The most recent LoL Patch 25.04 gave us access to many different changes. Some of them were very interesting, but others caused severe backlash from the LoL community. The one against lane swapping definitely stands out as the most controversial decision, so let’s learn more about it.
LoL Lane Swapping Changes
Before sharing any more details about the League of Legends Lane Swapping changes, it’s worth knowing that none of them are live yet. Those things are on the PBE server at the time of writing, but things may change in the future.
According to the LoL’s lead designer Matt “Riot Phrozon” Leung-Harrison mentioned that these changes are temporary. Despite that, the community did not like it at all and was quick to respond.
Speaking of the changes, the Lane Swap Detection will become active when two teammates, neither equipped with a jungle item, are positioned in or around the top or mid lanes. What’s interesting is that the detection will be disabled for teams who do not have a jungler. If the team includes two or more junglers, however, the detection will include them as well.
It’s also interesting that the detection will occur at 1:30 and 3:30 in the top lane, as well as 1:30 and 2:15 in the mid lane.
How Does the Tool Work?
Once the lane swap detection is on, the defending turret will receive the following buffs:
- 95% damage reduction
- 300% extra damage to minions
- The nearest allied champion will receive gold and experience from champions and minions kills.
In terms of the defending top-lane turret, it will have the ability to one-shot champions. The defending champion will also get a 50% damage reduction penalty. The “attacking” champion will receive 50% less XP and hold from different mentions, and the effects will last 25s on the top lane and 6s in the mid-lane.
The entire goal of the lane swap changes is to ensure that teams will survive the laning stage. If Riot decides to keep these LoL changes, they should become available following Patch 25.05. The latter will become available on March 5, 2025, which is just a few days from now.
The Problems
Besides the fact that these changes are just weird, sadly, they can make people’s games a living hell. Unless the new option receives some changes, it can be a huge problem for players who end up with game ruiners on their team. These people will simply stay on the lane to trigger the new tool and ruin the match. It is also worth knowing that the LoL lane swap detection can ruin different kinds of “cheesy” strategies.
In terms of the community’s reaction, it’s no surprise that many pro and casual players raised their voices. Christian “IWDominate” Rivera, for example, stated on X that LoL will become boring in terms of champions’ diversity, and these changes will become active. We at Blix.gg will pay attention to this case and will let you know once we have more details. Until then, we will need to wait for the upcoming update to see if Riot will add it.
