Defending turret deals 300% damage to minions.
- Defending turret and defending nearby minions redirect their gold earned to the nearest allied champion.
- Defending champion gains 120% experience and gold from minions.
- Expires after 4:00 in top lane and 2:15 in mid lane.
- Detection starts after 1:30.
- "Lane Swapper" Champion Buff: This unit receives extra gold and experience from lane minions because their opponents are lane swapping.
- "Lane Swapper" Champion Penalty: This unit receives reduced gold and experience from lane minions because they're lane swapping.
- Detection updates immediately upon entering the radius and persists for 6 seconds after the second ally leaves the radius.
- A noisy message will pop up if you have been detected to be lane swapping that reads: "Lane swap detected: please leave the area!"
Ultimately, the new Lane Swap Detector seems to have struck a good balance between reducing the impact it causes on the average Solo Queue experience while effectively tackling the lane swapping problem in pro play.
While issues may still arise, such as the general position of roaming supports being given away by the Lane Swap Detector buffs, it's important to remember that the new mechanic will only be a temporary fix while Riot Games looks towards a more long-term solution to the problem.
"These changes are temporary and, by extension, heavy handed by necessity. We intend to work on longer term solutions (similar to how we addressed funnel, double support items, etc.) but an elegant solution that solves the problem without adding excess long term rules to the game will take time and we’ll keep these rules in the game until that solution is ready."
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Featured image source: Riot Games
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