Across the rich, ten-season long sprawl of League of Legends’ competitive history, few players have successfully been at the very top of their talent pools in their roles. Even more perplexing are the ones that managed (and still manage) to be at the top of their second competitive role, having swapped in order to facilitate a new teammate or perhaps due to simple boredom.

Let’s take a look at some of the most successful – and some of the most mind-boggling – role swaps in competitive League of Legends. Not all work out, but some perform so well that even the most hopeful of fans are taken by surprise.

Ambition

One of two world champions on this list – the other comes much, much later – Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong was the driving force behind Samsung Galaxy’s 2017 stake to claim the throne. Leading the pack with his decisive shotcalling and cerebral gameplay, Ambition’s in-your-face playstyle came at exactly the right moments. This would be less surprising if he hadn’t only swapped to the jungle role in the 2015 season after four years spent at the top of the midlane field, the undisputed number one player in Korea.

Ambition’s midlane career was limited to domestic glory, with his crowning achievement being that his death at Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s hands established the latter as a legitimate threat on the world stage. Ambition’s role swap was both unexpected and immensely successful in execution.

10/10

Score

The next big move to jungle, Go “Score” Dong-bin, was the benchmark of decent when it came to marksmen in the pre-LCK Korean scene. A title contender on his franchise squad, KT Rolster, Score moved to jungle at a similar time to Ambition and firmly established himself as a force to be reckoned with.

International appearances on KT Rolster never saw the team reach the heights expected of them, but Summer 2018 saw the squad clutch out a Game 5 victory and secure the organisation its first title since 2014. An emotional retirement followed, but Score will forever be remembered as a jungler that shaped the meta game around himself, clutching out Smites left and right.

10/10

Perkz

Considering that we were witnessing the best midlaner in Europe (during 2016-2018, at least) changing roles seemingly overnight to accommodate another player immediately following a semi-finals finish at Worlds, this roster change seems surreal. Luka “Perkz” Perković was renowned for his potency both in lane and in teamfights, and had a majority of G2’s 2018 renaissance credited to his midlane dominance. Swapping to marksman was a surprise, but midlane mages being flexed down there proved a boon for G2.

That isn’t to say Perkz used them as a crutch, however, as he put on some of the cleanest Xayah and Yasuo mechanical demonstrations that lifelong attack damage carry players could only dream of. Perkz in the marksman role became a top 5 player in the world in his position, which makes it even crazier that he just decided “eh, screw it,” and went back to mid after a year down South.

9/10

Caps

The player that Perkz famously moved to accommodate, Rasmus “Caps” Winther was king of the western world in 2018. A stunning midlane performance that spearheaded Fnatic’s tear towards a near-title finish at the World Championship, the centerpiece of a superteam departed for even greener pastures when he joined G2. He rewarded their investment – and Perkz’s flexibility – by performing as one of the best midlaners in the entire world in both 1v1 and teamfight scenarios. Statistically, Caps was the best of the best.

And then he got bored and decided to swap with Perkz again. “If Luka can do this, maybe I can do it better,” is all that I can imagine went through Caps’ head when he decided to change things up yet again. Unproven, but looking pretty damn convincing in his first three weeks of LEC play, Caps is on the fast track to glory again.

8/10

Insec

To have a move named after you in League of Legends is the highest honor, and an absolutely insane achievement once you truly think about it. Speaking of insane, Choi “inSec” In-seok decided he had reached his jungle peak, again playing under the KT Rolster banner and again to make room for a star player in his preferred role. Swapping to the toplane in order to accommodate Lee “Kakao” Byung-kwon, inSec performed admirably on tank toplaners and was a rock for his team.

Not super successful, but doing exactly what his team required of him, inSec’s short-lived stint in the toplane before he went on to find success in China’s fairer waters proved that talented players really could exceed any limits.

7/10

Aphromoo

Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black was, once upon a time, the king of marksmen in North America that weren’t named Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. So much so was his respect for the crown jewel of North America that Aphromoo swapped to support in order to join CLG as Doublelift’s support.

Since then, the duo have split – but both find themselves still playing League competitively after over seven years has passed since their first pairing in the bottom lane, and Aphromoo was a top tier support at more than one point of his career.

7/10

Keith

Did I mention top tier support? Because Yuri “Keith” Jew certainly isn’t one. To his credit, the veteran marksman was signed to Golden Guardians this year in order to provide some additional aggressive botlane play, though we hadn’t really seen too much of it until Keith took Team Liquid by storm pretty much by himself during this week’s Monday Night League. The new support overcame North America’s best AD carry and a World Champion support in order to remind viewers that he still has much more to show as he adapts to his new role.

That being said, his first five games were atrocious. Absolutely disgusting.

Tentative 4/10

Xmithie

Jake “Xmithie” Puchero has been one of the, if not the (at times), best junglers in North America since the LCS’ inception in 2013. Unfortunately, the organization he played for in 2013 faced some woes in 2014, and Vulcun became the laughing stock known as XD Gaming. Once a top tier team, roster disagreements even saw Xmithie swap to marksman for a few games, putting on some dire performances and tanking the player’s stock until CLG offered him a redemption arc.

3/10

xPeke

It’s been a very long read since our last World Champion was on this list, but we finally made it. 2016 Origen was a mess, and a desperate need for a shotcaller saw one of the most legendary midlaners in League of Legends history step into the marksman position for one of the most disorganized implosions waiting to happen. Famous for his “kiting” – literally right clicking standing still – the midlaner that retired due to being unable to keep up mechanically with newer talent threw himself into the fire on behalf of his organization. Even so, Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez is a pillar of European midlane history… even if his botlane antics are better forgotten.

3/10

Hotshotgg

CLG are famous for making counter-logic moves. The one truly nonsensical move the organisation made in the pre-LCS era was their acquisition of Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani, considered by many to be the best toplaner in all of North America at the time. However, implementing Voyboy into the line-up meant benching the face of the organisation and the literal owner – George “HotshotGG” Georgallidis.

Unwilling to step down until the following season, HotshotGG played out most of 2012 in the jungle position, often looking lost and requiring support Steve “Chauster” Chau to guide him around the map.

Times change, but this will forever be one of the worst roster moves in the history of… well, ever.

2/10